Jeff Buckley
February 23, 08 by david
There have been many occasions in my life where I have been completely blown away at how sheltered I must be. See, I believed myself to be widely exposed to many types of music, particularly when I was younger. But how in the hell did Jeff Buckley not even hit my radar? I am ashamed that I have never heard one single track of his until just a few hours ago.
I was perusing through the music discovery service called Last.fm. On a side note, if you love music and you haven’t used it yet, start. After this gem of a find, I am now sold on it’s usefulness. After all, I found Jeff Buckley’s music just by happenstance.
It’s hard to peg Buckley’s music into a single category. This task gets even more difficult if you listen to his entire collection. My guess is that if your musical tastes are very narrow, you might not find a lot to like because this artist isn’t afraid to drift around the genres like he were changing his shirt. But as each track flows through your iPod, you come to the sudden realization that this cat has some serious talent. It is nothing short of phenomenal.
I am obviously not the Jeff Buckley expert, being that I have only recently discovered his music. But what I lack in time with his music, I make up for in sheer excitement in the discovery. I am so excited, in fact, that here I am punching away at the keyboard writing about an artist I hardly know, doling out my strongest recommendations that you have a listen for yourself. It’s that damn good!
What strikes me most about the man and his music is his incredible ability to sing almost any style of music. I have heard many others attempt the same thing and it usually somehow falls flat. But his voice just seems so capable of just about any genre. However, where I was totally sold on Buckley was his cover of Leonard Cohen’s song Hallelujah. I have heard many artists cover this incredible song. I have had favorite versions before, but Buckley’s rendition blows the doors off all the other covers. Cohen wrote this amazing song, but Buckley makes this song totally memorable.
As for Buckley’s music, it’s just plain interesting. As I mentioned, he bounces all over the genre tree, playing whatever strikes him. You can hear an amazing range of influences from all over the world. He also drew inspiration from some of the great rock artists such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Who, though you would have to be seriously versed in these artists to really catch the influences. Regardless, what he did, he did it right.
Sadly, this story doesn’t have a happy ending. Jeff Buckley died in May, 1997 when he drown while swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a tributary of the Mississippi river. He died at the age of 30.
But, we still have an incredible collection of music from Jeff Buckley to rejoice in and be thankful for. I, for one, am incredibly grateful for this amazing find.
