Remembering Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley is one of my favorite artists of all time. His passing was to say the least, devastating. But luckily his people are still sharing his music with us. Has it really been 10 years?

Buckley’s “lamentably brief career,� as it has been characterized by his mother, Mary Guibert, came to a tragic and untimely end on May 29, 1997 (at age 30) when he died in a swimming mishap outside Memphis by the banks of the Mississippi River, during a recording stint in Memphis.

One week prior to the 10th anniversary of that date, SO REAL: SONGS FROM JEFF BUCKLEY the first official anthology of his work (including two previously unreleased performances) – “the closest Jeff Buckley – singer, songwriter, guitarist, seeker – ever comes to having his own greatest-hits record,� as Rolling Stone senior editor David Fricke’s liner notes begin – will arrive in stores on Columbia/Legacy, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

Of primal interest to fans, collectors and completists will be the two tracks making their album debuts on SO REAL: SONGS FROM JEFF BUCKLEY. “So Real,� originally the centerpiece of Grace, is heard in an acoustic version recorded in Japan. It was previously available only on a promotional single.

Read more after the jump, including track list.

But here are some Jeff Buckley Audio Streams:
“Last Goodbye�:
[Real Player]

[Windows]

“Hallelujah�
[Real Player]

[Windows]

“I Know It’s Over� (Smiths Cover)
[Real Player]

[Windows]

[Jeff Buckley Official Site]

[Jeff Buckley MySpace Page]

The other rarity closes the album, a live version of Buckley and his band “spacewalking with elegance through the harrowing resignation of ‘I Know It’s Over’,� as Fricke introduces this cover of the song from the Smiths’ 1986 album, The Queen is Dead. The scene was a live session at Sony Studios in New York intended for broadcast on WNEW-FM on April 6, 1995. But the session was edited and the song was not included on the radio broadcast. The remaining 12 other tracks on the generous 73-minute collection are drawn from Jeff Buckley’s four principal Columbia and Columbia/Legacy catalog releases.

So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley Track Listing

(Columbia/Legacy 88697 03570 2)

1. Last Goodbye (B)

2. Lover You Should Have Come Over (B)

3. Forget Her (C)

4. Eternal Life (Road Version) (C)

5. Dream Brother (Alternate Take) (C)

6. The Sky Is A Landfill (D)

7. Everybody Here Wants You (D)

8. So Real (previously unreleased commercially – non-album acoustic version live in Japan, and previously available only as a promotional single)

9. Mojo Pin (A)

10. Vancouver (D)

11. Je N’en Connais Pas La Fin (A)

12. Grace (B)

13. Hallelujah (B)

14. I Know It’s Over (live) (previously unreleased – Smiths cover (from The Queen is Dead) at a live session at Sony Studios, edited for broadcast on WNEW-FM on April 6, 1995, but not included on the radio broadcast).

Source key:

A – from Live At Sin-é (originally released 1993, as Columbia 44K-77296; reissued September 2003, as Live At Sin-é: Legacy Edition, Columbia/Legacy C2K 89202)

B – from Grace (originally released August 1994, as Columbia CK 57528)

C – from Grace: Legacy Edition (originally released August 2004, as Columbia/Legacy C3K 92881)

D – from Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk (originally released May 1998, as Columbia C2K 67228)