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Tim Buckley

TIM BUCKLEY

 
Tim Buckley  (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American singer and musician.  His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album (1966) was mostly folk, but his subsequent albums incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde, and an evolving “voice as instrument” sound.  Though he did not find commercial success during his lifetime, Buckley is admired by later generations for his innovation as a musician and vocal ability.  He died at the age of 28 from a heroin overdose, leaving behind his sons Taylor and Jeff, the latter of whom later went on to become a musician as well.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
To me, it is positively criminal that there are still some rock music fans out there who do not know about the debut 1968 album by Blood, Sweat and Tears, Child Is Father to the Man.  Besides being one of the first rock bands to have a full brass section (there are also frequent strings plus an Ondioline, a precursor to modern synthesizers), Child Is Father to the Man has a classically based structure, with an “Overture” and an “Underture” and songs that flow from one into another covering rock, country, pop, jazz, blues, folk . . . there is even a fugue section.  The songs are mostly original but include some real beauties among the cover songs:  Randy Newman’s “Just One Smile”, Harry Nilsson’s “Without Her” and Tim Buckley’s “Morning Glory”.  The Stone Poneys also recorded the latter song, though with the title “Hobo” instead; it is my favorite Poneys song (even beating “Different Drum”) and one of my very favorite Linda Ronstadt songs.  
 
(September 2012)
 
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Van Dyke Parks is a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi and was a musical prodigy.  He studied the clarinet and also did some work as a child actor; while in his teens, Parks appeared in Grace Kelly’s final film, The Swan (1958).  After graduating from college, he made some recordings for MGM Records in 1964 that included “Come to the Sunshine”; the touring band that he put together included a young Stephen Stills.  Primarily though, he worked behind the scenes, playing as a session musician with Sonny and Cher (before they even took that name) and Paul Revere and the Raiders under producer Terry Melcher.  His other early credits include playing Hammond Organ on the Byrds’ Fifth Dimension album and also keyboards for Judy Collins, plus arranging songs for Tim Buckley. 

 

(June 2013/2)

 
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On the Stone Poneys album, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Volume III, Linda Ronstadt was already showing her gift for spotting excellent songwriting by including no less than three songs by Tim Buckley, including “Hobo” (which Buckley called “Morning Glory”), which might be my very favorite Linda Ronstadt song of them all. 

 

(October 2013)