Grace under Fire by
Toby Creswell
Issue 36 February 1996
The record is fantastic, you and I know that. The band
is really great and, lets face it, all the women want to
get into his pants. This is how a record company person
described Jeff Buckley to me last year, suggesting that perhaps
Buckley would make a good cover for Juice. Although we
didnt go with the suggestion, the analysis is fairly
accurate. Buckley debut album Grace is one of the most
passionate and intriguing releases of recent years, the band is
great and Buckley has the looks and the charisma to make him a
star. Columbia Records brought Buckley out for a showcase gig
last year and ticket sales went berserk; new shows were added and
a theatre tour booked and put on sale without the benefit of hype
or hit singles. Jeff Buckley has the hallmarks of a phenomenon.
It hasnt been an overnight rise however. Buckley has been
playing music for most of his life. In 1991 he was invited to
perform at a New York tribute show to his late father Tim, and
his talent started to attract notice. Then it was another few
years playing downtown clubs and the recording of his Live at
Sin-E mini-album before Buckley was really taken very seriously.
Once the dial with Columbia was signed, Buckley then quickly put
together the musicians for the record. His intent was to look for
spirit and imagination in equal parts to the musicianship. His
band was mostly New York buddies, guitarist Michael Tighe, bass
player Mick Grondahl and drummer Matt Johnson. I got signed
before I got my band, said Buckley. Rather than have
anybody pick my band, I decided to stall until I found the right
people. So I stalled and I lied. Nothing was really happening,
because I hadnt found anybody. So finally Mickey walked up
to me and he said he was interested in playing. We went back to
my place about two in the morning and bang, hes was the one,
boom. Then Matty. The first time we go together, we got the music
for Dream Brother. He didnt even know who the
hell I was. And boom, there it was. So we had the trio and we
recorded Grace.
Id always known Michael throughout that whole time,
daydreaming of having Michael in the band. Michael was primarily
an actor before, because he was on the downtown theatre scene,
avant garde, ever since he was 12, just acting in peoples
plays and shows and stuff. Then around the time he was 16, he
just picked up the guitar for a play. He actually just picked up
the guitar to do in a play, and he just found that he liked it a
lot. Soon as you pick up a guitar, you just tap into this whole
black rock of culture of guitar players like from Son House t
Muddy Waters. Those are the people he totally fell in love with
Mississippi John Hurt, Howlin Wolf and Robert
Johnson. When we met, we immediately bonded on those
things. But he had never been in a band before, and hadnt
even been in a garage band, or anything. Hed just gotten
together with directors in plays. So he had a very, very
different idea about music very different. The first time
he picked up my guitar, he played the music to So
Real. It was disjointed and it wasnt together, and it
wasnt anything. Those are his tendencies, right there.
Those are his
Everything about his style is right there. I
made it a song. If I didnt come along, it would have just
been a blob.
So one day, during the auditions for the fourth member, I
always had him in the back of my mind. So I auditioned about nine
guitar players, and he was the ninth. He was very scared and he
didnt even have a proper cord; he had a cord about a foot
long, and the strap didnt work, so he had to sit down and
the jack was jiggling, hanging out like a torn out eye socket.
The rest of the guys that we auditioned had a lot of effects and
they held their chops together and were proficient players, but
he had a rhythmic sense that sent us into a whole new thing.
Thats how I knew that he was the fourth guy.
The songs that made up Grace were assembled from Buckleys
catalogue with some choice covers (Leonard Cohens
Hallelujah and Nina Simones Lilac
Wine). I just thought it should link this album to my
past a little, he said at the time. Grace is
like
a lot of this stuff
I dont know how to
describe it to you
Its just a bunch of things about my
life that I wanted to put in a coffin and bury forever so I could
get on with things.
The ones that we made Dream Brother,
So Real, Last Goodbye and Eternal
Life mean a lot to me because at the time that I
wrote them, a long time ago, I was around an environment that
thought that they were completely loser songs. It was rotting
away. I put them on the album to prove at least to the songs that
they werent losers. They were worth recording. Sort of like
finding kids that have been told all their lives that
theyre pieces of shit, and finally you have to go around
proving to them, by putting them in a completely other setting,
that no, they are worth knowing and loving.
So those mean a lot to me. And Grace and
Mojo Pin because of what the guys did to them. They
fleshed it out Mickey and Matt. I love So Real
because its the actual quartet that you see in that picture
right there that you have on the wall, on the album. And that one
I produced live all one moment, the vocal is the first
take, all one take. It was three oclock in the
morning.
One key to Grace is its intimacy, from the almost barely breathed
vocal parts in some songs to the violent gnashing of guitars
which are no less violent for the restraint in volume. Its
short on multi-tracked bombast but long on hard truths.
