I Will Never Let Your Words Be Washed Away: Michael Hutchence

It's so strange
How my life's changed
I know nothing
About the people that I touched 

~Possibilities

Released December 14, 1999 This self-titled posthumous solo debut from the INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence was a reminder of not only this singer's talents but also his pain. The album is a testament to the music that inspired many of the INXS songs that you may be familiar with. Soul, jazz, R&B permeate each song with the pop and rock sounds you would expect to hear from this Aussie rock icon.

The album does not disappoint, even for those fans expecting to hear INXS sounds. It is sultry and funky with lyrics that paint a picture of a rock star haunted by stardom, paparazzi, and his life's circumstance at the time. Songs like Possibilities and Slide Away are jazz smooth but lyrically sharp edges of pain and doubt.

This is our letter in a bottle, a snapshot of Michael's mind. His songwriting ability never wavered and he never got into the habit of making songs that sound like INXS. Michael made strong emotional and edgy songs even back in the Max Q days. Michael Hutchence was a song writer not just a pop icon.

Many questions remain about what could have been. Would Michael have embarked on a solo tour post twenty- year INXS reunion? Would he have ever found his true happiness? 

Oh the possibilities...

Let Me Show You

Possibilities

Get on the Inside

Fear

All I’m Saying

A Straight Line

Don’t Save Me From Myself

She Flirts For England

Flesh and Blood

Put The Pieces Back Together

Breathe

Slide Away

Jeff Buckley - It's You I've Searched So Hard For

He played a version of Indifference for me. Man, I tell you, I'll never forget the way he  did it...I was just fuckin' speechless...one of the most memorable moments of my life. ~Eddie Vedder  

It isn't a surprise to anyone that I am slightly obsessed with singer Jeff Buckley. I was left breathless when my friend asked essentially, what's the big fucking deal with Jeff Buckley? (Completely paraphrased with my exaggeration after three glasses of red wine of course). I would have appreciated some sensitivity but nonetheless...So what is the big deal about Jeff Buckley?

From the second I heard Jeff in Australia, he had my soul. There is something both romantically and tragically mysterious about Jeff. And yet there is something so pure about him. Recently, I met a musician who worked with Jeff and spoke of his musical talent as well as his goofiness. 

Let's break down the elements of Jeff Buckley.

He is the son of a musician with a tragic ending.

PMCarlson

Irony and rock and roll coincidence that Jeff not only looked and sounded like his father, folk legend, Tim Buckley (who walked about from both Jeff and his mother, Mary) but he also died suddenly, at the height of stardom. Also ironically, he was "discovered" at a musical memorial for his father at St. Anne's Church in Brooklyn.

His octave range and musical abilities impressed Bono, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and Paul McCartney.

(c)MerriCyr

I started to play Grace constantly.  constantly and the more, the more I listened to the album, the more, the more I heard — the more I appreciated of Jeff and Jeff’s talents and Jeff’s total ability to which he was just a wizard and it was close to being my favorite album of the decade. We actually made a point of going to hear him play and seeing and it was absolutely scary. One of the things is a little frightening was that I was convinced that he probably did things in tunings and he didn’t. He was doing things in standard tuning. I thought, oh gee he really is clever isn’t he ? He quite clearly had his feet on the ground and he said his imagination was flying, flying way, way out there, beyond, beyond. Jeff Buckley was one of the greatest losses of all. ~Jimmy Page

He was handsome
(No words necessary).

He only released one album Grace was the only album that Jeff blessed to Sony. While he was working on Sketches For (My Sweetheart the Drunk), it was not in the stages of even being ready to be released, with Jeff reportedly unsatisfied with the recordings. We've been blessed with many previously un-released tracks and live performances. But many wonder - what would Sweetheart have truly been if Jeff had done waded into the Wolf River.

He was enigmatic yet simple.

When Jeff loved people, he loved them unconditionally. Whether others thought that someone was a big freak or the best person in the world, it didn't make any difference to him. He loved people for what they were, unconditionally. However, he wasn't the kind of person that someone could pursue any sort of friendship with; it usually had to be on his terms. He said that he was like a cat. When I come around - it's going to be often, but it's going to be when I want. ~Leah Reid


He was schizophrenic in a good way. I mean, he was always an actor. The last week he was here I was going to get lunch and he was coming out of this Mexican restaurant and he saw me walking down the street so he started prancing like a fairy. And I said "Jeff, someone's going to pull you over in a pickup truck and kill you, just like in the end of Easy Rider they're gonna shoot you off your bike." He thought that was hilarious. I felt really awful because I warned him about everything except the river. ~Andria Lisle


He died at the pinnacle of his career.
Jeff had everything in front of him...and it terrified him I think. Many times he would play under pseudonyms or false band names just to be able to play a club. He didn't want to be heckled, swooned over, or lied to. Jeff just wanted to play music. Grace might have been the purist Jeff Buckley album we could have ever been gifted had he lived.  

 The day I discovered Jeff, the truth that I would never hear that angelic voice live was thrust upon me by the checkout girl at the record store. Yes, I went out and bought every CD released with his name. He haunted me in my dreams...seriously. He lived under my bed but would chase me around the apartment, laughing. Ever since that first day, the very same day I heard Jeff, he has been a part of me. Ask people, I give them Grace as a gift. I tell them to listen to him. Turn down the lights, turn up the sound, and experience Jeff the way he wanted us to.

Jeff's song Mojo Pin, as he said, was a song about a dream. Mojo Pin, could be a reference to a drug, a needing of something or someone to be desired. The song paints a picture of a tortured lover who asks for their return otherwise seeking solace in Mojo Pin. When you ask anyone who gets Jeff, who understands the need to hear the voice, feel the soul, this song suffices. Jeff describes the torture he lays upon us ... Well it's you I've waited my life to see ... It's you I've searched so hard for...

**Quotes taken from the book Jeff Buckley A Wish For Song by Merri Cyr. **