Tim Buckley: Tim Buckley

By Unknown

This eponymous debut was recorded when Tim Buckley was the tender age of nineteen, having just been discovered by Elektra Records whilst playing the folk-rock circuits of L.A, with his (then) current bands The Bohemians and The Harlequin Three.

The album is, for the most part, a collection of poetic folk/rock songs. Many of the songs are quite stiffly structured, perhaps down to the lyrics, which where co-written by poet friend Larry Becket and have a distinctly medieval feel to them. Sounding somewhere between the musings of a teenager discovering his first love and the tales of a knight as he tries to coax down his lady from the tower above.

While the lyrics are touching, its his voice that will knock you for six. Its so hard to believe that such a powerful and emotive vocal could come from one so young. I would imagine that those who heard this album at the time of its release, must have realised that what they were witnessing, was the beginnings of something unlike anything which had preceded it, or for that matter, has ever come close to it since.

Strange Street Affair Under Blue, Song Slowly Song, Grief In My Soul and Understand Your Man are the stand-out tracks on this impacting debut. Which along with second album Goodbye and Hello makes up the first stage of the many, very different musical incarnations of Tim Buckley which were to follow.