Thursday, May 17, 2007

JEFF BUCKLEY – LAST GOODBYE (COLUMBIA)


JEFF BUCKLEY – LAST GOODBYE (COLUMBIA)

I remember the day I purchased this CD single. I was working at Texas Homecare in Clacton and whenever I had a lunch hour I would go and bug the guy at the covered market with the record stall.

It was beautiful Saturday during the summer and I was working on the garden centre section of the store, as was the direction my career appeared to be headed at the time. During lunchtime I saw this record for sale and having heard the buzz of Jeff Buckley (still alive and kicking at the time) I quickly snapped it up.

That evening when I returned home after my shift ended at 8PM I settled into another lonely bright Saturday evening alone and from this record I heard the sweetest tones and strangely most optimistic messages as despite the track being a breakup song Jeff Buckley only served to display the most beautiful elements of the pain involved therewith. By the time “Last Goodbye” reaches the chorus and he twisted his voice in that magical way that at the time seemed/felt only exclusive to him the trajectory of the listener’s mind was set to future riches and a beautiful place.

This was a typical CD single, part one of a two part set that I never completed. Instead the three tracks on this disc were all “Last Goodbye” delivered in the form of the edit version, the album version and a live and acoustic in Japan version. This was how singles were treated in the nineties and how such a beautiful could be mass produced and diluted for the masses.

Eventually I got a copy of “Grace” by hiring it out of the Clacton library and with this song and the further Jeff Buckley tracks that came with his only album my horizons, both musical and spiritual, were expanded and enlightened.

For once here was a hype for an artist that was justified.

Thesaurus moment: lifting.

Jeff Buckley
Columbia

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