Music has always been a part of my life -- now welcome to the journey. Just a little blog to reminisce, review, rant and rave about the music in my life. "Music is my mother and my father. It is my work and my rest,my blood, my compass, my love" ~Jeff Buckley
August 26th marks the last day the world heard Stevie Ray Vaughan play Number One, his signature Fender Stratocaster, at Alpine Valley in 1990. Since Stevie Ray Vaughan's untimely and shocking passing, his influence and legendary status has only gained in momentum.
At the 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction, the man who is responsible for Stevie Ray Vaughan ever picking up a guitar inducted his little brother. And the moment was not lost on Jimmy Vaughan. While he did talk about Stevie Ray sneaking around to play his big brother's guitar when told not to, he credited his brother's sobriety with saving his own life.
Whether it was his raw and emotional guitar playing or his truth about addictions, much can be said about Stevie Ray Vaughan's influence on people to change their lives for the better. From Bonnie Raitt to John Mayer, Stevie Ray can be attributed to helping them become clean and also become the best guitar players that they could be. He also influenced many to simply become the best person they could be.
One has to wonder where in the musical world would Stevie Ray Vaughan be now? What other songs, such as Lenny, Riviera Paradise, or Pride and Joy would Stevie have gifted to us. He was the epitome of the blues. He hit the very bottom and rose to stardom, only to be lost so very young in such a tragic way. Sobriety found him loving life to the fullest and playing the best shows of his career.
In the time since Stevie's passing, a true testament to his staying power is how timeless his music is. His songs were not jockeyed for an era or a style of music. Stevie Ray played the blues. He lived and breathed the notes he played. Music was his passion and that was evident every time he picked up his guitar.
Scottish singer, Sandi Thom, said that once after a gig at El Mocambo in Toronto, she was one of a handful of people left in the building. Off in the distance, she heard the unmistakable sound of Stevie Ray's guitar. She is not the first to have heard his signature heavy handed riffs when the lights are turned off. El Mocambo was a favorite venue for Stevie. She followed the sound, to see a shadowy figure in a room, hunched over playing guitar. Both he and the sound disappeared when she turned on the lights. In the end, we're all chasing the ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
It seems like to me that he’s just out on tour and he’s going to come back soon, but then I remember. I’m not going to ever get over losing him, I’m not going to get over this crazy thing.
Grace is basically a death prayer. Not something of sorrow but just casting away any fear of death. No relief will come, you'll really just have to stew in your life until it's time to go. But sometimes, somebody else's faith in you can do wonders. ~Jeff Buckley
There are not many musicians that I can say "I remember the first time I heard them." In a gym on a June Thursday morning in Sydney Australia, I heard a voice that would forever change my life. As I ran on the treadmill, Hallelujah played on the TV. A voice has never affected my soul as much as Jeff Buckley's.
Within two hours, I was listening to Grace. While it was released on August 23, 1994, it was only mainstream in Australia at the time. Grace wouldn't achieve its crowning glory until, sadly, Jeff died in 1997. However, Grace was not his first album. The four song EP Live from Sin-e was the catalyst that put him into the minds of the music executives.
But why is Grace being placed into one of the most influential and best albums of our time? Was it the music? Was it the mysterious Jeff with his storied father? Or was it simply a combination of both? His voice and intricacies of each song have been lauded by many including Bono and Jimmy Page: Technically, he was the best singer that had appeared probably in - I'm not being too liberal about this - if I say, in two decades.
So let's break down this album
Mojo Pin
It's a story about addiction - to a woman or drugs - not sure. Jeff's voice, almost at a whisper welcomes us to this song, tangled with background anonymous sounds and a silent cymbal, before we are hit with heavy guitar riffs. Possibly, this could symbolize the ups and downs of said addiction.
Jeff once said of the song: Sometimes if somebody you feel you need... the whole universe tells you that you have to have her, you start watching her favorite TV shows all night, you start buying her the things she needs, you start drinking her drinks, you start smoking her bad cigarettes, you start picking up her nuances in her voice, you sleep in safe sometimes the most dangerous thing... this is called Mojo Pin." (Astoria, London, UK, 18/01/95).
The welts of your scorn, my love, give me more
Send whips of opinion down my back, give me more
Well it's you I've waited my life to see
It's you I've searched so hard for...
