The Timothy, Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen connection

Timothy “Tim” Buckley, father of Jeff Buckley was a contemporary of Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen songbook admirer. Jeff Buckley famously covered Cohen’s Hallelujah at club Sin-e. Both father and son died well before their time. The considerable creative output from both gives us a legacy to pull from even with their relatively brief time on the planet.

Tim Buckley was just 19 when his son Jeff was born, and Tim was only 28 when he died of a drug overdose in 1975. Jeff Buckley didn’t grow up with his father, and apparently, they met only once. Jeff also wrote and sang beautiful, adventurous songs, and also died young, when he drowned at age 30 in 1997.

I have my brother Johnny to thank for introducing me to Tim Buckley on LP. Johnny had this master bedroom suite room downstairs in a funky Queen Anne Victorian, off campus-on Fayette Street, while he attended Cornell, Ithaca, NY. I stayed in his room occasionally to listen to vinyl recordings. Johnny had the most expensive stylus in Ithaca NY. I listened to Traffic’s Steve Winwood song, Empty Pages and John Barley Corn must die the very first time in Johnny’s room.

Timothy Charles “Tim” Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music and style changed considerably through the years; he began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving “voice as instrument” sound. Though he did not find commercial success during his lifetime, Buckley is admired by later generations for his innovation as a musician and vocal ability. He died at the age of 28 from a heroin overdose, leaving behind his sons Taylor and Jeff Buckley, the latter of whom later went on to become a musician as well. Read on WIKI here.

Jeffrey Scott “Jeff” Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott “Scottie” Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and musician. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan’s East Village, such as Sin-é, gradually focusing more on his own material. After rebuffing much interest from record labels and his father Tim Buckley’s manager Herb Cohen, he signed with Columbia, recruited a band, and recorded what would be his only studio album, Grace, in 1994. In 2004, Rolling Stone listed him at number 39 on their list of greatest singers of all time. Read on here

The magical, aptly titled Grace is Jeff Buckley’s only fully realized album—and one that has grown in stature since its 1994 release. Buckley’s angelic voice recalls his famous folkie father, Tim, as it floats over the album’s heady songwriting and wild-eyed guitar virtuosity. Brace yourself: the serpentine melodies, tormented climaxes, and whispering intimacy of the best moments will leave you breathless. These highlights include the title track, “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over,” and the luminous cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

Jeff Buckley by lilac.js

Before the alt-rock excursions of his debut album, Grace, Jeff Buckley was a solo troubadour with a weekly NYC residency at the tiny East Village café Sin-é (pronounced shin-ay), where he tried out new songs in between a huge, eclectic repertoire of covers. A live EP recorded at Sin-é was released ahead of Grace and eventually given a deluxe reissue as a double album. Armed only with his Telecaster and once-in-a-lifetime voice, Buckley turned everything from Van Morrison’s “The Way Young Lovers Do” to Nina Simone’s “If You Knew” inside out with his daring, transcendent performances.  

Tim Buckley made his reputation with long, improvisatory, jazz-influenced folk performances, but with Greetings From L.A. he transforms into a rough-and-tumble barroom rocker. With a traditional rock band behind him, along with a bevy of backup singers, Buckley turns tough on “Move With Me,” “Get On Top,” and “Nighthawkin’.” He sings, screams, and seduces in a blues-rock performance worthy of Jim Morrison himself. It’s Buckley’s most accessible and straightforward album, and one of his absolute best.  

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