Am I the only Jeff Buckley fan here on the boards? What a tragic loss for those that enjoyed his music, and for his family and friends. I just really dig his stuff and it’s sad that such a “modern day bard” won’t be making any more music. All the good ones die so young… SIGH 
I miss Jeff Buckley too, although I prefer his father’s music. Both of them were lost too soon.
Oh yes, I sure do miss Jeff Buckley! His music has this incredibly passionate intensity - mixed with a beautiful melancholia that I really respond to. I agree that it’s terribly sad that he won’t be making anymore music. He really was one of a kind. Gah, now I’m depressed!
I’m with you. I still can’t listen to Grace without crying a few times here and there, and feeling sad throughout.
I’ve owned the DVD release of Jeff Buckley - Live in Chicago since it was released and, this is going to sound really stupid, I haven’t watched it yet. I was at that concert (thank you C!!) and I still want my memories to be the view of the stage I saw. I’ve listened to the recording I made of it, but I fear that once I see the visuals, my own POV will start to fade. It’s silly, I know.
Give your DVD to me then, Equipoise! I never got the chance to see him live BIG SIGH and that’d just be so sweet and nice and cool and great of you… oh yes, it would. Share the wealth?
Another Jeff Buckley fan checking in. I adore his music. There appear to be quite a few Buckley fans on the board. A while back there was a thread comparing the different versions of Hallelujah, and many people loved the Jeff Buckley version and seemed to be fans. (Some cretins voted for Rufus Wainwright and others for Leonard Cohen, but they were just wrong. 
) Board is running slow so I won’t search for it now, but you should be able to find it.
I also have the live in Chicago DVD, have watched it many times, and love it. And I’m not giving it up! 
Equipoise, have you at least checked out the bonus features? Those alone are worth the price of the dvd.
As a slight hijack, what is everyone’s favorite Jeff Buckley song? Mine is Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. It’s one of my favorite songs of all time, period. Gets me every time.
Mine’s “What Will You Say.”
Any opinions on the deluxe Live At Sin-e album released a short while ago? It seems to offer a closer look at what Buckley was like live than the Live In Chicago DVD does. I like how they kept all the monologues in.
light, I agree on the song choice, that’s my fave Buckley song. Second best is “Hallelujah”. Those songs can make me weep anytime, anywhere. He was such an angel sigh.
We miss you, Jeff!!
I’m so glad someone said it. I was starting to get scared that I was the only one that remembered his brilliance.
What makes it even more tragic is listening to the second album. It was brilliant. BRILLIANT and it was unfinished. Where was he heading? Where could he have taken us? He is one of the greatest losses.
Ok, maybe I’m a little crazy…
I cry a little every day sometimes. I saw Jeff live 6 times, and met him enough times to have a serious personal crush on him. Most of my Jeff stuff is autographed to me; some with hearts drawn on it. I only recently pulled out some of his music to listen to again: it’s been to painful an experience since his death. I sobbed through most of the beefed up Sin E (I have the original EP, signed by Jeff). (You’re welcome, V!)
I’ve heard nothing but great things about Jeff Buckley, and from my other musical interests, I have a feeling that I will like Jeff Buckley if I get ahold of some of his material. I will ask for his CD’s for Christmas, so what albums are available, and which one(S) should I ask for???
I have a six-disc changer in my shop and Grace is in permanent rotation. Listened to it last night as a matter-of-fact.
Favorite song: Lilac Wine. Its sweet and heady. Like my love.
BCS stands for (illegitimate child) + (crowing rooster) + (Tootsie Pops)
Stover9, Grace, his only “album,” is in my lifetime top ten of ALL ALBUMS EVER; probly in the top five, come to think of it.
The rest is EPs, side projects, live recordings, and posthumously released demos. Get Grace. Everyone should get Grace. Then, if you’re hooked, start accumulating the other stuff.
he was amazing. i miss him so much especially while listening to his music. my favorite song is Last Goodbye and i loved the recent live at sin-e release… the version on there is really good. what a huge loss to the music world. will there ever be another like him??
somebody said of him once, “he sounds like a choirboy in the rafters of a whorehouse”
Although I would recommend Grace to any uninitiated listener…I must say I greatly prefer Sketches…
In fact I rarely listen to Grace anymore.