Grace
And the rain is falling and i believe
My time has come
It reminds me of the pain
I might leave
Leave behind
Someone once asked me if I had to chose one more song to hear before I leave this plain, what would it be? I answered Grace. They were assuming I would say Stairway, Brokedown Palace, or something else profound, but Grace is my song. It shows readiness and, ironically enough, Grace to face the destiny that we all have and the journey we take to reach it.
I will let Jeff explain:
It's about not fearing death, or fearing any of those countless slings and arrows that you suffer sometimes on this earth, because somebody loves you. You're not afraid to go, you're not afraid to withstand what you need to withstand because there's a tremendous fuel that you feel regenerating inside because of someone else's love for you. That's what Grace is about. And it's just about life sometimes being so long. At the time I was anticipating leaving Los Angeles for New York. So I was waiting to go. I'm not afraid to go, I'm not afraid to die, I'm not afraid to go away from this place or from any place but it just goes so slow. And I had somebody who loved me in New York. A lot. And it was amazing. It still is.
This song has so many layers, clocks, rhythms, acoustic guitars. It is also very eerie how Jeff seemingly accepts his mortality in this song.
Last Goodbye
A sadly sweet breakup song. It's the negotiation and pleadingjust before the final goodbye kiss.
Sad, desperate breakup song
This is our last embrace Must I dream and always see your face? Why can't we overcome this wall? Baby, maybe its just because you didn't know you at all
Lilac Wine
Jeff loved Nina Simone. His cover of this song demonstrates his ability to transcend the rock genre. He would also cover her songs I Loves You Porgy, and Be Your Husband.
So Real
This song has that eerie foreshadowing of water. It also gave us a goofy Jeff video that includes gorilla suits, a pre-hipster bike ride through Brooklyn, and a diner scene.
And I couldn't awake from the nightmare that sucked me in and pulled me under Pulled me under Oh... that was so real I love you, but I'm afraid to love you
Hallelujah
No doubt, Jeff's biggest hit. I have explained my sentiment on the song previously here (see link)
Incredible accordion, harpiscordish beginning, a guilty afterthought to a love lost, possibly due to his own doing.
Lonely is the room, the bed is made, the open window lets the rain in Burning in the corner is the only one who dreams he had you with him My body turns and yearns for a sleep that will never come
Corpus Christi Carol
Jeff's beautiful take on a medieval song about Christ and his Knight.
Eternal Life
This song is definitely one of the few "political" songs that shows Jeff's passion for peace and love and his rebuttal of traditional religion.
There's no time for hatred, only questions What is love, where is happiness, what is life, where is peace? When will I find the strength to bring me release? Tell me where is the love in what your prophet has said? Man, it sounds to me just like a prison for the walking dead I've got a message for you and your twisted hell You better turn around and blow your kiss goodbye to life eternal
Dream Brother
Very haunting and you can feel the influence of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jeff's spiritual sufi singer influence. It is a song to Jeff's friend, his dream brother, about leaving his pregnant girlfriend. It is one of the first songs where Jeff seemingly references his absent father, singer Tim Buckley.
Don't be like the one who made me so old Don't be like the one who left behind his name 'Cause they're waiting for you like I waited for mine And nobody ever came
Songs added in re-release
Forget Her
Such a heartbreaking song, even more so the story behind it. Jeff never wanted this song released. It is about his relationship with another singer. Sadly, she heard it. It is one of my favorites (although it could use some more organ and Hammond B3).
Well my tears falling down as I try to forget, Her love was a joke from the day that we met. All of the words, all of her men, All of my pain when I think back to when.
Lost Highway
Cover of Leon Payne song done simply with Jeff and guitar ... and a twang.
I was just a lad, nearly twenty two Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you But now I'm lost, too late to pray Lord, I paid the cost, on the lost highway
Parchman Farm
A Bukka White American blues song about doing time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary
In a way, Jeff's short life and music career is exactly what he wanted. I believe the music industry would have destroyed his fragile shell. At one point, after Grace became popular, Jeff would play under other names at small venues.
There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e., have fun while I irritate and/or entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it
Jeff was once asked how he wanted to be remembered. Besides being a good friend, his only wish was that his music was remembered. Jeff, your wish is our command.
He was Plant and Page in one, on a technical level. ~Brad
