Disc of the day
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
Features Disc of the day
Tim Buckley
Happy Sad
(Elektra, 1969)
Cue marimba! A young folkie finds his inner jazz.
Tim's journey from sad-eyed '60s singer-songwriter to wayward jazz progressive started here in 1968. Three albums into his career and still only 21, his musical questing seemed unforgivable to a late '60s audience who'd fallen in love with him as the doomed romantic folkie with the soaring voice, and the record sounded perversely uncommercial in its day. Personally, I heard Happy Sad first of all - on a second-generation cassette on a boom box while a friend cooked curry. Even in that challenged audio setting it sounded extraordinary. With the windows steamed up and a joint next to the extractor fan it was like being underwater, enveloped by waves of vibes and congas. A southern Californian Selkie, Tim lures the listener in with Strange Feelin' and Buzzin' Fly's soothing, jazzy instrumentation, his wonderful voice swooping between tenderly romantic and sonorous boom. But he's just warming us up for Love From Room 109 At The Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway) where he sounds like Fred Neil at his most heartsore and weary. "Lost without a song" our singer finds love in his "hotel life" and, inevitably, loses it again in a little shy of eleven minutes. Music myth insists the sounds of the sea were later added by Elektra producers Jerry Yester and Zal Yanovsky to conceal tape distortion and I'm sure I can still hear someone cough on my copy.
An absent father's lament, Dream Letter is no less moving now we know how Tim's relationship with his son played out (perhaps more so?); Gypsy Woman is twelve-minutes-plus of whooping, yelping, lyrical obfuscation and acoustic bass-driven Latin jazz, and it's fantastic. Closing with Sing A Song For You, a little nugget of lost love so beautiful lesser singers could build a whole album around it, as a first taste of Tim Buckley these six songs smoothed my path to Lorca and Starsailor's freer extremes but like a lot of Buckley fans I'm more comfortable here, in the kitchen, under the sea.
Jenny Bulley
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 07/09/2009
Further Listening
Tim Buckley – Goodbye And Hello (Elektra, 1967)
Van Morrison – Tupelo Honey (Polydor, 1971)
John Martyn – Solid Air (Island, 1973)
Previous Disc of the day
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Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
6:00 AM GMT 20/11/2009
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Isley Brothers - The Brothers: Isley
The Cincinnati siblings bed into their heavy period.
6:00 AM GMT 18/11/2009
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Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land
The trumpeter's most soulful excursion entrances MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 16/11/2009
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