A couple days ago while mindlessly touring social networking sites and perusing the updates of people I only pretend to care about, an old friend dedicated a "status message" to the wonders of Jeff Buckley, and in the comments section was having a back and forth with someone I didn't know about whether or not he was an overrated musician only receiving praise "for dying young".
Like many, I find his cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" breathtaking, but after giving myself several opportunities to enjoy his debut album Grace, and several other scattered tracks, I just never "got it".
To me, Buckley was an attractive dude with average guitar-playing ability and songwriting skills. The only real "eye-opener" (unless you're a female and a sucker for emotional singer-songwriter rocker boys) was his singing; or...well, his vocal range in particular. As a pure singer, even after a million takes and production magic in the recording studio, his voice is unpolished and lacks control, often warbling in unpredictable (which isn't bad in of itself) and needless directions. You can't knock his range and unrestrained power, however, as at times he could make Mariah Carey and Freddy Mercury look pedestrian...but whether it was youth, arrogance, or perhaps a combination of both, he just couldn't harness it for my liking.
The guy could play, I'll give him that. If he were still around today even with the same musical capabilities (which is of a fairly talented person still unsure of how to channel his strengths), I'd see a show if he were playing nearby. That said, while I'd never intentionally poke the eye of a diehard fan with a stick to stroke my e-peen in some useless internet spitfest, I do put myself in the "he's glorified too much because he died" camp. He left behind only enough music to show he had potential, but even then that potential, from what I can honestly gather, was of "a dude who someday could REALLY know how to sing". The actual music he left behind in my mind was not much more intellectually and muscially challenging than other pop stuff put out in the mid-90's by bands such as, say, The Wallflowers.
Way back in high school, I remember watching a film in class where a song by Buckley was played in the background. "Such a great musician" some classmate uttered.
"More like a great voice" our teacher, albeit somewhat smugly, responded.
I agree with the latter.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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