Jeff Buckley
Like shooting stars flashing brightly across a still night sky, music’s history has seen its share of incredibly influential artists who pass quickly and brilliantly, leaving a trail of work that shakes the very foundations of music. We are left wondering how these young artists were able to convey such experience and creativity in so short a time and imagine what might have become of music had they been with us for a longer time. A familiar list comes to mind when considering who “burned out before fading away.” The most obvious, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley and Janis Joplin all played major roles in changing the course of Rock music. There are, however, an assortment of artists who remain inconspicuous for reasons having nothing to do with their creative significance or impact on future artists.
Jeff Buckley, the son of folksinger Tom Buckley, was born in Anaheim, California in 1966. After spending many years as a session guitarist he finally found his own voice and recorded his only album, “Grace”, in 1994. The music he created on that album was not the type of rock that inspired rebellion or denounced the establishment. Instead, like the melodic warble of a songbird, he simply offered the beauty of his mellifluous voice. In the manner of classically trained singers he conjured dream like songs that were as much operatic as they were a genre of rock. Jeff Buckley was taken away much too soon at the age of 31 when he drowned while swimming in the Wolf River Harbor, Tennessee. I have often wondered about the premature passing of shooting stars, those blessed with artistic genius. It is almost as if they were placed here with purpose, as divine inspiration, passing their message and disappearing, leaving us quieted in their wake and universally elevated.
U of Music 