According to Buckley: The thing is that I also like to
have lyrics that are inclusive, that give you space to be inside
them, to put your experience on to them, so that they can move
through moments. Theres a way of writing where you just
include all the streets around your house and all the people you
meet. You actually name them autobiographically in the song.
Well, that song is very hard to travel through time. It may not
last in its meaning. It may not touch every time because those
people and events fade away and they may mean something to your
life and your understanding of that life. I like things to be
more universal. Its a balance between
Obviously
its got to grab some skin from me. I like the way that
songs sort of have light, and sort of travel around despite you.
Its good. It helps to have songs that you love, that you
can be inside. Its good. Its part of the invention.
On the outside of that you can say that I find great joy in the
things that are sad. Thats the way emotions are in people.
They fall down on you and theres no way to get out, except
to go through it. Theres no way you can control it,
theres no essay you can write to answer yourself out of it.
It just soaks you like the rain. Theres nothing you can do.
Then its gone and then another comes around. But tears are
not all I deal with. Ill leave that to the next
album.
The link with the songs is much like Buckleys own attitude towards music and his heroes.
Juice: The kind of people whose songs youve covered
from Leonard Cohen to Alex Chilton to Nina Simone
are people who have a very fragile muse to them. They are people
whose personalities have often been destroyed by their art.
Buckley: I think that fragility isnt quite as accurate as
sympathy, which takes a huge pain threshold. Some people are just
born into bodies, born into lifespans that just dont fit
anywhere else and they have very little to hang onto to validate
and also its a very lonely thing to notice a certain sense
of life and be able to relate that to anyone. Its probably
the onset of madness, or it must seem so to the person who has it
at the time, who sees the world in a certain way and it usually
has a lot of real meaning. Maybe they see spirits everywhere or
maybe they divine information from certain happenings and certain
peoples that are invisible to most of us, and as a result people
deem those experiences not valid and not important, and crazy
too, and that can damage a person. Those characters you named
have a lot of strength to them even though
Theres a
lot of strength to the self-destructive soul. Not that its
wise to be self-destructive, but it is wise.
J: The consequences of their art have led to their doom in a
way, but you appear bullet proof.
B: Im not anything like that. Im on the rapids. I see
the waterfall ahead. I know Ill fall. I scream. Its
never a result of the art form, but theres something about
the social life of a musician who lives as a musician and nothing
else. It will bring you into the underground. Even in little
shades, like if youre a kid playing in a little bar you get
to see bar life and people acting in that capacity as opposed to
a school or a workplace, and anything goes there. Theres
not a lot of security except for the stuff you have on your own.
J: Is it fun? Is it exciting?
B: Theres fun parts about it, there are parts about it that
are totally indelible magic and there are bits of it that will
make you want to eat your own flesh. Its all hard.
Its all the same pressure and intensity. Even the boredom.
At twenty-eight years of age Jeff Buckley is very much a
product of his times; his songs have the jagged worldweariness of
the best complaint rock lyricists like Billy
Corgan or Eddie Vedder and his band has that
stripped-down, deconstructed sound. However, in an art form that
is increasingly divided by a generation gap, there is a thread
that links him to the artists whose songs he covers, like Cohen,
John Cale and Alex Chilton. The sum of those influences is a
songwriter who is very much his own man.
As Buckley put in a Japanese fanzine, Ill always be a
slobbering idiot for people I love: The Grifters, Patti Smith,
the new Ginsberg boxed set, MC5 totally pulled out that
one. I listen to Sun Ra. I listen to Kiss. Anything. Led
Zeppelin. Bad Brains. Shudder to Think. Tom Waits. Lou Reed. De
Niro.
And Dylan. People who have had an actual life, have come
through flame after flame, either on their own flame, or other
flames of people hating them, or completely elevating them to god
status, and them still being around. The last two things Dylan
did are great. He is beautiful still. I appreciate that, and
Im happy. He hasnt lost any of his
shock.
As to the other thing, the sex thing, well, we talked about
that.
J: Youve got a reputation for being attractive to girls.
B: Oh no. Girls want me to sign things.
J: Thats the extent of it?
B: Thats not always the extent of it. Theres a
certain type of character that will come up to somebody in a band
and propose sex, right off the bat, and I really havent met
one yet. There was this person who sent a letter to me in London
saying how lonely she was and that she was attractive and would I
please have sex with her. I think she was married. Because the
letter so astounded me, I had to call this woman up and say
whatever came to mind like, Im sorry I cant
have sex with you, but
Believe me, at that time I was
not in the mood for something like that. I called her up and I
said, Hey, its Buckley, Jeff
you know you wrote
the letter. And she says, Oh I dont want to
talk to you right now. And she hung up the phone. I
dont know. Its because
Talk to the guys in Oasis
about getting chicks because its very different for a band
like this. Were sort of there to play and there could be
lots of coolness and adventures along the way but its not
like hordes of women are after me at all.
