My intention when I posted this about the later works of Lou Reed, was that I would follow it up with more examples of artists with hidden gems buried in the sand after they had been generally agreed to have jumped the shark. It's only taken me 3 and a half years to get here..
The perceived wisdom amongst music snobs is that Tim Buckley had 4 distinct creative phases - the hippy-drippy folky, the jazz-folky, the avant-garde nutter and then the sweaty funk pig.
Only the first three of his phases are ever discussed in the context of his legend, and the fourth is often dismissed as being an embarassing footnote, but I'm here to tell you that the last three "funk pig" albums do actually have their moments.
In fact these days, the only Tim Buckley I can actually listen to in any great quantity is the late-period stuff.
Buckley had honed his voice to perfection, and as a white soul singer I don't believe there has been anyone better. He surrounded himself with superior funk musicians and their playing was solid gold.
Sadly those albums did suffer from overly-polished production which took the edge from some of the performances but when the original session tapes were discovered and released in 2001 on the Dream Belongs To Me compilation, it became immediately apparent that this was hard-edged and crucially funky. In fact the 1973 sessions totally blow the 1968 Happy Sad out-takes out of the water on this CD.
Quite honestly two of the finest Tim Buckley performances in existence here:-
Tim Buckley - Because Of You
Tim Buckley - Falling Timber
3 comments:
And here was me, poor me, thinking I was all alone. I could not agree more with you. Having said that, to me, 'I must have been blind' cannot be trumped. It reduces me to tears every single fucking time I hear it... "Both of us know how hard it is, to love and let it go..." WEEP!
that CD is a gem; differently from the usual greatest hits album, this simply and frankly offers two sides of an artist, no need to diligently show the whole career.
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