A very special and rare concert tonight from a very special and rare legend.
Tim Buckley, like his son, left us far too soon. What Tim left behind, much the same as what Jeff left behind, is a recorded legacy rich, but wanting for more.
There just aren’t that many live performances featuring Tim Buckley; one from John Peel via The BBC in 1968, another from my own collection via a Radio Free Oz appearance in 1967 and this; a short, but captivating glimpse of an artist connecting with his audience via The Newport Folk Festival from July 28, 1968
Introduced by Oscar Brand, Tim Buckley sets out to weave his musical tapestry, and in doing so, casts his inimitable spell on the audience.
Like his legacy, it would seem short if it was two hours long – at 22 minutes, it borders on frustrating.
But gratitude to the engineer who hit the record button and saved this for posterity – preserved this glowing piece of history.
Buckley’s music and style changed considerably through the years. He began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving voice-as-instrument sound. He died at the age of 28 from a heroin overdose, leaving behind his sons Taylor and Jeff.
Gratitude that we get to hear this concert again, maybe for the first time for those who haven’t.
Turn this up and enjoy it in the spirit it was presented.
(and a very special thanks to my dear friend and life-saver Sherry Rayn Barnett who, like the engineer who hit the record button, clicked the shutter and preserved another glowing piece of history in her own inimitable way).
Summer is over, Winter is around the corner and everybody is back at work or school. If you’re in school you’re probably knee-deep in History – tests, reports, papers – homework. Reading about things that happened decades before you were born – can’t quite wrap your head around it. If you’re a teacher, it’s like pulling teeth to get your students even remotely interested in what happened before they were born. If you’re at work, you may be one of those people in middle-management who have to do presentations – something to amaze your boss and your colleagues – no pressure, but you have to deliver the goods, usually yesterday. Not to brag, but Past Daily is one website where you can find out about a lot of things you didn’t know about – hear things you aren’t familiar with – and by becoming a subscriber you can download all this audio (at last count over 10,000 sound files) you can build your own reference library, a mouse click away. You can also go exploring by using the Search Engine to dig deep.
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