As an avid Jeff Buckley fan, I was ecstatic when I first heard that more early covers and recordings were being released in an album. Even though the majority of the songs on the album are covers, with the rest being different versions of previously released songs from Grace, listening to Buckley’s take on these songs helps the listener to see where his later influences came from.
“Just Like A Woman”
One of his performances of this song has already been released on his incredible live album Live At Sin-é, but like every recording Buckley did, he put a slightly different vocal spin on this take than the other one. I’m personally not the biggest fan of Bob Dylan’s vocals, but Buckley’s voice has the perfect amount of emotionality to it that allows the lyrical quality of the song to shine through and do the song justice. His take is also a couple of minutes longer, but these additional minutes allow the song to be at a slower tempo than the original, giving it even more meaning. My favorite Buckley recordings are of him doing slower, more emotional songs, so I really enjoyed this one (spoiler alert: I enjoyed all of them. Jeff Buckley is my favorite artist, so how could I not?).
“Everyday People”
Another cover, this time of a Sly & The Family Stone song. Buckley definitely had a wide range of influences going on, considering we just went immediately from folk to funk. Once again, Buckley’s version of the song is two minutes longer than the original. I think as a whole I prefer the original version, but this one just goes to show how it doesn’t matter if the genre of the original performers matches that of the artist doing the cover: if the song is good, it will hold up, and this one definitely does.
“Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'”
One of the more vocally subtle songs on the album. Like the rest of the tracks on the album, it shows how versatile Buckley’s personal tastes were.
“Grace”
This is the first song on this album that was written by Buckley himself, and because of it, there are a bunch of different recordings and videos of him doing this song, along with the studio version that was released on Grace. Now, I love me some live, stripped-down guitar and vocals-only Jeff Buckley, but I think for this song I actually prefer the additional depth that the studio version can give it.
“Calling You”
I’m not sure who originally wrote this cover, but I knew the song best from an old episode of the show So You Think You Can Dance, where they used Celine Dion’s version of it. This was another one that Buckley had covered on the Live From Sin-é album, but I’m always welcome to hear him sing it again because as I said before, slower, more emotional songs are my favorite ones that he sang. I don’t really have a preference on either version, because this song sounds beautiful no matter who sings it.
“Dream Of You And I”
This track isn’t a song, but it’s a monologue where Buckley is talking to what I presume is an audience about a song he is going to write. He strums a melody throughout the entire track, but other than that it’s a description of a dream he had that inspired him to write what would become “You & I.” Though this song was never released in a completed form, there is a version that was in progress released on Sketches for My Sweetheart The Drunk.
“The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”
This track is one of two covers of the Smiths that appears on this album, both of which were originally from The Queen is Dead. It’s really a fairly straightforward cover; granted, it’s a much more stripped-down version, instrumentally, than the Smiths recorded, but Morrissey did enough vocal flair in the original that there was nothing for Buckley to add. If anything, it gives us a good indication of where he might have gotten the penchant for adding various vocal touches to his songs. The two Smiths covers on this album are two of the best songs on it (I’ll get to gushing over the second one at the end), and Buckley’s voice works really well in the songs.
“Poor Boy Long Way From Home”
The only time I’ve ever listened to the blues is for a History of Rock class that I took freshman year, so that may be why this is one of my least favorite tracks on the album. Listening to it now, I think it’s the way the guitar sounds that I don’t personally like.
“Night Flight”
I’m actually embarrassed that I didn’t recognize this was a Led Zeppelin cover! I love Zeppelin, and now that I’m listening to the original version as I write this, I can honestly still see how I didn’t recognize the song. Listening to this song performed with only a guitar and vocals changed the sound quite a bit. Led Zeppelin’s sound is very much so reliant on using the skills of all the band members, so putting the focus on only a couple of aspects of the instrumentation and vocalization of the song makes it feel completely different. Along with Morrissey’s vocal flairs, Jeff Buckley also took inspiration in his music from Robert Plant’s wild, no-holds-barred vocals. Though he usually didn’t sing with quite the same feel, and his music didn’t necessarily sound like Led Zeppelin, the risks that Plant took with his vocals can easily be seen in some of Buckley’s songs.
“I Know It’s Over”
The second Smiths cover (I did instantly recognize this one as the Smiths, so at least that’s good), and my absolute favorite song in this collection, “I Know It’s Over” puts Jeff Buckley’s emotional range displayed within his vocals to good use. Though the track is slow and fairly gentle, the subtle build toward the end works perfectly with the lyrics, conveying the pain held within the song without being over the top. As Buckley lets his range run more freely at the end, it feels like the perfectly melancholy end to an album that gives fans just a little more insight into the creative influences of a tragically mysterious artist.
Even though this isn’t my favorite album of Jeff Buckley recordings that’s been released (that would be Live At Sin-é, in case anyone cares), but it was nice to hear some different covers and alternate versions of his own songs! Honestly, I’ll take whatever Buckley scraps they can dig up. Plus, now I can listen to “I Know It’s Over” roughly a thousand times in a row, which is what I’ve been doing the past week with no sign of slowing down.
-N
Mixtape Musings 