J: I imagine you get the types who read poetry?
B: Lots of people send poetry. Lots of people are poets.
Everybodys a poet.
J: Yeah. I think its kinda unfortunate myself. Do you
read poetry?
B: I read very few things. The stuff I do read is not dense at
all, believe me. Like Rimbaud is very appealing to me, just the
way it reads and how utterly shocking it is sometimes, thinking
about who he was. Also poetry is supposed to have lots of metre
and rhyme and stuff like that, but I prefer it to have more crazy
shapes, like Ginsberg or good prose. Im terribly interested
in writing
I mean reading it. Just recently I started
Cities of the Red Night [Burroughs] and at the same
time a Noam Chomsky book, Lies and Democracy, but hes
easy to read and great to listen to.
J: I think its depressing that theyre making a
Hollywood movie out of the life of Rimbaud with Leonardo
DiCaprio.
B: That thing? Its typical. Ive ceased to be
depressed by anything that comes out in the major media eye. It
all pretty much sucks.
J: Things can lose their dark mystery if you expose them too
much
B: Yeah. It would take a really vibrant, sympathetic and sick
mind to pull of that story in a movie setting and not pull
punches
I havent seen it, Ive heard reports. I
dont know, Ill see it sometime maybe in a hotel or on
a plane. I head the same thing happened with DiCaprio and
The Basketball Diaries very lame, but this is
second hand. I really dont care to go and see the movies.
It is depressing. Its depressing to go into a movie and
know youll have all your buttons pushed rather than being
taken through a really compelling story and really being
transported to another place. Usually its all things that
play on our fears or disgust or makes us very aware of ourselves.
Its a real test of romanticism that is missing from most
things I see. Did you see The Addiction, the new film
from Abel Ferrara? No? Its yet another vampire movie, but
its vampirism as an allegory for the Nazis and also for
high society. [Laughs] The theme or the motif is that people are
victimised by vampires only because they dont resist evil.
Time and time again in the movie the evil one comes up to the
victim and says I just want you to tell me to go away like
you really mean it. And they always say, Please,
please dont hurt me, and thats when they get
their necks chopped off. Youve gotta see it. Its
really great.
Since the release of Grace, Buckley and his band have been on
tour across the globe. Touring as a condition which Buckley finds
enjoyable but distracting for writing, or concentrating on
anything much at all. Even thinking. Thats exactly
what I did, he explains. I spent two years not
thinking. I was acting out and I had to think on my feet but in
very different ways. Its a very natural way of being. It
was like being a dog.
Playing live and relying on improvisation, however, changed the
material and his approach to songs. It deepened my scope as
to the life of a song, from when you make it up and then give it
to a band and then take it on the road, he continues.
Its elastic by nature. It changes with your every
feeling and to be as giving and liquid as your emotions
are.
Buckley has avoided large concert halls in favour of club
appearances and small rooms which are more appropriate to his
music. Its just the conceptual artist in me sees
places where I feel like I dont belong, and places where I
do, he said. Theres no need to bang my head
against the wall so early. Why not go to a place where people who
really want to hear it come?
Ive never travelled in packs. Ive always sort
of been on the outside. Ive always been the stranger. Art
works better in places where you are allowed to have your deepest
eccentricities come out. You need a really good space for that.
Sometimes its bars, and sometimes its like Trinity
Church in Toronto. We played in a burrito restaurant the other
night. It was amazing.
I dont like stadium shows because usually the act on
the stage is so big that people take them for granted. In the
middle of a song they dont understand they go away and buy
a program, or a hot dog, or a beer, or something. Its not a
musical experience. Its just like a swap meet, an event.
That would kill me. Id be so sad. Unless youre like
Paul McCartney, and you whip out Live and Let Die in
a stadium with fireworks, and big screens, and an amazing light
show, and a band that knows the songs, and it sounds like exactly
a huge, larger-than-life version of it. Or if you write Hey
Jude. Now youve heard that song so long that it
totally translates. Youve heard it so well. But this music
you dont know well at first. It needs attention. But I
dont demand that you sit there and be quiet. Maybe you come
to a gig to talk to your friend that you havent seen for 16
years, or try to chat up a girl. Im not about to stop that.
Its fun.
