Friday, November 17, 2006

Jeff Buckley - Live at Sin-é (2003) - Extended version

Listeners shouldn't get too hung up about Jeff Buckley's bloodlines--although they're impossible to ignore. His father was Tim Buckley, one of the most poignant, enigmatic figures of the 1960s' folk scene; but young Jeff grew up with his mother and didn't even meet his father until one Easter when he was eight--two months before Tim Buckley's death. While the ecstatic, keening quality of Jeff Buckley's vocals recall the haunting timbre of his father's voice, there are also overtones of a young Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Delta blues legend Robert Johnson, Pakistani vocal master Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and something indefinable--the sound of an individual talent beginning to blossom. Originally released in 1993 and 4-track EP (year out from his death), this expanded version of the splendid live EP, LIVE AT SIN-E, we hear Jeff Buckley stripped down and raw... transmuting, transforming, and ultimately transcending his influences before an audience at a small Irish club in Manhattan's East Village. Standing there with nothing but his voice and an electric guitar, Buckley is simply mesmerizing. Buckley's Telecaster playing on "Mojo Pin" and "Eternal Life" is exceptional--orchestrating his vocals with a torrid stream of chords and melodic counterpoint, a la Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page. He never descends into stock licks or hackneyed accompaniment; his classical arpeggios on Edith Piaf's "Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin" impart a calliope-like grace to her tune. The ecstatic nature of Buckley's art is showcased on his extended journey through Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do," where the lyrics gradually dissolve into long scatting choruses of wordless moans and cries, as his voice and flamenco-styled guitar evoke an almost gospel fervor. Buckley's lyrics are just as personal as his voice. "Mojo Pin" is a dreamscape full of delirious visions and moody imagery of lost love, while on "Eternal Life," his rolling blues chords set the tone for nightmares about his own mortality, recalling the tormented hellhounds of Robert Johnson. A talent like Jeff Buckley's comes along once in a lifetime, and LIVE AT SIN-É certainly whets the appetite for his first group recordings, GRACE. (Big thanks to Sarajevo-x.com forum)
DISC 1:
1. Be Your Husband
2. Lover, You Should've Come Over
3. Mojo Pin
4. Monologue - (duane eddy, songs for lovers)
5. Grace
6. Monolugue - (reverb, the doors)
7. Strange Fruit
8. Night Flight
9. If You Knew
10. Monologue
11. Unforgiven (Last Goodbye)
12. Twelfth Of Never, The
13. Monologue - (cafe days)
14. Monologue - (eternal life)
15. Eternal Life
16. Just Like A Woman
17. Monologue
18. Calling You

DISC 2:
1. Monologue - (nusrat, he's my Elvis)
2. Yeh Jo Halka Halka Saroor Hai
3. Monologue - (I'm a ridiculous person)
4. If You See Her, Say Hello
5. Monologue - (Matt Dillon, Hollies, classic rock radio)
6. Dink's Song
7. Monologue - (musical chairs)
8. Drown In My Own Tears
9. Monologue - (walk through walls)
10. Way Young Lovers Do, The
11. Monologue - (walk through walls)
12. Je N'En Connais Pas La Fin
13. I Shall Be Released
14. Sweet Thing
15. Monologue - (good night bill)
16. Hallelujah

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