Jeff Buckley
Sketches (for My Sweetheart The Drunk)
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NATN Recommended
Jeff Buckley
Sketches (for My Sweetheart The Drunk)
Columbia, 1997
RiYL: Van Morrison, Prince, Nirvana |
Often, the greats try to transcend the inevitable. If you don't know what I'm talking about, think about Pete Townshend spilling his blood in a fit of guitar windmills, or Jerry Lee Lewis lighting his piano on fire. Not surprisingly, these are rock's most memorable moments. It's awesome to watch a fellow mortal biting his tongue in the face of the inevitable.
It's empowering.
When our legends die, their passing brings us back down to size. We remember we all have to go sometime. And when our heroes die young, we remember death can take us at any moment. And it can take us without any reason.
In this sense, I like to compare Jeff Buckley's innocent passing to that of Buddy Holly. In today's world of "Behind The Music," we tend to fixate on the overdoses and suicides while we overlook the tragedies that ended outside the realm of the "rock and roll lifestyle."
Jeff Buckley was still a baby-faced singer when he stepped into the Mississippi River in May of 1997 and was taken by the water's massive current. Sadly, he had only lived long enough to record but one complete full-length album for his fans to mourn by.
His debut, the aptly named Grace, seems like a preface to a career that never was. This is never more clear then when one takes the time to carefully admire the range of the posthumously released Sketches (for My Sweetheart The Drunk).
A year after her son's death, Jeff's mother put together this set, a collection of yet complete studio recordings and four-track demos. In a very non-traditional sense, the album stirs a myriad of feelings: frustration, sexual wanting, sadness, warmth and power. Buckley still croons with his Van Morrison-like vocal improvs, set inside a Prince-like falsetto. But his musical palette varies from dark, angular jams to bright ballads.
Take the sexy strut of "Everybody Here Wants You," where Jeff brings Motown to the 90s, and compare it to the Nirvana-inspired guitars of "Nightmares By The Sea." Enjoy the bouncing, wicked pop of "Witches Rave" and the haunting a cappella "You And I."
Get emotionally zapped by "Opened Once," a sparse acoustic ballad where the singer forshadows his own death with eery lyrics and flowing fingerpicking. Like most of the tracks on Sketches, his voice is haunting in its beauty and alluring in its complexity. He sounds hopeful at one point, only to become completely lost in the next verse. At the song's close Jeff softly asks, "Did I ever happen?" Clearly, he did.
Perhaps a larger question is what might have happened had he survived his midnight swim. The release's second disc offers us an endlessly compelling "sketch" of an unfinished future, or at least an intersting look at the creative process of writing an album.
Study the four-track demos and explore step inside of the singer's mind. Try to imagine your own favorite artist -- a young Bruce Springsteen or David Bowie -- and imagine them leaving behind a handful of demos, with which you try to paint an entire career.
Who knows what Jeff Buckley would have become if he'd only lived long enough to record five or six more albums? Maybe just another singer/songwriter. But with Sketches, he has provided ample reason to celebrate his short existence.
BEN FRENCH | Ben founded NATN in the winter of 1998-1999 with fellow IU alums Troy Carpenter and Jonathan Cohen. During the day time, he's working for Nielsen Business Media, publisher of Billboard. Ben's favorite acts include Bruce Springsteen, The Clash, Sonic Youth, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys.