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My
Fleeting House
by
Nigel Cross
Even if his last records were somewhat lacklustre and patchy,
Tim Buckley left behind a remarkable canon of work– and whilst
his musical achievements have been recently somewhat overshadowed
by those of his late son Jeff, for many Tim remains one of
the key troubadours of the 60s with that remarkable voice,
fabulously original song writing talent and his penchant for
experimentation that took the folk-based tunes to new and
very dizzying heights of the avant gard.
My
Fleeting House is the first fully authorised collection
of full-length video performances by Buckley Snr taken from
American, British and Dutch television, and an obscure feature
film (The Christian Licorice Store) between 1967 and
1974 and has the full approval of the Tim Buckley estate.
Arranged
in chronological order this collection comprises both the
familiar (Song for the Siren performed on The Monkees
TV show, The Dolphins done on the Old Grey Whistle
Test) to material never committed to wax (Venice Beach
(Music Boats by the Bay) from a program called Boboquivari
aired by Los Angeles station KCET) – there are also some priceless
moments of chat, such as the singer talking to Catch 22
author Joseph Heller and an interview with Steve Allen.
Former
Buckley guitarist Lee Underwood and song writing partner Larry
Beckett provide additional commentary – less successful are
chunks of footage featuring David Browne, whose biog of both
Buckleys (Dream Brother) tended to show far too much
interest in the son and was therefore lacking on the father.
If
you’re already a fan chuck out those awful, poor-quality,
bootleg videocassettes and rejoice in the fact that Manifesto
has actually sourced the best possible, first generation tapes
for this DVD production. And if you’ve heard how great the
guy was but know very little there’s stuff here like I
Woke Up and Come Here Woman from the Starsailor
period, which should turn you into an aficionado on the spot!
They’re magnificent! (Nigel Cross)
©
2007 Cross/terrascope.co.uk
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