Buckleys shows in Sydney revelled in the unexpected,
beginning in darkness with a droning sound that became a
full-bodied scream by the end. It wasnt the sheer volume
that really had impact, but the sense of a band onstage
discovering new things in old songs. That risk of rock & roll
band that improvises each night is the possibility of failure and
the tension that creates. Its hit and miss,
explains Buckley. Well, thats the whole point. It
could happen, it could not. We dont know whats going
to go on. Thats the thing, we dont know whats
going to happen ahead of time. I dont plan that shit out.
Its pure interaction. Im leading it, and there might
be some text I make up, or text that Ive amassed over a few
days, or sometimes I dont sing at all. Its mostly,
its supposed to be Matty propelling the rhythm with the
drums. Lots of reviewers are waiting for this perfect show. But
thats because they have their own expectations all over it.
I have no concern for that, or I have no concern for their fear
of music. Theres tons of people that Ive seen
that know the material and come to the show. And the shows
very different. When we made Grace, we were a really new band,
and I was just kind of furiously trying to get them together and
focused. So after, how many months of touring? About seven months
of touring right now, things are completely different. Things are
just very evolved not completely radically different. Boys
dont like the music. Men understand the music. Girls like
the music. Women like the music. The boys I meet dont like
the music. Like young boys, because thats who usually show
up to punk shows and stuff, or Metallica shows, or whatever. They
just sorta
Those are the same guys Ive known all my
life, pretty much. I dont know. Ive always been on
the fringe. Ive always been on the fringe of any social
thing Ive been into. I dont really travel around in
packs.
Perhaps because Jeff Buckley has been saddled with the legacy of
comparisons to his late father the singer-songwriter Tim
Buckley, who overdosed in the 70s and whom Buckley never
really knew he has been saved from being lumped in with
the alternative rock hype which has gone berserk.
I wish it would go berserk, he laughs. I wish
it would go insane. I wish it would stop being the middle of the
road rock that everybody knows it is. Theres many people
that have been totally overlooked. The point of the alternative
rock movement is the label-selling point on the label of the
so-called music. Its a fictitious genre. It doesnt
exist.
What really exists is some post-punk people living in the
90s who can actually write songs but they just dont
fit anywhere and either theyre an amazing live band or have
got themselves on an independent record company. Not because of
their sound so much, but probably because of who they know,
because its very local. Its not a way of life that
you can duplicate just by getting signed to any record company
and being called alternative. Its not like that. People all
across the globe have been fooled, I feel.
I dont know. I dont want to be an asshole about
it but I wish it would freak me out as much as it promises that
it will. But it doesnt. Its okay. Theres other
things to listen to. Theres tons of stuff Sebadoh,
Jon Spencer, Hater, Stereolab, Guided by Voices
Theres
all kinds of good things to listen to and theyre current.
Theres a question as to where I fit into this
alternative rock thing. I guess I dont. I guess Im
not the fratboys alternative music of choice. But I
dont know. People show up who want to hear the music. Just
be in the moment at the time. At this point people dont
know what to make of me when they come. Unless theyve got
the record. But alternative music what
the hell is that? I know what alternative music is. I could take
the Butthole Surfers and clear this room right here. Or I could
take Captain Beefheart and make you want to kill me if I stood in
front of the stereo and kept you away from it. Thats
alternative. Lots of things are lumped into it are very friendly,
very poppy. I think Green Day is really easy listening. Billy
Joel, Green Day I could see myself listening to that in
the same hour. So I dont know. I hope everybody comes out
of it alive. Buckley probably will. He is currently back in
New York working on a new album and gearing up for his next
Australian tour. Hes in no hurry.
I dont want to be over-exposed too soon because
Im not
If my music was a cure for cancer, maybe. But
its not, he laughs. Its just a really
individual experience. Im just glad people like music in
general. See, the thing is that I may come out with something I
think is the most eloquent thing I can say, and people just
wont get it. Its totally a crap shoot. Or Grace will
hang around and people will see that its worthless or
people
I dont know. Music is very strange. Sometimes
it hangs around for years, and you hate it, and you think it is
the most stinky corpse you can possibly have in your house, and
dont want to see it any more. But one day it creeps in, and
you get a moment when you actually need that song. Maybe
its because of her, or maybe its because of him,
maybe its because of what you need, or somebody dying.
Thats the way music is. Its not like Sega. You get
it, and it either works and excites you, or it doesnt.
While Im happy about the accolades, and about my
acceptance, or any liking of the music, it needs an ongoing
dialogue.
Then again, there is the opinion of Captain Beefheart guitarist
Gary Lucas, who briefly employed Buckley to co-write Mojo
Pin and the title track of Grace with him. When asked about
Buckley, he remarked, If they make him Elvis Presley, fine
he can handle it.