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Fwd: [emerge] Buckley in the Sunday Inquirer
One of the women on Tangentland, my email list (e me if you want to
join), is friends with Mary Guibert in addition to being a rabid Jeff
Buckley fan. She fwds all the good stuff to us, so I'm spreading the
wealth.
The paper referenced is the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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From: emerge at egroups_com
To: Chikenvindaloo at aol_com
dbuskirk1 at fatnet_net
emerge at egroups_com
autmnyte at hotmail_com
Poetikgirl at aol_com
Russ at rfuller_com
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From: SpngledSky at AOL_COM
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To: Chikenvindaloo at aol_com, dbuskirk1 at fatnet_net, emerge at egroups_com,
autmnyte at hotmail_com, Poetikgirl at aol_com, Russ at rfuller_com,
Tangentland at egroups_com, trishy at netreach_net, Mistsojorn at aol_com
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/May/07/arts_and_entertainment/MIX07
.ht
m
Jeff Buckley live, posthumously
Before he was swallowed up by the Mississippi River in 1997, Jeff
Buckley
put out just one four-song EP, Live at Sin-e, and one studio album,
1994's
grandiose Grace.
After he followed his father to an early grave - poetic folkie Tim
Buckley
died of a drug overdose at 28 in 1975, Jeff drowned in Memphis at 30 -
the
work-in-progress, wildly uneven double-CD Sketches (For My Sweetheart,
the
Drunk) came out in 1998.
When an artist meets a tragic death, half-finished studio recordings are
never enough: It's only a matter of time before the live album appears.
Thus,
we have the in-concert Mystery Whiteboy (Columbia ***1/2***1/2), out
Tuesday,
that pulls 12 songs from various 1995-96 tour stops, selected by
Buckley's
guitarist Michael Tighe and mother, Mary Guibert.
Mystery Whiteboy's title is taken from an alias Buckley used for frequent
pseudonymous solo gigs. (He was also known to go by Possessed by Elves,
Martha & the Nicotines, Topless America and A Puppet Show Named Julio.)
The album is more worthy of attention than your typical posthumous
cash-in
because Buckley was a commanding, risk-taking performer who lived to
ravish
an audience.
"Playing in front of people every night is the only way I can work,"
Buckley
said in a 1995 interview. Playing live is "so refueling and so
galvanizing
and so nutritious. And it's always new. That's what blows me away. Music
is
always new. And it's not something you can contrive. You just have to
allow
it to happen. You read the river as you go."
Robert Plant arabesques and faux-Led Zeppelin heaviosity made stretches
of
Grace hard to bear, but Buckley wielded his luminous voice with
theatrical
flair on stage. He drenched his faithful in torrents of emotionalism that
would have made his heroes Barbra Streisand and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
proud.
When Buckley opened for Juliana Hatfield at the Trocadero in May 1995
with a
mesmerizing performance that included a cathartic version of the MC5's
"Kick
Out the Jams," the squeaky-voiced headliner didn't stand a chance.
("Kick"
isn't on the live album, but is on Live in Chicago, a new VHS/DVD
performance
video recorded a week before the Troc show.)
Mystery Whiteboy is a keeper because it brings Grace incantations such as
"Dream Brother" and "Mojo Pin" to lush life; includes two unrecorded
Buckley
compositions, "I Woke Up in a Strange Place" and "What Will You Say";
and,
most dramatically, showcases his gift for transforming other people's
songs.
For all his abundant talent, Buckley had a ways to go as a songwriter. He
often sounded so enamored of his influences - from David Bowie to
Zeppelin
and Streisand - that no clear identity of his own came through. One of
his
best songs, on Sketches, is the soul plea "Everybody Here Wants You,"
which
is essentially an Al Green imitation. That album also included an
arresting
live take on Porter Wagoner's honky-tonk classic "A Satisfied Mind" that
out-shivers Gram Parsons' version.
Mystery Whiteboy is a very good live album for its first nine tracks,
which
include a reprise of Grace's languorous version of Nina Simone's "Lilac
Wine." But it gets gripping down the stretch.
The thrill ride starts with a gorgeous solo inhabitation of the Harold
Arlen-Ira Gershwin standard "The Man That Got Away," which the
androgynous-voiced drama queen clearly delivers with Judy Garland, rather
than Frank Sinatra, in mind.
That's followed by nine-plus minutes of Alex Chilton's lovely, desolate
"Kanga Roo," which Buckley, Tighe, drummer Matt Johnson and bassist Mick
Grondahl put across with show-stopping, cataclysmic fury.
The album closes with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," Grace's serene
centerpiece, expanded to include a verse from the Smiths' "I Know It's
Over."
"Oh mother, I can feel the sword falling over my head," the divinely
haunted
singer cries.
It's a moment that would be silly to interpret as a premonition of
impending
tragedy, but nonetheless brings to a culmination a Mystery that reasserts
how
much was lost when Buckley was pulled down into the river.
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Dan DeLuca's e-mail address is ddeluca at phillynews_com
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Subject: [emerge] Buckley in the Sunday Inquirer
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