Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Eternal Life (1994)
When people think of Jeff Buckley, they tend to think of his cover of "Hallelujah" and THAT VOICE. The song that inspired a zillion bad covers from American Idol contestants and was licensed in countless TV shows and movies. And yeah, it's great, but I don't really need to hear it again.
Even though Buckley only left behind his debut album Grace and a posthumous double album of demos and songs he was working on for his second record, his legacy looms large. Although his biological father, Tim Buckley, was a well-known folk singer in the late '60s/early '70s, Jeff said he only met him once before Tim Buckley died of a drug overdose in 1975. Jeff was actually raised as Scott Moorhead (his middle name + his stepfather's last name), but he started to use the Buckley name after his father died.
Buckley was a guitarist before he focused on singing, playing jazz, reggae and metal in a variety of bands. After moving to New York City in the early '90s, he started performing solo at clubs and cafes and soon attracted attention from record labels. He signed a deal with Columbia, released the Live at Sin-e EP and began recording Grace.
Released in August 1994, the album ran the gamut of Buckley's interests: Zeppelinesque grandeur on songs like "Mojo Pin," "So Real" and the title track; maudlin covers of "Hallelujah" and Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine"; an all-out rocker in "Eternal Life"; and the epic midtempo lament of "Last Goodbye." And all of it powered by that incredible octave-jumping voice of his (he had a tenor vocal range that spanned around four octaves). Some critics weren't sure what to make of Buckley because of the varied nature of the album: Was he trying to be the next alt-rock hero or would he rather sing jazz standards? Turns out, it was both.
Grace didn't sell well out of the gate, but it gradually picked up steam, especially as MTV started playing the video for "Last Goodbye" on the regular. Plus the album was getting rave reviews from the likes of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. It eventually went gold in the U.S. in 2002.
I had read about Buckley ahead of the album's release and picked it up the week it came out. I was prepared for this incredible vocal talent because that was getting a lot of hype, but I was impressed at what a great guitarist he was, too. "Eternal Life" is a great example of that. It's the heaviest song on the album and the angriest; Buckley said it was inspired by anger at various things, including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Manson murders, World War II and the Jonestown massacre.
"Racist everyman, what have you done?/Man, you've made a killer of your unborn son/Oh crown my fear your king at the point of a gun/All I want to do is love everyone."
As heavy as the song is on Grace, the version he was playing live was heavier and angrier (see the video below). It was amazing how he could go from singing an angelic lullaby like "Corpus Christi Carol" to thrashing out this pissed off stomper.
"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/Oh, you better turn around and blow your kiss goodbye to life eternal."
Buckley toured around the world after the album's release for nearly two years. He was working on his follow-up that was to be called My Sweetheart the Drunk and living in Memphis. On May 29, 1997, he went swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a channel of the Mississippi River, and disappeared. His body was found several days later; his autopsy found no signs of drugs or alcohol in his system and ruled the death an accidental drowning. He was 30.
It would have been interesting to see what Buckley did with his career. He could have gone in any direction and probably would have.
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