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Tim Buckley by jekky
Biography Early life and career Tim Buckley was born in Washington DC to Elaine and Tim Buckley Jr people of Cork Ireland descent He spent his early childhood in Amsterdam New York before his family like many others at the time moved to southern California initially to Bell Gardens when he was ten and later to Anaheim when he was 17 His grandmother introduced him to Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday his mother introduced Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland and his father to the country music of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash At the age of 11 Buckley taught himself to play the banjo an instrument his mother bought to occupy him following a bout of mumps He attended Colmar Elementary School Bell Gardens Junior and Senior High in Bell Gardens and briefly attended Loara High School in Anaheim California where he made friends with Larry Beckett Jim Fielder and future wife Mary Guibert At Bell Gardens Junior and Senior High he was a popular student and was elected to many class offices He was also an accomplished high school athlete becoming a quarterback for the school team in addition to getting a place on the baseball team During this period playing as quarterback Buckley broke the first two fingers on his left hand which were permanently damaged He later claimed that it was this injury which prevented him from playing barre chords on the guitar although this inability may have led to his use of extended chords which often don t require barres One other consequence of his time as a football star was his friendship with Dan Gordon a Jewish transplant from the Atlantic coast to California Gordon and Buckley teamed up with various other friends from Loara High School including Jim Fielder and Larry Beckett to form a band called The Bohemians The band initially played standards drawing inspiration from The Kingston Trio but soon added originals co written by Tim and Larry The trio also formed a separate band consisting of the same members the Harlequin 3 and when performing as this outfit they would incorporate spoken word sections and beat poetry in to their gigs While Tim was bonding with the Bohemians he was also bonding with Mary Guibert a Zonian transplant of Greek and French descent one year below him in school They met during a French class at Loara High School when Tim passed her a note Mary excused herself from the class and read the note in the bathroom it turned out to be a love note Soon after they began hanging out on the school quad with Larry Beckett and others from Tim s group of friends Their relationship inspired many of Tim s songs as well providing both of them a sense of relief from their turbulent homes Late during Tim s senior year Mary developed a hysterical pregnancy and in November of that year they were married Mary s father was too angry to appear at the wedding Tim s father attended but joked to the priest as he left the chapel I give it six months Although Mary soon found out that she was not in fact pregnant she was in fact pregnant shortly after with a son Jeff Buckley Buckley graduated high school and had already written over twenty songs with lyricist Beckett and many of these made up a large portion of his debut album Buzzin Fly also written during this period later featured his 1969 LP Happy Sad citation needed After playing gigs in the L A area under the moniker of either The Bohemians or Tim Buckley the band started to generate considerable interest being labelled in Cheetah magazine in 1967 as one part of the up and coming The Orange County Three with Steve Noonan and Jackson Browne In September 1965 Buckley started attending Fullerton College but dropped out only two weeks later unable to cope with the pressure of combining this with his fledgling music career After dropping out of college Buckley fully dedicated himself to music playing L A cafes and folk clubs such as Nite Owl Caf and The Troubadour The prediction Tim s father made about his the future of the marriage came true Tim found himself falling out of love with Mary when she was several months pregnant perhaps also fearing his future responsibility Tim began dating Jainie Goldstein to whom debut album track Song for Jainie is dedicated Following a gig at the venue It s Boss Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black enthusiastically recommended Buckley to his manager Herb Cohen Seeing the potential of the young group Cohen decided to manage their affairs Cohen landed Buckley a gig at the Nite Owl Caf where Buckley met guitarist and keyboardist Lee Underwood and they collaborated on material and began doing gigs together with Fielder as bassist After seeing the group develop Cohen sent an acetate disc of the band s demo to Elektra records owner Jac Holzman In August Holzman saw Buckley play live and offered him a recording contract and an opportunity to record his first album Folk rock One of Herb Cohen s early decisions was to sign only Tim and not The Bohemians as a group It was always understood that ultimately it was about Tim their bassist Jim Fielder said He was the one and there were no hard feelings whatsoever when it turned into a solo situation Tim recorded his debut album Tim Buckley over three days in Los Angeles in August 1966 Tim later denigrated the album describing it as like Disneyland The album s folk rock style was largely typical of the time but critics noted Tim s distinctive voice and tuneful compositions The tracks featured were written with Larry Beckett while the two were in high school The record featured Buckley and a backing band of Orange County friends as well as Lee Underwood a former poet and high school English teacher who Tim met in Greenwich Village Underwood s mix of jazz and country improvisation on a twangy telecaster became a distinctive part of Tim s early sound Jac Holzman and Paul Rothchild s production style and Jack Nitzsche s string arrangements cemented in the record s mid sixties sound Song of The Magician from Tim Buckley Demonstrating the sixties sound of the record Problems listening to this file See media help On later reflection those involved with the album saw it as demonstrative of the potential of the group but not the finished product Lee Underwood summed it up as a first effort naive stiff quaky and innocent but a ticket into the marketplace Producer Jac Holzman expressed similar sentiments stating in 1991 in the periodical Musician that Tim wasn t really comfortable in his own musical skin Larry Beckett suggested that the band s desire to please the prospective audience held them back Elektra released two singles promoting the debut album Wings appeared in December with Grief in My Soul as a b side and Aren t You the Girl with Strange Street Affair Under Blue the next month Herb Cohen suggested that Buckley should work with producer Jerry Yester and Elektra s demand for a new single represented their first challenge Buckley and Beckett planned a songwriting session