Thoughts of Jeff

Once in a while I get these crazy ideas that if Jeff Buckley was still alive what would he be doing. How would he respond the surroundings around him. What kind of music would be be making? Would he be making music at all? Or the serious music question; would he make an album as amazing as Grace was? I had the pleasure of seeing him four times in my life and I would not trade that for anything on this planet. He made me laugh, cry and other emotions I have never felt before in my life.

I have three great friends who they were to young to see him on stage, but enjoy his music. To describe to them how great he was on stage is like trying to describe your two week vacation in so much detail on everything you did. You might be able to give a lot of detail, but you are going miss a few things here and there.

Grace is an album that is 51 minutes and 44 seconds of the most joy you can find on an album. You can play it back to front or front to back and it is amazing. You can do what I did when I got it. You can play it once, pick your songs and put them in order of your favorites and then the ones you did not like at the end and play it that way. Oh yea by the way. There is no bad song on the album so the way I did it, I lost. I kept in a sequence and turned it up to maximum volume. I saw him when he was promoting Grace and he played a few songs from Sin-E and a Nina Simone song and MC5's Kick out the Jams and a Big Star song and oh yea! Some Edith Piaf. He also joked with the crowd and told stories about that he was the son of the great Tim Buckley.

Grace is an album that should be part of everyone's music collection. It should be mentioned that it should be with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and Radiohead and others. Grace should be also an album that should be played on the radio. They should not over play it like the above artists.



Jeff will forever be missed. My friends that I mentioned above missed a person who could give so emotion in his concert, by the end of the show you shook your head and wanted more. I will admit I love Jeff. He made me feel a part of him when he sang. He and Elliott Smith stir so much emotion that very few artist can do. What I think makes Jeff do this is he does not stick to type of music. Like myself I think he had a lot of respect for the music as a whole.

Grace is the album that is played all the time in my head. Every time I hear Lilac Wine I get goosebumps. When I hear So Real I hear his moments of Avant-Garde and how he used to be part of John Zorn's Cobra at Knitting Factory. Hallelujah, the Leonard Cohen cover is so well done that he make's it his own song. We forget that Leonard wrote it and some of my friends think Jeff wrote it. Eternal Life has a life of it's own. Last Goodbye was supposed to be the "hit single" but it turned out to be his anthem after he died. Lilac Wine channels Nina Simone and does the best of this beautiful standard. Lover, You Should Come Over is a haunting song from the past for him and myself personally. Corpus Christi Carol shows how much of a vocal range he did have, just like his father.

Jeff means a lot to me and to talk about him with friends or just in general makes me smile. He will be missed in more ways then one. Jeff if your reading this somewhere, I thank you for all you have done. Thanks!! Matt.