Jeffrey Scott Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scotty Moorhead,[1] was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan's East Village, such as Sin-é, gradually focusing more on his own material. After rebuffing much interest from record labels[2] and his father's manager Herb Cohen,[3] he signed with Columbia, recruited a band, and recorded what would be his only studio album, Grace.
Over the following two years, the band toured widely to promote the album, including concerts in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Australia. In 1996, they stopped touring[4] and made sporadic attempts to record Buckley's second album in New York with Tom Verlaine as producer. In 1997, Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to resume work on the album, to be titled My Sweetheart the Drunk, recording many four-track demos while also playing weekly solo shows at a local venue. While awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, he drowned during a spontaneous evening swim, fully clothed, in the Wolf River when he was caught in the wake of a passing boat. His body was found on June 4, 1997.[5]
Since his death, there have been many posthumous releases of his material, including a collection of four-track demos and studio recordings for his unfinished second album My Sweetheart the Drunk, expansions of Grace, and the Live at Sin-é EP. Chart success also came posthumously with his famous cover of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah he attained his first No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs in March 2008 and reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart that December. Buckley and his work remain popular[6] and are regularly featured in greatest lists in the music press.[7][8]
Born in Anaheim, California,[1] Buckley was the only son of Mary Guibert and Tim Buckley. His mother was a Panama Canal Native of mixed Greek, French, American and Panamanian descent,[9] while his father was the son of an Irish American father and an Italian American mother.[10] Buckley was raised by his mother and stepfather, Ron Moorhead, in Southern California, and had a half-brother, Corey Moorhead.[11][12] Buckley moved many times in and around Orange County while growing up with a single mother, an upbringing Buckley called rootless trailer trash.[13] As a child, Buckley was known as Scott Scotty Moorhead based on his middle name and his stepfather's surname.[1] His biological father, Tim Buckley, was a singer-songwriter who released a series of highly acclaimed folk and jazz albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Buckley said he only met him once at the age of eight.[14] After his father died of a drug overdose in 1975,[15] he chose to go by Buckley and his real first name, which he found on his birth certificate.[16] To members of his family he remained Scotty.[17]
Buckley was brought up around music. His mother was a classically trained pianist and cellist.[18] His stepfather introduced him to Led Zeppelin, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Pink Floyd at an early age.[19] Buckley grew up singing around the house and in harmony with his mother,[20] later noting that all his family sang.[21] Buckley began playing guitar at the age of five after discovering an acoustic guitar in his grandmother's closet.[22] Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti was the first album he ever owned;[23] the hard rock band Kiss was also an early favorite.[24] At the age of 12, he decided to become a musician,[23] and received his first electric guitar — a black Les Paul — at the age of 13.[25] He attended Loara High School,[26] and played in the school's jazz band.[27] During this time, he developed an affinity for progressive rock bands such as Rush, Genesis, and Yes, as well as jazz fusion guitarist Al Di Meola.[28]
After graduating from high school, he moved north to Hollywood to attend the Musicians Institute,[29] completing the one-year course at the age of 19.[30] Buckley later told Rolling Stone the school was the biggest waste of time,[23] but noted in an interview with Double Take Magazine that he appreciated studying music theory there, saying, I was attracted to really interesting harmonies, stuff that I would hear in Ravel, Ellington, Bartók.[31]

