ZigZag Magazine - 1975: Andy Childs

A Happy Sad Starsailor from Washington D.C.

"There's a lot of space between Starsailor and Greetings from LA when I didn't record, because I knew I was repeating myself. There was nothing to write, nothing to settle into. I hope to make it all clear on the "live" album, what my intentions were." (See further on.)

"I actually took a rest after Lorca and Starsailor. I took a year off, and then started up with Greetings around the middle of 1972. 'Cause I'd been going strong since 1966 and I really needed a rest. I hadn't caught up with any living."

So, a long gap, nearly two years actually, and then Greetings From L.A. appears, revealing a drastic change in style. Buckley has moved on yet again, this time adapting his talents very much to mainstream rock-- simple, rhythmic and very out-front.

His band is now completely different, a basic line-up of himself on twelve-string guitar, Joe Falsia (guitar), Chuck Rainey (bass) and Ed Greene (drums), but in fact twenty different musician in all were employed on the album including people like Kevin Kelley on keyboards (who, of course played drums for the Byrds on Sweetheart of the Rodeo and then with an LA band called Jesse, Wholf and the Whings--album on Shelter), Carter C.C. Collins and King Errison (congas), and vocalists Clydie King, Venetta Fields and Lorna Maxine Willard.

At the time Buckley said: "I listened to the radio a lot before writing the songs for this album. There's a lot of radio music in it. It's full-out blues-type barrelhouse rock. The album really rocks, and I'm very pleased with it."

Which just about sums it up really. It's the sort of album to blow the aural cobwebs away, expertly arranged, overloaded with energy and excitement, and demonstrative once again of Buckley's class and adaptability as a vocalist. Move With Me, Nighthawkin‘, Devil Eyes and Make It Right are straight-ahead rockers with the minimum of elaboration and the accent on hard, solid playing.

The lyrics to most of the songs (Larry Beckett again contributes on a couple of occasions), are of the type not quite suitable for family listening, and when I made the comment that Greetings was his most accessible album to a wider audience, he replied that descriptive sex usually is, which will give you some idea of what to expect. All things considered though, a pretty remarkable album and a refreshing one also to people like myself who felt slightly alienated by Starsailor.

Released in 1973, Sefronia seems to me like a refinement and expansion of the style established on Greetings. Honey Man, Quicksand and Peanut Man (sounding very much like Harry Nilsson's Coconut Song) are all energetic rockers with catchy riffs and superb guitar work, while there are magnificently soulful ballads like Martha, Because of You, and, to a lesser extent, I Know I'd Recognize Your Face.

There are also songs like Dolphins and Stone in Love which are pure Buckley, and if you've played any of the records I've recommended so far you'll know just what I mean, so enough said. Of the title track, Buckley says that it is the best thing he's written in a long time, and although I personally wouldn't go as far as to say that, it is a very fine song nonetheless.

Again, there are many musicians used on this album including Lee Underwood who, alas, only plays on one track, Dolphins. But the basic band, discounting Buckley, only includes one previous member, guitarist Joe Falsia. The rest are Bernie Mysior (bass), Buddy Helm (drums), and Mark Tiernan (keyboards). However, the standard of playing is as high as ever, and coupled with the excellence of practically all the compositions, it makes this my favorite Tim Buckley album since Blue Afternoon.

Before we move on to he latest album, Look at the Fool, mention must be made of one of Buckley's rare appearances in this country, at Knebworth in July of this year. To my eternal disgust he was placed first on the bill, before the likes of the Alex Harvey band and the Doobie Brothers!-- but his was certainly one of the best acts that took the stage that day. His band consisted of Art Johnson (guitar), Jim Fielder (Bass-- he of Buffalo Springfield, blood, Sweat & Tears and Mothers of Invention fame, of course), Mark Tiernan (keyboards) and Buddy Helm (drums).

Buckley himself was superb, his incredible voice bellowing, wailing, soaring and diving all over the stately grounds of Knebworth, and when they broke into Buzzin' Fly... well that made my day. His repertoire consisted mainly of material from Sefronia, including a sparkling performance of Dolphins, but there was a fair selection of old stuff as well, just to balance it out nicely. A great set which left me regretting that he'd never come over here more often, and hoping that he'd come back soon.

