It's a sad truth of rock and roll that the younger a star dies, the brighter he
or she burns. Fans seem drawn to charismatic fallen artists like moths to the
flames of a terrible car wreck. Doors' frontman Jim Morrison is the premier
example, but more recently that's been the fate of Jeff Buckley, who has
considerably more listeners now that he's absent from the world.
The angel-voiced singer-guitarist was just 30 in 1997, when he drowned in the
river waters of Memphis. During his life he released one EP, 1993's solo
Live at Sin-E, and the album Grace (both on Columbia), an
overrated disc that pitted his flashing genius against hyperbolic production.
His dark but uplifting songs, which thanks to his soaring vocal style often
play out like gothic-gospel operettas, were better served by 2001's double-CD
Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk) (Sony), a collection of home
demos and spartan productions with Television guitarist Tom Verlaine, who had
cut an album's worth of tracks with Buckley.
Now, a new CD of demos and live recordings unveils what may have been the most
creative period in Buckley's career -- the time when he wrote his signature
numbers "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" and played a series of dates that have been
spoken of as transcendent experiences by members of the small New York
audiences that witnessed them. Songs to No One 1991-1992
(Evolver/Knitting Factory), which hit stores on October 15, is a record of
Buckley's collaborations with guitarist Gary Lucas.
The way Lucas and his band Gods & Monsters match the passion of Buckley's
baroque phrasing in an early demo of "Grace" rings with drama. Right from the
second number, a live on-the-fly version of "How Long Will It Take" preserved
from a CBGB's Gallery soundboard tape, it's obvious that Lucas and Buckley had
a special rapport. Lucas's playing underpins the romance of Buckley's poetry.
After setting up a loop of an arpeggiated rhythm pattern, Lucas strums to
Buckley's breathless delivery and uses volume swells, sweet harmonizations, and
surreal phasing to reflect the same giddy and lovelorn feelings. It's apparent
that Lucas, a master of sonic experimentalism whose résumé
includes decades of solo work and years in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, had
an influence on Buckley's later, orchestral approach to the guitar. He also
wrote the music for "Grace" and "Mojo Pin."
Yet Buckley, for reasons that seem unfathomable, shelved these beautiful
recordings with the handwritten label "Disgusto Garbage." Perhaps it was his
interest in a solo career rather than fronting Gods & Monsters that soured
him on the tapes.
Lucas prefers not to speculate -- he would rather recall Buckley as "the best
collaborator I've ever had." The two met at an April 1991 tribute to Buckley's
father, Tim, the eccentric late folk-rocker, at St. Ann's performance space in
Brooklyn. Producer Hal Willner, who coordinated that concert, suggested they
collaborate, and the rest was a short spell of history.
"The first time Jeff came to my place, I set up this little digital delay loop
of a very Indian-sounding figure speeded up, and I started to play chords and
he started to sing," Lucas recounts over the phone from his Greenwich Village
home. "I was completely taken. When he finished, I said, `Man, you're
fantastic, you're a star.' And he said, `Really? I am?' He needed reassurance
then, although he was quite aware of how talented he was."
In the summer of '91, Buckley went to LA to try to shop his solo demos. He
returned to New York later that year, playing bass with the Commitments. From
November 1991 through April 1992, Lucas and Buckley recorded this disc's demos
and performances.
"We did this showcase at St. Ann's on Friday the 13th, March 1992, and we got a
tumultuous response, which you can hear on my tape of it," Lucas recalls. "The
next day I was sitting at home with my wife thinking, `This is incredible. The
band is dynamite. We'll get a deal.' Then the phone rings and it's Jeff saying,
`I've decided not to continue the group project.' I was bewildered. We
continued to do duo gigs through the spring, at which point he started playing
Sin-E and stopped returning my calls."
Lucas says he's very happy that these collaborations have been released. "It
was a wonderful moment, and Jeff and I really struck sparks off each other. The
music is timeless because it wasn't overworked. It just came from our hearts
and our spirits."
Issue Date: November 22 - 28, 2002
