Sorry -slightly shorthchanging y\'all these are old reviews I wrote for college
Return of the Starsailor
This is a bootleg document of a 1974 Knebworth performance by the singer Tim Buckley. I have it as a CD, various record stores in Dublin still have it in this format ,or as a bootleg tape. I have also heard that there was a film done of the show. Due to the great sound here I am wondering if that is the source of this recording. The fact that you can hear the audience does tend to indicate that it’s not from the mixing desk which is surprising considering the sound quality.
Throughout this performance it seems that semantic language is merely a vehicle for his vocal extemporisation ,wild flights of \'talking in tongues’ .
Maybe the lyricism is in places the one shortcoming, for the most part it is effective as ever, even poetic, but it does have that early 70s proclivity of slipping heavily into sexism. The role of woman as sex object . Is there a misguided yearning for authenticity? There is also some unbelievable racism in the line ‘’I’m just a red-neck son of a gun. I’m gonna kill me a gook before dawn.’ Although it is conceivable that the excuse would be that the ex-paratrooper taxi driver character , who is doing the night hawking of the title ,is saying this not Tim himself.The problem is that it was well known that at some point in the early 70s Buckley was supporting himself by taxi driving, that and being Sly Stone’s chauffeur.
The title may be seen as a bit misleading since the actual ‘Starsailor’ album was 5 years earlier, and had him at a different stage in his career. There is a bootleg from the Starsailor period called ’Happymad’, live I think from Copenhagen, which I haven’t heard.
Buckley is possibly these days overshadowed, at least in terms of recognition,by his son Jeff, who died so tragically in 1997. This is a shame, since he is seriously worthy of note on his own terms(hindsight will show who enshadows whom).His work is almost universally held in great regard, at least by those who’ve heard of him. He could effortlessly throw his multi-octave voice through scales, aided by his perfect pitch. This is ably demonstrated at the start of the performance where he does his vocal warm up ,a lot of careers pale next to these 30 odd seconds. This goes into some wild rhythm guitar, then is punctuated by him screaming the title of the track ‘Nighthawkin’. James Brown has been noted as being able to scream in tune ,he’s got nothing on this guy. Here its merely the start of the concert.
There is a loose fluidity in the playing here, only possible when the band have utmost confidence not only in their own abilities, but those of their bandmates. There is a sense of euphoria throughout in place of aggression. An almost dervish swirling giving a centrifugal feel to the faster tracks.
Al Johnson ,the guitarist fires off Coltrane-like note flurries,He gets fast , wild , but remains precise and inventive. He lacks aggression probably because he knows he will achieve what he is looking for as regards the music he is reaching for .This, in itself separates it from being metal, in most peoples hands playing this type of note flurry would devolve into that base genre, relying too much on pseudo-blues clichés. Art Johnson transcends this through virtuosity not showboating.
His style contrasts well with the fuzz-rhythm, presumably played by Buckley himself. I don’t know if the fuzz is intentional or if it’s just sound distortion on an otherwise great fidelity reproduction.
Both guitarists are just listed as guitar the question of who plays what would be answered by seeing the video footage.
It is a great regret of mine that I never got to see the copy of this my friend had.
There is a 3rd element in the mesh, at least for most of the show .That is the keyboardist Mark Tiernan. I can first identify him in the mud of ‘Devil Eyes ‘which strikes me as strange since that comes straight out of the preceding ‘Get On Top’another question that seeing the visuals would answer.
When Tiernan is noticeable ,the quicksilver slivers on ‘Buzzin’ Fly’ or the vamped opening of ‘Sweet Surrender’ for example you can see he is worthy of playing with such a master as Buckley.
The other player you notice is the drummer, Buddy Helm, who keeps everything in the proverbial pocket .There is one point in the middle of ‘Devil Eyes’ where it sounds like the other musicians just drop out , he is left playing linearly until a yelp from Buckley that causes the entire rhythm to be turned around ,then Tim goes into some of his trademark talking in tongues.
This is the rock band as jazzband ; they seem to avoid falling into fusion (admittedly something which has recently been rehabilitated)this is jazz as in the Coltrane Quintet rather than Return To Forever.
The material here mainly comes from the LP ‘Greetings From L.A.’ the best of his funk period. Funk here retains its original meaning the smell of sex, during this set its overpowering. There are 2 songs that have been in his repertoire for a lot longer though , ‘Buzzin’ Fly’ here played twice as fast as in its original incarnation 7 years earlier on HappySad his first jazzfolk LP, the other is Fred Neil’s ‘Dolphins’ a song that had its official debut on ‘Sefronia’ in 1974 but had been played by Buckley since at least 68,it appears on ‘Dream Letter’, the posthumously released Royal Festival Hall recording from that year ,in a less electric form. The speed seems similar but here is punctuated by Johnson’s
double-speed note flurries. otherwise it retains its original stateliness.