Career beginnings

Buckley spent the next six years working in a hotel and playing guitar in various struggling bands playing in styles from jazz, reggae, and roots rock to heavy metal.[32] He toured with the dancehall reggae artist Shinehead[33] and also played the occasional funk and R&B studio session, collaborating with fledgling producer Michael J. Clouse to form X-Factor Productions.[34] Throughout this period, Buckley limited his singing to backing vocals.
He moved to New York City in February 1990,[35] but found few opportunities to work as a musician. He was introduced to Qawwali, the Sufi devotional music of India and Pakistan, and to NusratFateh Ali Khan, one of its best-known singers.[36] Buckley was an impassioned fan of Khan,[37] and during what he called his cafe days, he often covered Khan's songs. In January 1996, he interviewed Khan for Interview and wrote liner notes for Khan's Supreme Collection, Vol. 1 compilation.[38] Buckley also became interested in blues musician Robert Johnson and hardcore punk band Bad Brains during this time.[19] Buckley moved back to Los Angeles in September when his father's former manager, Herb Cohen, offered to help him record his first demo of original songs. Buckley completed Babylon Dungeon Sessions, a four-song cassette that included the songs Eternal Life, Unforgiven (later titled Last Goodbye), Strawberry Street (a different version of which appears on the Grace Legacy Edition), and punk screamer Radio.[39] Cohen and Buckley hoped to attract attention from the music industry with the demo tape.[40]
Buckley flew back to New York early the following year to make his public singing debut at a tribute concert for his father called Greetings from Tim Buckley.[41] The event, produced by show business veteran Hal Willner, was held at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn on April 26, 1991.[41] Buckley rejected the idea of the concert as a springboard to his career, instead citing personal reasons regarding his decision to sing at the tribute.[42] With accompaniment by experimental rock guitarist Gary Lucas, Buckley performed I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain, a song Tim Buckley wrote about an infant Jeff Buckley and his mother.[43] Buckley returned to the stage to play Sefronia – The King's Chain, Phantasmagoria in Two, and concluded the concert with Once I Was performed acoustically with an impromptu a cappella ending, due to a snapped guitar string.[43] Willner, the show's organizer, later recalled that Buckley's set closer made a strong impression.[44] Buckley's performance at the concert was counter-intuitive to his desire to distance himself musically from his father. Buckley later explained his reasoning to Rolling Stone It wasn't my work, it wasn't my life. But it bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I'd never been able to tell him anything. I used that show to pay my last respects.[23] The concert proved to be his first step into the music industry that had eluded him for years.[45]
On subsequent trips to New York in mid-1991, Buckley began co-writing with Gary Lucas resulting in the songs Grace and Mojo Pin,[46] and by late 1991 he began performing with Lucas' band Gods and Monsters around New York City.[47] After being offered a development deal as a member of Gods and Monsters at Imago Records, Buckley moved back to New York to the Lower East Side at the end of 1991.[48] The day after Gods and Monsters officially debuted in March 1992, Buckley decided to leave the band.[49]
 
Grace
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from Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition)
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Buckley began performing at several clubs and cafés around Lower Manhattan,[50] but Sin-é in the East Village became his main venue.[19] Buckley first appeared at the small Irish café in April 1992,[51] and quickly earned a regular Monday night slot there.[52] His repertoire consisted of a diverse range of folk, rock, R&B, blues and jazz cover songs, much of it music he had newly learned. During this period, he discovered singers such as Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Van Morrison, and Judy Garland.[53] Buckley performed an eclectic selection of covers from a range of artists from Led Zeppelin, NusratFateh Ali Khan, Bob Dylan, Édith Piaf, Elton John, The Smiths, Bad Brains, Leonard Cohen, Robert Johnson[39][52][53] and Siouxsie Sioux.[54][55] Original songs from the Babylon Dungeon Sessions, and the songs he'd written with Gary Lucas were also included in his set lists.[53] He performed solo, accompanying himself on a borrowed Fender Telecaster.[51] Buckley stated that he learned how to perform onstage from playing to small audiences.[14]
Over the next few months, Buckley attracted admiring crowds and attention from record label executives.[56] Industry maven Clive Davis even dropped by to see him.[14] By the summer of 1992, limos from executives eager to sign the singer lined the street outside Sin-é.[56] Buckley signed with Columbia Records, home of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen,[57] for a three-album, essentially million-dollar deal in October 1992.[58] Recording dates were set for July and August 1993 for what would become Buckley's recording debut, an EP of four songs which included a cover of Van Morrison's The Way Young Lovers Do.[59] Live at Sin-é was released on November 23, 1993, documenting this period of Buckley's life.[60]

