Favourite Tim Buckley Studio Album

I'm not into comps, but I couldn't get a better advertisement for Starsailor than that! I'm listening to the full Lorca LP now on youtube, me dig !

 

Well now this is a tricky one.

Back in the late 70s a college friend lent me Happy Sad which I taped after which I started to pick up what I could which at that time wasn't much. Goodbye and Hello and Lorca first...and then in 1980 had the most extraordinary piece of luck.

Going to a sci-fi bookshop in London by a different route I noticed a tiny record shop which I'd never spotted before. And there in the window were original Straight issues of Starsailor and Blue Afternoon - both at that time incredibly rare.

All the rest followed and then all the live albums + the very rough boots which float around the net.

Favourite? A toss up between Happy Sad, Blue Afternoon, Lorca and Starsailor.

I'll go for Starsailor - an extraordinary record.

 

Well, that's good. I never want to assume what someone can, will, or should like or dislike.

Reminds me of the time in 1983, I had just gotten my first CD player and i was in a record store that had at most a couple hundred CDs. I'd decided I wanted to get some Pat Metheny because all I had was Bright Size Life and American Garage on vinyl. There was an older guy already leafing through the Metheny titles and we started talking. I was checking out As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. He kept trying to warn me about it, but everything he was telling me was making me more and more eager to buy it. I did and it's still my favorite Metheny album.

 

Happy Sad

 

Happy Sad?

 

Starsailor gets my vote.

But Lorca might be the best song he ever wrote. Sooooo haunting.

 

I have a personal affinity for GOODBYE AND HELLO. One summer day in 1970 I was messing around with my Dad's old Zenith multi-band shortwave radio that he got in his Army days and happened to dial into one of those 'underground' FM stations for the first time. They were playing the title track from Tim Buckley's second album. The singer's voice and the words he sang sure blew way that 12-year old's mind. There was no turning back after that. 1967 was such an incredible year for Jac Holzman's Elektra Records. Think about it....Goodbye And Hello, The Doors, Forever Changes, 5,000 Spirits.....

 

Blue Afternoon, but I haven't heard the last 3.

 

I only have "Greetings From LA." I hate it. Is this album representative of his music?

 

Agree !

 

Blue Afternoon.

 

The first album is my go to album when I want to hear his music and then Goodbye and Hello, which seems like a Volume 2 or companion to the first album, but with a darker overtone.

 

Not of his classic folk rock stuff on Elektra.

 

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No, it is the best of his last phase.

Buckley has roughly three phases:

1.Tim Buckley and Hello Goodbye
are his folk/folk rock phase

2. Blue Afternoon, Happy Sad, Lorca, and Starsailor are his progressive folk jazz with the last being avant garde

3. Greetings, Look At the Fool, and Sefronia are after the commercial failure of his adventureousness, and he seeks accessibility through a mainstream rock/soul sound, but his wings are broken, and he doesn't soar like he did in his progressive folk jazz phase.

 

I'd agree that Greetings isn't "representative" but then I don't think one album is as he covers so many bases in such a relatively short career.

I'd split Happy Sad/Blue Afternoon and Lorca/Starsailor away from each other - the odd thing is that Blue Afternoon was recorded after Lorca but issued before.

 

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Happy Sad- just a little ahead of Blue Afternoon and Hello Goodbye

 

Starsailor!

 

http://www.timbuckleyandfriends.com/StanAgol.html

Curious to know what became of Buckley's trusted engineer Stan Agol. Anybody know?

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Blue Afternoon

 

TB was chauffering Sly Stone at the time of this happy cocaine boner of a recording.
But to your answer your question, no.

His most (like) prog album would be Starsailor, perhaps give that one a listen.

 

favourite album has always been Blue Afternoon. the melancholy in his songs (and voice) combined with the beautiful playing of his band members, just makes it incredibly satisfying to listen to. his singing voice matures completely on the album, released at the tail end of 1969.

but if asked what his BEST album is, unequivocally "Starsailor". it's his masterpiece. what an amazing musical statement. it's just not the kind of album you go to everytime. (unless you are a jazz/Zappa/Bungle freak who's musical world lives on that planet every day )

not really, both albums were recorded within weeks of each other, Lorca first. obliged to give one Elektra one more album before Tim went to the Straight label, they got Lorca and didn't like it so they put it out 6 months later. Straight put out Blue Afternoon much faster, being in to their new signing etc

 

well it is his album so yes it is representative of some of it!


but the big picture is, he started out on the folk scene, solo acoustic and made a couple of folk/rock 60's music records, then changed his lineup to a much more sparse setup of him on 12 string acoustic, a lead guitarist, a vibraphone player and a conga player. the music opened up and became more bluesy/jazzy and loose. less pop structure and long improvisations. he got bitten by the avante gard/jazz bug and made 2 albums that were his creative peak. he also developed a drug habit. when his creative masterpiece Starsailor completely bombed. people stopped coming to the gigs. he quit music and returned to 9-5 work to support himself. when that became unbearable, he returned to music with his 'comeback' album Greetings From LA. some like it for its raunchy blues and contemporary sound.... but it ain't the real Tim. he made another 2 albums similar in style with a revolving door or session musicians, then sadly over dosed in 1975

his material from 1966-1971 is his most honest music before life for him went down hill. thats not to say there aren't some great moments on his last 3 records, but you know when someone has taken the path of doing it to survive. but that's strictly the recordings. his live performances from 73-75 were still amazing

 

Happy Sad for me