McLovin - the BIGGEST Jeff Buckley fan now or ever - posted this amazing tribute to her lovah (sigh, yes I begrudge her this one) and by popular demand I've brought it to the blog. Relevant to Jason anyway because of the Hallelujah connection, Jeff simply deserves to be front and center today in all spheres. Dude was fierce. I'll let McLovin's words take it from here.

Jeff Buckley

In the liner notes of Jeff Buckley's posthumously released CD Sketches for My Sweetheart, The Drunk, Bill Flanagan writes: "He was a beautiful musician and his loss is a genuine tragedy -- but Jeff would have hated for his death to be romanticized. He hated the morbid fascination with artists who die young, and mocked it every chance he got." Living in the shadow of a father he barely knew, one who died at age 28 of a heroin overdose and to whom he was constantly compared - singer/songwriter Tim Buckley - might have had something to do with that sentiment.

While I've been guilty of romanticizing him, I can safely say that I've never romanticized his death. Mourned and cursed it? Yes. But my fascination with him isn't based in morbidity; it's based in life. His music is my salt. I respect the lengths he went to to protect that music. How do you not admire someone who - despite being sought after by every major label in NYC, despite living in poverty - does something like this:

At a meeting set up by Arista A&R, Buckley had the balls to tell label president Clive Davis that he would not be interested in signing to Arista when Davis had not even seen him play.

Jeff was taken aback when Davis brought him into his office and showed him a video presentation about...Clive Davis. "He had an eight-minute video all about him," Jeff recounts with amazement. "Him with Donovan, him with Janis Joplin, him with Sly Stone, and him donating all this money to charity. 'My life in the music business!'"

How hard was it for Jeff to turn down offers of record contracts and money at a time when he was living hand-to-mouth? "Very," he answers. "It was really hard. I always knew that my natural place was to make my life making music. The whole reason I was so wary of automatic things is because I suspected that my lineage had everything to do with it. I didn't get the feeling that anybody really heard me."

"I know about Columbia and Sony and other big places. I'm not talking about Sire or SST, I'm talking about big fucking Michael Jackson money. I was wary at first that they didn't know how to do anything small, but I'm really determined and I think it will work out for the best."

-Musician, February 1994
Bill Flanagan

After turning Clive down and sifting through all the other offers, Jeff ended up with Columbia/Sony. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Columbia/Sony for being able to do something 'small'. And thank you, woman who stood Jeff up the night he wrote "Lover, You Should Have Come Over". I don't know what you were doing while he was laying on the floor next to the telephone - waiting for your call - but you have my unending gratitude. That's probably my favourite song.

Today, November 17th, is Jeff's birthday. It would be easy to spend today bemoaning the loss of the music he could have made since he's been gone. But I've decided I'd rather party like it's 1996 and marinate in what he did while he was here; sloshing around in it until - if I pull my shirt up to my nose - all I can smell is the music...

... Of Jeff Motherfuckin' Buckley

Photo Credits: Merri Cyr