and listened to the radio relentlessly in search of making a hit record The results were Once Upon a Time and Lady Give Me Your Key The former was not well regarded by the pair but they felt the latter had much potential Despite this Elektra decided not to release it as a single and the songs are assumed to remain in Elektra s record vaults Rhino Records hoped to include Lady Give Me Your Key on Morning Glory The Tim Buckley Anthology but could not find the songs in time for its release Main article Goodbye and Hello Goodbye and Hello released in 1967 featured late 1960s style poetry and songs in different timings and has been described as an ambitious release for the then 20 year old Buckley Reflecting the confidence Elektra had in Buckley and group they were given free rein on the music and content of the album Beckett continued as lyricist and the album consisted of half Buckley originals and half Beckettuckley collaborations Critics noted the improved lyrical and melodic qualities of Buckley s music Buckley s voice had also developed since the last release and the press appreciated both his lower register and higher falsetto in equal measure I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain Problems listening to this file See media help Pleasant Street both tracks from Goodbye and Hello Problems listening to this file See media help The topic matter of the album also distinguished it from its predecessor Beckett addressed the psychological nature of war in No Man Can Find the War and Underwood welcomed Buckley s entry into darker territory with Pleasant Street I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain represented a confessional lyric to his estranged wife and child Underwood also judged that the mix of introspective folk songs and political themed content attracted folk fans and anti war audiences alike Elektra owner Jac Holzman had much faith in the young up and comer renting advertising space for the musician on the Sunset Strip which was virtually unheard of for an unestablished solo act The album reflected the feeling in the US at the time Holzman stating the combined effect of his words his music his passion his persona struck a particular resonance Despite having some aspects in common with Bob Dylan in terms of musical style and fashion sense Buckley distanced himself from comparisons expressing a general apathy towards the artist and his work Whilst Goodbye and Hello did not make Buckley a star it performed better in the charts than his previous effort peaking at 171 His higher profile also led to more opportunities the album was used as a soundtrack to Hall Bartlett s 1969 movie Changes and Micky Dolenz landed Tim a spot to perform Song to the Siren on the final episode of The Monkees TV show However Buckley was wary of the press and media often avoiding interviews or being unresponsive when they were necessary After scoring a slot on the Tonight Show Buckley was standoffish and insulting towards the host and on another TV appearance he outright rejected a plan to lip synch to Pleasant Street and refused to play Buckley did not see the album s sales as a path to commercial success but rather an opportunity to express his musical creativity After Beckett left for the Army Buckley was free to develop his own individual style without the literary restraints of before Uneducated both vocally and instrumentally in the finer aspects of melody and lyric structure the quality of the tracks he produced demonstrate the natural talent he possessed He described the jazz blues rock that he was associated with at the time as White thievery and an emotional sham With this opinion strongly set he rebelled against what was commercial and persevered on a course of development that alienated many of his fans Drawing inspiration from jazz greats such as Charles Mingus Thelonious Monk Roland Kirk and vocalist Leon Thomas his subsequent independently recorded music was vastly different from previous recordings In 1968 Buckley recorded the jazz sounding folk structured Happy Sad This would be his best charting album peaking at 81 Dissatisfied with playing the same old material continuously and disenchanted with the music business that he felt was restraining him from producing new material he began to weave in new songs into his performances featuring an increasingly minimalist sound from his heavily orchestrated first two albums and introducing a vibraphone player into his band However this attempted rejuvenation was a commercial failure becoming largely based on improvisation his performances were less accessible to the audiences who saw him as a folk rock poster boy Middle period During 1969 Buckley began to write and record material for three different albums Lorca Blue Afternoon and Starsailor Inspired by the singing of avant garde musician Cathy Berberian he decided to integrate the ideas of composers such as Luciano Berio and Iannis Xenakis in an avant garde rock genre He started to fully use his voice s impressive range According to guitarist Lee Underwood Buckley knew that Lorca had little to no chance in the commercial market and due to his old friend Herb Cohen starting up a new label venture with Frank Zappa Straight Records he wanted to provide an album of older material that was a step back from his current direction but one that would have a better shot at making a dent in the public s minds Selecting eight songs that had yet to be recorded these tracks evolved into the sessions for the forgotten classic Blue Afternoon an album that was quite similar to Happy Sad in style Underwood himself contradicts this with a 1977 article he wrote for Down Beat Magazine chronicling Buckley s career he states that Buckley s heart was not into the Blue Afternoon performances and that the album was a perfunctory response to please his business people Neither album sold well with the near simultaneous release of each seemingly cancelling out the other Lorca was viewed as a failure by many fans who shocked by its completely different style found the vocal gymnastics too abstract and far removed from his previous folk rock rooted albums while Blue Afternoon was seen by some as boring and tepid not even good sulking music one critic mocked Blue Afternoon was Buckley s last album to hit the Billboard charts reaching 192 After the lack of success for both records Buckley began to focus more on what he felt to be his true masterpiece Starsailor Starsailor came completely out of left field with free jazz textures under Tim s most extreme vocal performance ranging from high shrieks to deep soulful baritone Different from his first three albums this personal album shared the same response as Lorca Impervious to Buckley s avant garde style few of his fans were aroused and most disliked it It included the more accessible Song to the Siren later covered on record by This Mortal Coil Robert Plant and John Frusciante After the failure of Starsailor Buckley s live performances degraded to insincere chores and he eventually
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