Q, UK, June 1995
"The first time I heard "How Soon Is Now" (by the Smiths), I can remember things changing in myself. It was 1984, in my friend's apartment in this really horrible building in Hollywood. We were there eating some sort of horrible food, with ketchup 'cos we didn't have any money, and it came on the television. The video was great,but the song completely blew everything away. At the time you've got pretty much nothing, except Prince and heavy metal hair bands and I've never heard of The Smiths before and it was like, whooosh, I went out and got Meat Is Murder. It was the first time I ever heard writing like that over music like that. It influenced me because the writing was so great, because Morrissey's lyrics were so great in such a way, I don't know, like just completely freaky, unique. Really cool and not only literate, because that's a real precious term to use for it. It was just a better world than what I'd been hearing, and clever in a real admirable way, not in an annoying way. It really felt like the steam of teapots and uniforms and public schools, some sort of distant romantic vision of what it meant to be English."
From (Australian) Rolling Stone, December 1995.
RAVES
Jeff Buckley
Crappin' You Negative - Grifters(Shangri-La)
Usually rock is result-oriented with a lot of bombast, but these guys are natural. Just by standing still they destroy me in a really beautiful way.
Symphony No.3 - Henryk Gorecki
(Nonesuch)
It's the saddest piece of music you'll ever hear. At different times for me, it either gives me ultimate hope or just makes me want to slash my wrists with a house cat.
Allen Ginsberg
America' last exponent of ecstatic poetry.
Nina Simone
I love her taste and her sorrow. But it's not just sorrow, there's a lot of irony. And when she sings upbeat tunes, she rocks.
Rough Power - Iggy and the Stooges
(Bootleg Tape)
It's the version of 'Raw Power' that they brought to the record executives, who ran screaming for David Bowie to remix it. The guitars are much ruder, and it's got weird backing vocals. I love it even though I know bootlegs are dastardly things.
Shudder to Think
They're the anti-rock stars I've always hoped for.
Opening Night - Directed by John Cassavetes
He has a realism that's excruciating because it's all emotional, and Gena Rowlands is gorgeous and tough.
Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore! - Penny Arcade
(P.S. 122, New York)
The show was everything you wanted to know about censorship, feminism, counterculture and joy - without speaking about any of those things.
The Gemini Suite - John Lord
(Purple)
Lord, who's from Deep Purple, was commissioned by the BBC to write this orchestral piece. It's Spinal Tap made real. It's the worst piece of crap you'll ever hear, and I love it.
A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE PASSING OF JEFF BUCKLEY.
by Jonathan Alley
There is no justice. Michael Bolton will live to be 85.
No booze, drugs, shotguns, jealous relatives or crazed assassins, just a humble pair of boots - took a truly gifted soul from us. The superlatives on Jeff Buckley have all been paraded and the glowing eulogies and 'could have been, never will be' newspaper copy is already yellowing.
Simply, he could sing. In these verse, chorus, verse, loud/soft/loud 90s, Jeff Buckley sang genuinely original and exciting melodies, around simple (but clever) song structures - with that voice. That voice so deeply echoing his father's, the father he had distanced himself from so emphatically; from the father that couldn't be a father who passed to his son, his voice.
Cast your mind back to a RRR live-to-air in August, 1995 - a rainy Melbourne August; after Buckley curses the rain ("damn the precipitation") the band are lit from behind by large gas heaters that cast aneerie glow through the drizzle.
It's brilliant, and inevitably romantic. And that's the worst thing - I abhor mythologising and romanticising anyone, musician or no - but a talent such as Jeff Buckley's, dashed so swiftly, we can do little else but sigh and listen to the music.
"The first time I heard "How Soon Is Now" (by the Smiths), I can remember things changing in myself. It was 1984, in my friend's apartment in this really horrible building in Hollywood. We were there eating some sort of horrible food, with ketchup 'cos we didn't have any money, and it came on the television. The video was great,but the song completely blew everything away. At the time you've got pretty much nothing, except Prince and heavy metal hair bands and I've never heard of The Smiths before and it was like, whooosh, I went out and got Meat Is Murder. It was the first time I ever heard writing like that over music like that. It influenced me because the writing was so great, because Morrissey's lyrics were so great in such a way, I don't know, like just completely freaky, unique. Really cool and not only literate, because that's a real precious term to use for it. It was just a better world than what I'd been hearing, and clever in a real admirable way, not in an annoying way. It really felt like the steam of teapots and uniforms and public schools, some sort of distant romantic vision of what it meant to be English."
From (Australian) Rolling Stone, December 1995.
RAVES
Jeff Buckley
Crappin' You Negative - Grifters(Shangri-La)
Usually rock is result-oriented with a lot of bombast, but these guys are natural. Just by standing still they destroy me in a really beautiful way.
Symphony No.3 - Henryk Gorecki
(Nonesuch)
It's the saddest piece of music you'll ever hear. At different times for me, it either gives me ultimate hope or just makes me want to slash my wrists with a house cat.
Allen Ginsberg
America' last exponent of ecstatic poetry.
Nina Simone
I love her taste and her sorrow. But it's not just sorrow, there's a lot of irony. And when she sings upbeat tunes, she rocks.
Rough Power - Iggy and the Stooges
(Bootleg Tape)
It's the version of 'Raw Power' that they brought to the record executives, who ran screaming for David Bowie to remix it. The guitars are much ruder, and it's got weird backing vocals. I love it even though I know bootlegs are dastardly things.
Shudder to Think
They're the anti-rock stars I've always hoped for.
Opening Night - Directed by John Cassavetes
He has a realism that's excruciating because it's all emotional, and Gena Rowlands is gorgeous and tough.
Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore! - Penny Arcade
(P.S. 122, New York)
The show was everything you wanted to know about censorship, feminism, counterculture and joy - without speaking about any of those things.
The Gemini Suite - John Lord
(Purple)
Lord, who's from Deep Purple, was commissioned by the BBC to write this orchestral piece. It's Spinal Tap made real. It's the worst piece of crap you'll ever hear, and I love it.
A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE PASSING OF JEFF BUCKLEY.
by Jonathan Alley
There is no justice. Michael Bolton will live to be 85.
No booze, drugs, shotguns, jealous relatives or crazed assassins, just a humble pair of boots - took a truly gifted soul from us. The superlatives on Jeff Buckley have all been paraded and the glowing eulogies and 'could have been, never will be' newspaper copy is already yellowing.
Simply, he could sing. In these verse, chorus, verse, loud/soft/loud 90s, Jeff Buckley sang genuinely original and exciting melodies, around simple (but clever) song structures - with that voice. That voice so deeply echoing his father's, the father he had distanced himself from so emphatically; from the father that couldn't be a father who passed to his son, his voice.
Cast your mind back to a RRR live-to-air in August, 1995 - a rainy Melbourne August; after Buckley curses the rain ("damn the precipitation") the band are lit from behind by large gas heaters that cast aneerie glow through the drizzle.
It's brilliant, and inevitably romantic. And that's the worst thing - I abhor mythologising and romanticising anyone, musician or no - but a talent such as Jeff Buckley's, dashed so swiftly, we can do little else but sigh and listen to the music.
