Music Geeks: How Over-Credited Is Jeff Buckley?

[NashVegas]

Yes, Grace was beau. Yes, Sketches showed great promise, but methinks the legend is a wee-bit overgrown. It's just about at the point where every other rockish singer who doesn't belt the blues is said to be copping Buckley. When I read a review of Brandi Carlile's album that made that claim (while making NO mention of Pasty Cline) it just seemed to hit the ridicule point.

Jeff Buckley: The Movie

06/29/2006 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dotmusic

A movie about legendary rock star Jeff Buckley is being made, according to reports. Buckley's mother Mary Guibert is understood to be working on the biopic, following the tragic death of her son in 1997.

Guibert is expected to produce the movie, which is being written and directed by Brian Jun. There is currently no information about who will play Buckley.

Speaking about the plans, Guibert said she had been inspired by the success and integrity of recent music biopics such as Ray and Walk The Line.

She commented: "Over the years, the number of offers were unceasing. I had resisted for so many reasons, one being that Hollywood, traditionally, did a lousy job of realistically portraying the life of people like Jeff. But the possibility that it could happen without my participation set me back to re-examine why I wasn't doing it."

Jeff Buckley released just one official LP, Grace, before drowning in 1997 at the age of 30.

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/33660256

[RedStateShame]

1. How many albums did he cut? TWO?!

Yeah, that's a bit much. Hell, you wanna chronicle a rock tragedy, tell about the death of Brainiac front man Tim Taylor.

[NashVegas]

2. 1 & 1/2

I don't count Sketches as a cut album, but demos. Interesting but very incomplete.

[SteppingRazor]

3. Certainly overrated, but...

I don't want to take anything away from Grace. It's an outstanding album. Particularly good on a morning after, like when you wake up Sunday after a long, hellacious Saturday night.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. I With You

One good album does not a legend make, at least for me. Apparently, for others it was plenty.
The Professor

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Very overrated...

Grace was excellent, but really, a reputation like Buckley's on the basis of ONE album is undeserved. The closest parallel I can think of is Nick Drake, but Drake left behind a larger body of work.

[SteppingRazor]

8. I can think of a few...

Richie Valens, for example. Guy had two hit songs, then died in a plane crash. 30 years later, they're making a movie of his life and "La Bamba" is a hit again, this time for Los Lobos.

Or how about Janis Joplin? She only came out with one album during her lifetime -- Pearl came out posthumously.

[NashVegas]

12. Joplin

She did release a couple albums with Big Brother & Holding Co, IIRC, but what's interesting there is, I think her legacy actually made it worse for female rock singers. She had so many imitators, and so many fans that wanted women to sing "just like Janis,' and none of them ever made it out of the bar scene until Joan Osborne.

[progmom]

6. I saw him live, and actually spent a little time with him before Live at

Sine came out. I hate to sound like a dork, but there was something very special about Jeff - a joyful innocence, to start with. I can see why people are so seemingly obsessed with him.

[RandomKoolzip]

10. That's awesome.

I was a big fan of Tim Buckley as a teenager, so when I read an article about Jeff in Musician magazine in 1993, I was very intrigued and pissed that he hadn't recorded anything yet. Then I saw a used copy of Live at Sine and was blown away. I remember playing the song "Grace" to all my friends, going, "You GOTTA hear this!" right after the album came out. I saw him live twice in New Orleans, and both times were just incredible. There was something really special about that cat. I wish he had time on earth to pursue the direction of stuff like "The Sky is a Landfill" off of "my Sweetheart -" a sort of soulful prog informed by blues and post-Sonic Youth noise rock...and that voice...

I don't like the posthumous deification of the guy, though.

[liontamer]

7. i never even heard of him till he drowned

then everybody played him nonstop. Note to musicians: not selling many albums? jump into the mississippi :eyes:

[bbernardini]

9. All I know of him is "Hallelujah"...

But if that was the only thing he ever recorded, his reputation would still be the same. It's one of the most beautiful things ever recorded.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Which is a Leonard Cohen cover, in any case

Beautiful cover, though

[mitchum]

11. "Grace" is a great album, but he is definitely overrated...

I have heard lots of live cuts by him and he often had as much a "Problem" with pitch as Perry Farrell.
I think one of Buckley's problems was that he wasn't a prolific or a very consistently good songwriter. Tom Verlaine, while a brilliant musician, was not a good choice for a producer for the follow up record. Verlaine has an incredible work etic and he expects those who work with him to do the same. A better choice would have been Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois who have proven that they are producers who can deliver albums by "artists" with half-baked ideas...U2 anyone?

[KG]

14. dying tragically does wonders for an artists image.

too bad the artist will never know or benefit from it.