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Buckleys fall from Grace continues – Music – Entertainment – theage.com.au

In my eyes, Jeff Buckley could never fall from Grace. The fact remains that the only album he released is one of the most amazing albums, and in my opinion the most amazing album, that has ever existed. For a Jeff Buckley fan it’s kind of tough to read an article like this without having a highly torn attitude. Although positive and lovingly nostalgic about Jeff Buckley, the author of this article writes about the mass of Jeff Buckley releases since his passing in 1997. Numerous live albums, DVDs, and the release of his unfinished second album, which he was unhappy with (he wanted to start it again), followed his amazing album, Grace. For the Jeff Buckley fan, these releases are yet another bit of Jeff we can listen to, and cling to. Yet perhaps his memory has been marred by the numerous releases that were unplanned by him, and surely opposed by Jeff Buckley “purists” – and if Jeff was still living now, I doubt anything we have heard since Grace, would have been released as it has been. I hope when people who aren’t fans listen to music by Jeff Buckley that isn’tfrom Grace (the original – I’m not talking about the legacy version or any other altered version), that they remember that his only intentional album was Grace. People like Dicko from Aus Idol can criticise Grace for whatever reasons, but the linked article points out – from respectable sources – a few reasons why it is such an amazing album. Although I sometimes think that it would’ve been better for Grace to be the only released album, I still regard Live at Sin-e as such an amazing work.

When I listened to Sin-e, I almost felt like I was there, and I felt a sad pang that I never had the chance to see Jeff Buckley live. His music has given me much inspiration and a lot of comfort and peace. Yes, there were some long and inane monologues in Live at the Sin-e when I think about it now, but it seemed to reveal a personality that people like me didn’t really get to glimpse. I loved that live album, and although it’s been milked for what it’s worth (in it’s packaging, the multiple CDs, and the DVD), I can’t imagine being without so many of the songs that I’ve heard, especially from the first CD. Compared to the “elegant restraint” on Grace, The Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan cover might be viewed as an off party trick, but again, it revealed a side of Jeff Buckley, and the amazing merging of musical culture that I find is present in his amazing songs on Grace, and in songs like “What Will You Say” (that I would not have heard without releases like the Mystery White Boy live album). It’s a selfish point of view I know, however it’s hard to imagine what kind of music I’d treasure right now if such live tracks (which I would have opposed if I had any influence at the time) were locked up somewhere.

For some reason, in the beginning, I resisted purchasing anything Jeff Buckley apart from Grace, however I caved as soon as a counter-staff-girl at JB Hi-Fi told me that Live at Sin-e was the most amazing thing she’d ever heard. Of course, I immediately had to have it. And, minutes after I nervously put on my headphones, I was so amazingly impressed, and I was amazingly impressed for the following two CDs worth of music and chatter. I had to be interstate (and thus away from home and distraction) the day after I bought Sin-e, and I had a wonderful opportunity to just lie in bed and listen to the album – if only I could somehow listen to Grace, and Live at the Sin-e for the first times once again. What great music.

So, after having plunged into the Jeff Buckley live stuff, I went and bought the other live releases from which I found some truly amazing performances (notably Dream Brother and What Will You Say from Mystery White Boy, but many others too) however as a whole they didn’t compare to Grace, or even Sin-e. Nonetheless, I never touched Sketches (his unfinished album) for a long time, until a friend of mine (who’s taste in music is not as acutely Jeff Buckley as mine) said that Sketches was almost completed by Jeff, and that it had some good stuff on it. I remember trying to hide my discomfort at the thought of buying it, but my friend said, “it’s not sacred man” to which I tried to coherently respond (and defend) but failed because my answer going to be “It is Sacred!” So, without really doing any research about how “complete” the album was, and without knowing that Jeff wanted to start the album from scratch – I had to hear it – so I bought it. I shouldn’t have bought it, and they shouldn’t have released it because even I could hear that it was incomplete, and unlike a live release where Jeff Buckley chose what songs he would perform and in what order, Sketches was a collection of whatever was remotely coherent; and who knows what Jeff had actually intended in terms of the album structure, and even the songs that would have actually made the cut. I still enjoyed a lot of the songs from Sketches because they again showed us more of Jeff and his talent, however, perhaps live releases should have been the line.

Being someone who wants to work in film, I always thought I’d love to tell the Jeff Buckley story, but after some time, I realised it was probably inappropriate, and for some reason, I’m quite sad now that the film is going to be made, and that Leonardo DiCaprio (not that I hate him) might be playing the role of the man I speak of in this post. I can’t imagine it being something that I’ll enjoy, but who knows – nonetheless, I’d prefer that it never got made. However, maybe his family and friends will consider a film about Jeff Buckley to be a fitting tribute and celebration of such a champion and genius.