Tim Buckley
On June 29, 1975 : Tim Buckley dies at the age of
28
TIM BUCKLEY said in
April 1975:
"We're in the habit
of emulating those pure voices when they're dead."
Three months later Buckley was
dead. The Los Angeles County coroner's office determined that
Buckley was the victim of "acute heroin-morphine and ethanol
intoxication." Overdose. His longtime frend Richard Keeling
was charged with murder under California law for having allegedly
furnished the drugs that caused the death. The drug charge was
subsequently dropped and Keeling pleaded guilty to a charge of
involuntary manslaughter. He served 120 days.
The death shocked Buckley's
friends, family and associates, but the autopsy puzzled them;
heroin had never played a big part in his diet. The coroner declared
that Buckley was no addict.
One thing he wasn't was a pop
star in the accepted definition of either word. His albums weren't
big sellers, even in the relatively scaled-down record business
of the late '60 s: At the height of his fame he barely cracked
Billboard's Top 100. Singles.
But Tim Buckley's importance
can't be measured in chart placings or dollar amounts. He lived
his life almost in defiance of such standards. If he paid the
price for his rebelliousness, he also left an enduring legacy.
Between 1966 and 1975 Buckley
released nine albums that could have been recorded by no one else.
Buckley put his vocal virtuosity in the service of an artistic
vision that showed little consistency beyond a restless searching,
an impatience with the present. The sadness in his voice reinforced
the heroic futility of his music. His was the sound of defenselessness.
Buckley outlived his friend
Jim Morrison by nine months. But while the media keep resurrecting
the Lizard King, the equally photogenic Buckley has proven harder
to exploit.
If you listen to the
Jeff Buckley " Grace CD" and the folk-rock LP "Goodbye
and Hello" from Tim, you know what a great loss the Buckleys
are to popular music.
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