Sort of breaking from the streak of 1971 albums recently (though barely doing so by only a year), I wanted to listen to one of my favorite artists I first listened to this year: Tim Buckley. I recently wrote about his son’s incredible album, Grace (1994), and figured I should continue to finish listening to all of Tim Buckley’s discography while I’m at it. Both Tim and his son’s voices are absolutely amazing. Some even referred to Tim’s music as “Blue Eyed Soul”, as he was a white artist who seemed to demonstrate some soul through his music. Both Buckleys died tragically early in their lives, with Tim dying at the age of 28, and his son, Jeff, at age 30.
This album is named after the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, and it appears to be a bit more avant-garde in style than some of his other albums. With that, I’ll dive on in.
The intro song, “Lorca” has quite an eerie introduction to it. Almost like some sort sound out of the twilight zone. The guitar picks up with Buckley adding some vocals, and there is some song structure peering through the strange sounds. Buckley’s voice is absolutely amazing. The combination of his voice with the organ is almost scary, add on some barebones guitar to it and you are left with quite a dark, spooky sounding song. Holy cow. This one is absolutely awesome. I don’t know much about Lorca’s poetry, perhaps it reflects some sort of darkness found in that – but that’s just pure speculation. The keyboards are just jamming out with some sort of rhythm by the acoustic guitar and some sort of weird sequence happening by the organ – creepy and awesome. It’s almost relaxing in a strange way as darkness feels like it forms the fundamental foundation for the song.
“Anonymous Proposition” starts out quietly, and carries on some of that dark feeling from the previous album. Wow, that (bass?) guitar is so simple, but it really fits so well in a sort of dark, jazzy way. That voice is so amazing. The electric guitar is some really great mids I think, it really adds to the jazziness of the track, though it definitely subverts any expectations of jazz in any sort of way. The way the notes run up and down the guitar really give a great back and forth to the tune in a certain way. There’s a wonderful addition of complex layers that the song builds up to, then almost immediately starts relaxing as it comes to a close.
“I Had A Talk With My Woman” starts out as the most traditional folky sounding song of the album so far, though it’s almost like it’s a folk song being played in a trendy jazz nightclub back in 1970 – really awesome mix. That voice is really something else. The song starts to pick up steam a bit, and that guitar is really dreamy. The bongo drums really make the tune sound so simple, but the individual playing of each of the instruments is so complex when separate from the rest of the song. The song has such an impossibly simple sound to it – really awesome.
“Driftin'” sounds very appropriately titled in my opinion, and it’s only 30 seconds in so far. It’s exactly the kind of song a lonely drifter would sing. It’s not really very bluesy, but it does have a gloomy disposition to it. Wow, that electric guitar comes in with some bongoes after just acoustic guitar and vocals and it really adds some great flavor to the song. It doesn’t sound like a traditional blues song at all, but my goodness you can feel the blueness through the music insanely well. It’s got some real soul to it, that’s for sure. It’s such a sad, but almost self-reassuring song in a way. Wow, I’m blown away. Oh wow, the tone of the electric guitar solo, and the solo itself are amazing. I can’t say wow enough it seems, because, wow.
“Nobody Walkin'” starts out with some chaotic acoustic guitar and additions from the percussion and the organ. It’s like a strange, dark, jazz-and-blues-inflected jam piece. The vocals just came on, and the song feels like it’s just jamming out – awesome. Wow, Tim Buckley’s vocal range and control is simply stunning. I’m so glad I listened to this tonight, holy smokes. The organs are just having a great little jam, and now the percussion is doing the same. Wow this song is really tying up the album well – almost giving some structure to this avant-garde album through pure energy. The ending to the song after all the build up is super sweet – as the song simply fades into the background as though the jam continues infinitely.
Super awesome, definitely different, album. Tim Buckley’s voice and musical talents were jaw-dropping, and it’s incredibly unfortunate for us that he didn’t get to make more music due to his untimely death. Great album, great artist; I really recommend this one.