Grace
Main article Grace (Jeff Buckley album)
In mid-1993, Buckley began working on his first album with record producer Andy Wallace, who had mixed Nirvana's multi-platinum album Nevermind. Buckley assembled a band, composed of bassist Mick Grondahl and drummer Matt Johnson, and spent several weeks rehearsing.[61][62] In September, the trio headed to Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York to spend six weeks recording basic tracks for what would become Grace. Buckley invited ex-bandmate Lucas to play guitar on the songs Grace and Mojo Pin, and Woodstock-based jazz musician Karl Berger wrote and conducted string arrangements with Buckley assisting at times.[63] Buckley returned home for overdubbing at studios in Manhattan and New Jersey where he performed take after take to capture the perfect vocals and experimented with ideas for additional instruments, and added textures to the songs.[64]
In January 1994, Buckley left to go on his first solo North American tour to support Live at Sin-é.[64] It was followed by a 10-day European tour in March.[65] Buckley played clubs and coffeehouses and made in-store appearances.[64] After returning, Buckley invited guitarist Michael Tighe to join the band and a collaboration between the two resulted in So Real, a song which was recorded as a late addition to the album.[66][67] In June, Buckley began his first full band tour called the Peyote Radio Theatre Tour that lasted into August.[68] Pretender Chrissie Hynde,[69] Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, and The Edge from U2[70] were among the attendees of these early shows.
 
Hallelujah
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from Grace
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Grace was released on August 23, 1994. In addition to seven original songs, the album included three covers Lilac Wine, based on the version by Nina Simone;[53] Corpus Christi Carol, from Benjamin Britten's A Boy Was Born, Op.3, a composition that Buckley was introduced to in high school, based on a 15th-century hymn;[71] and Hallelujah[72] by Leonard Cohen, based on John Cale's recording from the Cohen tribute album, I'm Your Fan.[53] Buckley's rendition of Hallelujah has been called Buckley's best and one of the great songs[73] by Time, and is included on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[74]
Sales of Grace were slow and it garnered little radio airplay, despite critical acclaim.[75] The Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed it a romantic masterpiece and a pivotal, defining work.[76] Despite slow initial sales the album went gold in France and Australia over the next two years,[68] achieving gold status in the U.S. in 2002,[77] and selling over six times platinum in Australia in 2006.[78]
Grace won appreciation from a host of revered musicians and artists, including members of Buckley's biggest influence, Led Zeppelin.[79] Jimmy Page considered Grace close to being his favorite album of the decade.[80] Robert Plant was also complimentary,[81] as was Brad Pitt, saying of Buckley's work, There's an undercurrent to his music, there's something you can't pinpoint. Like the best of films, or the best of art, there's something going on underneath, and there's a truth there. And I find his stuff absolutely haunting. It just... it's under my skin.[82] Others who had influenced Buckley's music lauded him[83] Bob Dylan named Buckley one of the great songwriters of this decade,[81] and, in an interview with Village Voice, David Bowie named Grace as the one album he would take with him to a desert island.[84] The album eventually went on to feature in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003, appearing at #303.[85]

Concert tours
Buckley spent much of the next year and a half touring internationally to promote Grace. From the album's release, he played in numerous countries, from Australia, to the UK (Glastonbury Festival and the 1995 Meltdown Festival — at which he sang Henry Purcell's 'Dido's Lament'[86] — at the invitation of Elvis Costello).[87] Following Buckley's Peyote Radio Theater tour, the band began a European tour on August 23, 1994, starting with performances in the UK and Ireland. The tour continued in Scandinavia and, throughout September, numerous concerts in Germany were played. The tour ended on September 22 with a concert in Paris. A gig on September 24 in New York dovetailed on to the end of the European tour and Buckley and band spent the next month relaxing and rehearsing.[88]
A tour of Canada and the U.S. began on October 19, 1994 at CBGB's. The tour was far reaching with concerts held on both east and west coasts of the U.S., and a number of performances in central and southern states. The tour ended two months later on December 18 at Maxwell's in New Jersey.[88] After another month of rest and rehearsal, the band commenced a second European tour, this time mainly for promotion purposes. The band began the tour in Dublin; Buckley has remained particularly popular in Ireland.[89] The short tour largely consisted of promotional work in London and Paris.[88]
In late January, the band did their first tour of Japan, playing concerts and appearing for promotion of the album and newly released Japanese single Last Goodbye. The band returned to Europe on February 6 and toured various Western European countries before returning to the U.S. on March 6. Among the gigs performed during this period, Buckley and his band performed at a 19th-century-built French venue, the Bataclan, and material from the concert was recorded and later released in October of that year as a four track EP, Live from the Bataclan. Also, songs from a performance on February 25, at the venue Nighttown in Rotterdam, were subsequently released as a promotional-only CD, So Real.[88]
 
