Goodbye and Hello

Part of our Two CDs for £9 offer*

Like many young people I am a fan of Jeff Buckley - and to be honest anyone who isn't needs to take another listen!!!! I recently began reading 'Dream Brother' by David Browne about the lives of Tim and Jeff Buckley. As I read it dawned on me that I hadn't actually heard Tim's work so I raided my Dad's music collection. And its fair to say I was not expecting an album as amazing as this. How had I not listened to this before? Songs such as 'Once I was' and 'Morning Glory' deserved to be heard by everyone. Hopefully many more people will do what I did. Although Tim's work deserves to be discovered on its own merits it wouldn't be the worst idea for every Jeff Buckley fan to check him out. And vice versa. What a talented family. The only problem is I now feel I have to hear more so Amazon Marketplace here I come.

Tim Buckley is rightly lauded for the free-wheeling improvisational brilliance of his albums "Lorca" "Happy Sad" and "Star Sailor" or the raunchy "Greetings From LA". In terms of sheer artistry and musical expressionism they are way ahead of Goodbye And Hello , which in itself is a considerable step on from his eponymous debut. Yet out of all the albums this tremendous artist put his name to my favourite , the one i enjoy listening to most, is Goodbye And Hello.
Released in 1967 Goodbye and Hello found Buckley still in the folk/rock mode of his debut , something the albums rather twee sub-heading -" He,ll sing you his ten tales, then wander till spring" alludes to. Buckley wrote most of the songs on the album though "No Man Can Find The War", "Hallucinations", "Knight-Errant" the title track and "Morning Glory" were co-written with Larry Beckett. Hooking up again with Lee Underwood who contributes guitar and keyboards , the music is centred around bass, percussion, guitar and keyboards with Carter Collins adding vibrant conga,s.
Of course an integral part of any Tim Buckley album is Buckley's voice and while he does,nt give full reign to his incredible vocal range on this album it is still an instrument of wonder. On "Pleasant Street" he utilises his jaw dropping range to go from lugubrious baritone to skyscaping vibrato , though it must be stressed Buckley never resorts to that annoying habit of many modern singers of yodelling like a mongoose with it,s tail on a hot plate.
"Pleasant Street" is my personal favourite off the album but,s it,s chock full of great songs.The waltzing "Carnival Song", tumultuous " I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" and the epic title track are all tremendous and add true variety to the music. However the lament of "Once I Was" , with an astonishingly sensitive Buckley vocal and the closing aching ballad Morning Glory" ( Like many others i,m sure i was turned onto Buckley by This Mortal Coils cover version of this song) are the songs that give Goodbye And Hello the feeling of a complete work.
If you have,nt investigated Buckley yet first advice is do it now. Second pearl of wisdom is choose your first album carefully. If you want to hear how far a genuine effortless talent like Buckley could go then opt for "Lorca" or Star Sailor". If however you prefer just to hear brilliant but more conventional songs this is the album to go for. You can try singing along too...if nothing else it,ll give your lungs some aerobic exercise as you try to keep up .

I got this CD, after hearing a recording of his son Jeff covering Once I Was. From the moment I put on the CD I was captivated by the power of emotion expressed by Tims voice. It starts off with an anti-vietnam protest song (No man can find the war), but these themes are not revisited in the rest of the recording. Many of his tales have medieval themes, and although he takes this too far on Knight Errant (best described as the ramblings of a mad-man), he shows a rarely heard sensitivity in ballads such as Once I Was, and Phantasmagoria in Two. The albums best track has to be I Never asked to be your Mountain - an epic piece all about Tims disintegrating relationship with Jeffs mother Mary. If you are not normally into folk and like Jeff Buckley I would definatley buy this CD as an intro to Tims work.