Sketches just feels like who Jeff was. It best personifies his personality and mind…but then again I never knew him so I could be way off. I could think that Sketches is who Jeff was because that’s who I want him to have been. Experimental, not truely meant for mass consumption, oh Jeff I loved you (especially the you I wanted and needed you to be)…
Am I in the minority here among “experienced” Jeff fans?
Stover9, I’ll second lissener on Grace…it’s really a great doorway into everything else.
I’d go to the reissued Live At Sin-e next, because it’s a good point of entry into the live, solo Buckley material. Follow that with Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk to see where he was headed when it came to an end, and then maybe the collection of Grace EPs.
(Side note: the version of Grace I’ve conjured for myself starts with “Tongue” from the EPs, then “Kanga Roo” from the EPs, then the album proper. I wanted to start with the least technically proficient recording first, and then the more indulgent yet always entertaining band jam, then the final product.)
The great thing about Buckley is that he was so consistently creative…you can own multiple versions of the same song and never hear it the same way twice. It’s not like these live recordings are “hit-plus-crowd-noise” - he’s genuinely putting an entirely different spin on each version, whether playing a song in a different key, adding an extension on the original, improvising new lyrics, whatever.
“Dream Brother” is probably my favorite song of all, and it’s a classic example of what I’m talking about: vibes on studio version, more ebb and flow in this concert version, different guitar effects on this concert version, etc. There aren’t many misfire moments in his performances, we’ll put it that way. If you asked me to pick the definitive version of the song, the one to take to the desert island, I don’t think I could do it.
Second pick: “Calling You” from Sin-e. What a stunner. If he wouldn’t have been competing with the Holly Cole Trio to do it, I wish he’d have put it out on the original EP.
Yeah, I’ve always loved Holly’s version, but Jeff’s can make me cry. Sigh. I still haven’t washed the spot where he kissed me.
(horrific hijack, sorry)
As much as I adore Jeff’s version, and love Holly Cole’s version, if you haven’t heard the original by Jevetta Steele, you’ve been missing out on something extremely special. I first heard it on a soundtrack album in 1988.
If you can’t find the recording, rent the movie Bagdad Cafe (aka Out of Rosenheim) sometime. It’s in the movie near the beginning. It works best though, when you just close your eyes and drown in it. Her version would be famous now if some dolts at the Academy Awards hadn’t been dolts. It was nominated for Best Song, which was good, but for some reason that year (1989) they decided not to have the song nominees sung. Not even a snippet of any of them was played. They were just announced, and a Carly Simon song from Working Girl won. If the viewers had heard Jevetta sing that song, there would have been a riot when it lost. Ok, maybe not (wishful thinking), but it would have mesmerized everybody who heard it. What’s worse is that that year, there were only 3 nominees for Best Song. That they couldn’t make time is something I still haven’t forgiven. Especially since that was the “Rob Lowe/Snow White” Oscars. I watched in anger and disbelief that they had time for that crap but not “Calling You!” (end horrific hijack)
“Hallelujah” is my favorite Jeff cover.
“So Real” is my favorite original song.
No, “Grace” is. Or “Last Goodbye.” Or maybe “Lilac Wine.” “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” is too. And “Dream Brother.” They’re all great.
The hardest part about listening to Grace is that the lyrics that seemingly foreshadow his death jump out at me now. I don’t believe in that kind of crap, but I still can’t help getting chills. I don’t think he was a morbid guy, but it’s the morbid lyrics that I remember.
“Dream asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over”
“This is our last goodbye”
“Eternal life is now on my trail
Got my red glitter coffin, man, just need one last nail”
“Well it’s my time coming, I’m not afraid, afraid to die
…
Oh drink a bit of wine we both might go tomorrow
…
And the rain is falling and I believe my time has come
And it reminds me of the pain I might leave behind
…
But I’m not afraid to go, but it goes so slow, slow”
“Looking out the door I see the rain fall upon the funeral mourners”
And for me, worst of all, considering how he died,
“And I couldn’t awake from the nightmare that sucked me in and pulled me under. Pulled me under”
Sigh.
<b>Equipoise</b>…
“Stay with me under these waves tonight. Be free for once in your life tonight.” from Sketches, all the more haunting when the first time I heard it he had already drowned.
I think there’s more…I’ll have to relisten…twist my arm.