i once was open and one with a travelling heart.

Jeff Buckley: 10 Years Later

For those of you who may not be aware, today is the 10th Anniversary of the death of Jeff Buckley. I had hoped to make a huge post with links to Jeff's work and a small testament about what he means to me, but trying to put Jeff in words never works for me. Some people just have to speak for themselves, so I just try to convert people one song at a time.

macramedildo put together a tribute post here with rarities and the links to the must own LPs. For my part, I've posted five of my favorite Jeff tracks below, which I hope you'll try. These aren't necessarily my Top 5, but these are songs that I come to when I'm happy or sad or nostalgic or just breathing, because that's how brilliant Jeff is.

1) If You See Her, Say Hello (live, Bob Dylan cover) -- A song about pretending you got over the one who got away when you know you didn't, and you probably never will.

2) The Way Young Lovers Do (live, Van Morrison cover) -- A beautiful cover about the first throws of love and those fleeting moments when you're so content that for a moment you might even be happy.

3) Grace -- 'Grace' may be one of the most beautiful songs ever sung, not necessarily written, but definitely sung. Jeff had this enormous range and his voice here goes from the highest of highs to the middling lows and it breaks your heart at the same time that it fills you with hope.

4) I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted to Be) -- is a song about how some things just don't work out like they should.

5) And last but never EVER least, Last Goodbye -- which is the song that brought me to Jeff in the first place all those years ago. A song about break-ups and broken hearts and the things we tell ourselves to get over the people we love.

You can watch Jeff's few videos on YouTube (I love 'So Real') or you can read more about Jeff in the joint biography David Browne wrote, Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, which is about Jeff and his father, or you can just go to your music store and buy a CD. In fact, in recognition of the 10 year anniversary So Real: The Music of Jeff Buckley has been released, which is a sort of Best Of, and if I were going to give anyone a starting point this would be it.


I just say all of this to say, we miss you Jeff. Thank you for all you gave while you were here.