Look at the Fool (DiscReet K59204)

Originally to be called Another American Souvenir, this is an album that somehow I expected so much of, but was quite seriously disappointed with. Only the title track and a song called Mexicali Voodoo make it for me, and if it wasn't for the quality of Buckley's vocals, then the rest of the album would sound quite anonymous.

It's not a straight rock album by any means, if anything it veers more towards, dare I say it, a funky soul sound, which is fair enough, but the song themselves are definitely not among his best work and in the case of one track, Wanda Lou, encroach dangerously near rip-off territory.

Now that's something I'm sure all Buckley freaks will regard as a cardinal sin for him because if anything he's always been a pioneer and an innovator in whichever style of music he's chosen to work with. Wanda Lou, incidentally, is so much like Louie Louie that I secretly suspect it might be a piss-take of some sort, but having spoken to the man and got [to know him quite well, I would tend to think it rather unlikely.

I don't really want to say anything more about the album at this point, but I shall keep playing it, out of a weird sense of duty more than anything, and hope that it improves with age.

Now that "live" album that was mentioned earlier:

"I'm really happy about doing this because I need a break from writing and this will be a record where I can be arranging and putting it together on a different level. Just sort of reviewing everything. It'll cover the while gamut-- all my albums. I'd like to have every song be played by those people who originally recorded them on the albums. I'd love that... a little dream there y'know? But I know I'm going to have to make a compromise, you can't have fifteen people on it.

“I don't know if or how it will all be rearranged, but I do know one thing I won't be doing and that's Goodbye and Hello. There's no way to do that without the orchestra. It just wouldn't be the same. That was, for me, a one shot thing in the studio because so much work went into it. There are a lot of things like that-- you just do it, but you never do it again."

As far as I know at the moment, there are no immediate plans for the release of such an album so I presume that the project has take much longer to complete than expected. However two things are certain. Firstly, a "live" album (maybe a double) will be released at some stage-- it's not one of those pie-in-the-sky cuckoo ideas that a lot of musicians seem to propagate with alarming frequency, and secondly, when it does appear it'll be dynamite. I get impatient just thinking about it.

Well that's all the records and historical paraphernalia covered., but during the course of the interview Buckley talked with authority and great conviction about music generally, American culture, and other related subjects.

(See interview here)

And that, I suppose, is just about it. While preparing this article, simply for my own enjoyment, I compiled a tape of my favorite Tim Buckley tracks and while playing it through, the thought occurred to me that a Best Of album would be quite something.

Of course the number of different record companies involved and the contractual difficulties would probably make such an album almost impossible to release, but there's no harm in day-dreaming, so what about this for a Tim Buckley sampler:

Side One: Valentine Melody (Tim Buckley); Carnival Song (Goodbye & Hello); Hallucinations (Goodbye & Hello); I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain (Goodbye & Hello); Morning Glory (Goodbye & Hello).

Side Two: Buzzin' Fly (Happy Sad); Sing A Song For You (Happy Sad); Happy Time (Blue Afternoon); Dolphins (Sefronia); Martha (Sefronia).

And that's without taking anything from Lorca, Starsailor or Greetings from LA.

Lastly, a few acknowledgments. To John Masters and Maija Deer for re-kindling my interest in Buckley, to all you loyal readers to whom Tim Buckley's music means so much that you were moved enough to write me threatening letters, to Herb Cohen for falling asleep during the interview, and to Nigel Williamson who wrote a nice article on Buckley for a future issue of Fat Angle [I] mercilessly plundered it for info-- many thanks.

Oh, and of course, regards to the man himself, who, believe it or not, is coming back over in February to play a few dates. Wahoo!! (to coin a well-used ZigZag phrase).

© 1975 Childs/ZigZag

ZigZag was a cutting-edge UK rock music magazine. Started in 1969 by Pete Frame. It continued to be published in London till the beginning of the 80s. It is not clear when and why it was discontinued