Tim Buckley 1970 Starsailor

Tim Buckley synthesized a new genre of music by fusing folk, blues, jazz, psychedelic rock and chamber music. Very few rock musicians ever achieved the monstrous intensity and lyrical tenderness of his work. Buckley's songs were journeys through the psyche of the singer. Buckley was therefore more interested in mirroring the emotions of the soul than in emphasizing a melody. A Buckley song is a stream of consciousness. Buckley changed the very idea of what a folk or rock song is supposed to be. Tim Buckley also boasted one of the most original voices ever, a combination of African melisma, Tibetan droning, jazz scat and acid-rock wailing, a combination that set a new standard for any future vocalist. He turned the voice into an instrument of the orchestra, not just a vehicle for words. If Goodbye And Hello (Elektra, 1967) was simply a poor man's version of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, the six lengthy compositions of Happy Sad (1968), performed by a combo that was the folk-rock equivalent of the Modern Jazz Quartet, coined an ethereal folk-jazz style that had no precedents (except, possibly, Fred Neil). After the more conventional Blue Afternoon (1969), Buckley pushed his intuitions to the logical conclusion on Lorca (1970), one of rock's all-time masterpieces. Here the music leaves this world, and enters an oneiric and metaphysical landscape. Buckley sings as if in a coma. Melodies appear and disappear in an atmosphere of lugubrious suspense. Starsailor (1970) is perhaps his most formally perfect album.



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