Dante's Inferno - Jeff Buckley, In Memoriam

Jeff Buckley, In Memoriam

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The great ones are always taken too young, it seems. Such was the case with Jeff Buckley as well.

Jeff Buckley
November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997
in memoriam

Born November 17th 1966, son of a Panama Zonian mother and an Irish immigrant father, Buckley met his father only once, when he was 8. His father, acclaimed folk and jazz musician died two months later of a drug overdose.

Most of his childhood Buckley went by the name of Scotty Moorhead, using his middlename and his stepfather's lastname. It was only after his father's death that he chose to use his birth name, but was always called Scotty by his family.

After high school Buckley spent six years working in a hotel and in various bands that never gained notoriety, playing guitar and singing only backing vocals.

In 1990 he moved to New York, where he continued to hone his guitar playing, absorbing influences from several styles, ranging from blues to hardcore punk and even qawwali, the holy music of India and Pakistan.

He returned to Los Angeles in September that same year to record a demo with the help of his father's old manager. The five song demo was titled Babylon Dungeon Sessions.

In the April of 1991, Buckely had his first public singing appearance, at a tribute concert honoring the work of his father, called Greetings From Tim Buckley. Jeff performed four songs, one of them being I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain, which his father had written about his newborn son and his mother. The concert was produced by show business veteran Hal Willner, who later said "He blew the whole place away".

Ironically, from his father's memorial concert, Jeff Buckley rose to become one of the most acclaimed musicians of his generation.

After doing numerous club concerts for a few years, Buckley began working on his first album in the summer of 1993, and the following September went to a studio to record it. His debut album, Grace, was released on August 23rd 1994, and on the album was a cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and it was that song that made Buckley''s career.

While the album was not a huge seller at first, it was highly praised by musicians and critics alike, all of whom were impressed by Buckley's ethereal voice as well as his songwriting despite being young and the album being his first, and among other praises his rendition of Hallelujah received, it is on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

He spent most of the next year touring around the world, and in 1996 did a "phantom tour" in numerous cafes around American northwest, performing under various aliases, stating that he "missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars".

Upon completing the tour, Buckely went to work on his follow up album, which he titled My Sweetheart the Drunk. Having written all of the songs for the album and tested a new studio with them, his band joined him at Memphis on May 29th, 1997. On that night Jeff Buckley drowned in the Wolf River Harbor.

His second album, later renamed as Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, was released posthumously one year later.

He didn't do drugs, he was not known for being a drinker, and he didn't live the life of a rockstar. He was a musician, who loved writing new music and enjoyed performing it to people. And his death only goes to show that the Universe has a serious chip on it's shoulder when it comes to people of unique talent.

Buckley's cover of Hallelujah is easily in the Top 3 of my all time favorite songs. I strongly suggest you listen to it.

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Jeff Buckley, In Memoriam

11:30 - 2007-May-29

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