So Real (Live at Nighttown)
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from The Grace EPs
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Touring recommenced in April with dates across the U.S. and Canada. During this period Buckley and the band notably played Metro in Chicago, which was recorded on video and later released as Live in Chicago on VHS and later on DVD. In addition, on June 4 they played at Sony Music Studios for the Sony Music radio hour. Following this was a month long European tour between June 20 and July 18 in which they played many summer music festivals. During the tour, Buckley played two concerts at the Paris Olympia, a venue made famous by the French vocalist Édith Piaf. Although he had failed to fill out smaller American venues at that point of his career, both nights at the large Paris Olympia venue were sold out.[90] Shortly after this Buckley attended the Festival de la MusiqueSacrée (Festival of Sacred Music), also held in France, and performed What Will You Say as a duet with AlimQasimov, an Azerbaijani mugham singer. Sony BMG has since released a live album, 2001's Live à L'Olympia, which has a selection of songs from both Olympia performances and the collaboration with Qasimov.[91]
Buckley's Mystery White Boy tour, playing concerts in both Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, lasted between August 28 and September 6 and recordings of these performances were compiled and released on the live album Mystery White Boy. Buckley was so well received during these concerts that his album Grace went gold in Australia, selling over 35,000 copies, and taking this into account he decided a longer tour was needed and returned for a tour of New Zealand and Australia in February the following year.[68]

Between the two Oceanian tours Buckley and the band took a break from touring. Buckley played solo in the meantime with concerts at Sin-é and a New Year's Eve concert at Mercury Lounge in New York.[88] After the break, the band spent the majority of February on the Hard Luck Tour in Australia and New Zealand, but tensions had risen between the group and drummer Matt Johnson. The concert on March 1, 1996 was the last gig he played with Buckley and his band.[68]
Much of the material from the tours of 1995 and 1996 was recorded and released on either promotional EPs, such as the Grace EP, or posthumously on albums, such as Mystery White Boy (a reference to Buckley not using his real name) and Live aL'Olympia. Many of the other concerts Buckley played during this period have surfaced on bootleg recordings.[92]
Following Johnson's departure, the band, now without a drummer, was put on hold and did not perform live again until February 12, 1997.[93] Due to the pressure from extensive touring, Buckley spent the majority of the year away from the stage. However, from May 2 to May 5 he played a short stint as bass guitarist with Mind Science of the Mind, with friend Nathan Larson, then guitarist of Shudder to Think.[68] Buckley returned to playing live concerts when he went on his phantom solo tour of cafés in the Northeast in December 1996, appearing under a series of aliases The Crackrobats, Possessed by Elves, Father Demo, Smackrobiotic, The Halfspeeds, Crit-Club, Topless America, Martha & the Nicotines, and A Puppet Show Named Julio.[88] By way of justification, Buckley posted a note on his Internet site stating that he missed the anonymity of playing in cafes and local bars
There was a time in my life not too long ago when I could show up in a cafe and simply do what I do, make music, learn from performing my music, explore what it means to me, i.e., have fun while I irritate andor entertain an audience who don't know me or what I am about. In this situation I have that precious and irreplaceable luxury of failure, of risk, of surrender. I worked very hard to get this kind of thing together, this work forum. I loved it and then I missed it when it disappeared. All I am doing is reclaiming it.