Jeffrey Scott Buckley, Known to the world as Jeff Buckley was born November. 17th, 1966.
So you see, He is or would've been 39 years old today and I would like to write about him since well, he is the only musician I listen to at all.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jeffrey Scott Buckley was the only son of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley, a songwriter who released a series of highly acclaimed folk and jazz albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s before his own untimely death in 1975 (1975 in music). His mother was of Panamanian descent, while his father was the descendant of Irish emigrants from Co. Cork. Buckley was raised by his mother and step-father Ron Moorhead (for just a few years) in Southern California, constantly moving in and around Orange County. Additionally he had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead. During his childhood[ he was known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead, but around the age of 10 he chose to go by his birth name after meeting his father for the first (and only) time; to his family he still remained Scottie.
Buckley played with experimental guitarist Gary Lucas in his band Gods and Monsters. In 1994, Buckley released his debut album Grace, composed of ten tracks. While sales were slow, the album quickly received critical acclaim and appreciation from other musicians (among them Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Neil Peart). His cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is considered by many to be the definitive recording of that song, and is probably Buckley's best-known song.
After the release of his first and critically acclaimed album, he spent more than two years touring across the world. It seemed to be a tiring but effective means for him to keep his independence from his record company, with which Buckley had a strained relationship. In 1995 he played a concert which he considered the finest performance of his career at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French chanteuse Édith Piaf.
Buckley also went on a so-called "phantom solo tour" starting in December of 1996, using several aliases including: Father Demo, Topless America, Smackcrobiotic, The Halfspeeds, Crackrobats, and Martha and the Nicotines. As a justification to this mysterious tour, Buckley posted a note on the internet stating that he missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars:
There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e. have fun while I irritate and/or entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it.
Jeff Buckley drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis, Tennessee on May 29, 1997, at the age of 30, the evening his band came to Memphis to start recording for his second album which was to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk. He was swept away by the undertow of a passing boat while swimming. His body was recovered five days later at the bottom of Beale Street, the legendary birthplace of The Blues.
After Buckley's death, some of the demo recordings for his second album were released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. Three other albums composed of live recordings have also been released, along with a live DVD of a performance in Chicago.
Buckley's work, seemingly an anomaly at its time, has been enormously influential. Numerous tribute songs have been written, among them PJ Harvey's "Memphis", Amy Correia's "Blind River Boy", Rufus Wainwright's Memphis Skyline, Chris Cornell's "Wave Goodbye", and various tunes by the New Jersey band, Ours. Vocalists such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Matt Bellamy of Muse unabashedly cue themselves to his voice.
So you see, He is or would've been 39 years old today and I would like to write about him since well, he is the only musician I listen to at all.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Jeffrey Scott Buckley was the only son of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley, a songwriter who released a series of highly acclaimed folk and jazz albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s before his own untimely death in 1975 (1975 in music). His mother was of Panamanian descent, while his father was the descendant of Irish emigrants from Co. Cork. Buckley was raised by his mother and step-father Ron Moorhead (for just a few years) in Southern California, constantly moving in and around Orange County. Additionally he had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead. During his childhood[ he was known as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead, but around the age of 10 he chose to go by his birth name after meeting his father for the first (and only) time; to his family he still remained Scottie.
Buckley played with experimental guitarist Gary Lucas in his band Gods and Monsters. In 1994, Buckley released his debut album Grace, composed of ten tracks. While sales were slow, the album quickly received critical acclaim and appreciation from other musicians (among them Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Neil Peart). His cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is considered by many to be the definitive recording of that song, and is probably Buckley's best-known song.
After the release of his first and critically acclaimed album, he spent more than two years touring across the world. It seemed to be a tiring but effective means for him to keep his independence from his record company, with which Buckley had a strained relationship. In 1995 he played a concert which he considered the finest performance of his career at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French chanteuse Édith Piaf.
Buckley also went on a so-called "phantom solo tour" starting in December of 1996, using several aliases including: Father Demo, Topless America, Smackcrobiotic, The Halfspeeds, Crackrobats, and Martha and the Nicotines. As a justification to this mysterious tour, Buckley posted a note on the internet stating that he missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars:
There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e. have fun while I irritate and/or entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it.
Jeff Buckley drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis, Tennessee on May 29, 1997, at the age of 30, the evening his band came to Memphis to start recording for his second album which was to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk. He was swept away by the undertow of a passing boat while swimming. His body was recovered five days later at the bottom of Beale Street, the legendary birthplace of The Blues.
After Buckley's death, some of the demo recordings for his second album were released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk. Three other albums composed of live recordings have also been released, along with a live DVD of a performance in Chicago.
Buckley's work, seemingly an anomaly at its time, has been enormously influential. Numerous tribute songs have been written, among them PJ Harvey's "Memphis", Amy Correia's "Blind River Boy", Rufus Wainwright's Memphis Skyline, Chris Cornell's "Wave Goodbye", and various tunes by the New Jersey band, Ours. Vocalists such as Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Matt Bellamy of Muse unabashedly cue themselves to his voice.
I could've add two people the list of the 'Happy Birthday', but I didn't do it in the end.