Also on the disc are 5 tracks from June 1975, just prior to his death. The band here is almost completely different apart from the drummer, and the sound quality is far ”lower-fi” but you can tell he still cut it live. This is material from his last two LPs ones that are almost universally disavowed. Here the songs sound great perhaps it was just the studio that messed things up.
(the recent The Dream Belongs to me would seem to confirm this)
Capping things off is the performance of ‘Song To The Siren’ from a1967 “Monkees” show. This is a tune not normally thought of prior to the1970 performance on the actual ‘Starsailor ‘album. Apparently Buckley dropped the song because his bassist’s girlfriend made him self -conscious about the lyrics “I’m as puzzled as an oyster.” From what I remember that line is dropped in the later version.
In conclusion I would say the £15 odd I spent on this was very well spent. This must rank as one of the greatest live albums I’ve heard. Why somebody doesn’t get it together to release a remastered version of the video footage is beyond me. They might consider re-releasing ‘Blue Afternoon’ another currently unjustly lost classic.
Reviews Index
Return of the Starsailor
This is a bootleg document of a 1974 Knebworth performance by the singer Tim Buckley. I have it as a CD, various record stores in Dublin still have it in this format ,or as a bootleg tape. I have also heard that there was a film done of the show. Due to the great sound here I am wondering if that is the source of this recording. The fact that you can hear the audience does tend to indicate that it’s not from the mixing desk which is surprising considering the sound quality.
Throughout this performance it seems that semantic language is merely a vehicle for his vocal extemporisation ,wild flights of \'talking in tongues’ .
Maybe the lyricism is in places the one shortcoming, for the most part it is effective as ever, even poetic, but it does have that early 70s proclivity of slipping heavily into sexism. The role of woman as sex object . Is there a misguided yearning for authenticity? There is also some unbelievable racism in the line ‘’I’m just a red-neck son of a gun. I’m gonna kill me a gook before dawn.’ Although it is conceivable that the excuse would be that the ex-paratrooper taxi driver character , who is doing the night hawking of the title ,is saying this not Tim himself.The problem is that it was well known that at some point in the early 70s Buckley was supporting himself by taxi driving, that and being Sly Stone’s chauffeur.
The title may be seen as a bit misleading since the actual ‘Starsailor’ album was 5 years earlier, and had him at a different stage in his career. There is a bootleg from the Starsailor period called ’Happymad’, live I think from Copenhagen, which I haven’t heard.
Buckley is possibly these days overshadowed, at least in terms of recognition,by his son Jeff, who died so tragically in 1997. This is a shame, since he is seriously worthy of note on his own terms(hindsight will show who enshadows whom).His work is almost universally held in great regard, at least by those who’ve heard of him. He could effortlessly throw his multi-octave voice through scales, aided by his perfect pitch. This is ably demonstrated at the start of the performance where he does his vocal warm up ,a lot of careers pale next to these 30 odd seconds. This goes into some wild rhythm guitar, then is punctuated by him screaming the title of the track ‘Nighthawkin’. James Brown has been noted as being able to scream in tune ,he’s got nothing on this guy. Here its merely the start of the concert.
There is a loose fluidity in the playing here, only possible when the band have utmost confidence not only in their own abilities, but those of their bandmates. There is a sense of euphoria throughout in place of aggression. An almost dervish swirling giving a centrifugal feel to the faster tracks.
Al Johnson ,the guitarist fires off Coltrane-like note flurries,He gets fast , wild , but remains precise and inventive. He lacks aggression probably because he knows he will achieve what he is looking for as regards the music he is reaching for .This, in itself separates it from being metal, in most peoples hands playing this type of note flurry would devolve into that base genre, relying too much on pseudo-blues clichés. Art Johnson transcends this through virtuosity not showboating.
His style contrasts well with the fuzz-rhythm, presumably played by Buckley himself. I don’t know if the fuzz is intentional or if it’s just sound distortion on an otherwise great fidelity reproduction.
Both guitarists are just listed as guitar the question of who plays what would be answered by seeing the video footage.
It is a great regret of mine that I never got to see the copy of this my friend had.
There is a 3rd element in the mesh, at least for most of the show .That is the keyboardist Mark Tiernan. I can first identify him in the mud of ‘Devil Eyes ‘which strikes me as strange since that comes straight out of the preceding ‘Get On Top’another question that seeing the visuals would answer.
When Tiernan is noticeable ,the quicksilver slivers on ‘Buzzin’ Fly’ or the vamped opening of ‘Sweet Surrender’ for example you can see he is worthy of playing with such a master as Buckley.
The other player you notice is the drummer, Buddy Helm, who keeps everything in the proverbial pocket .There is one point in the middle of ‘Devil Eyes’ where it sounds like the other musicians just drop out , he is left playing linearly until a yelp from Buckley that causes the entire rhythm to be turned around ,then Tim goes into some of his trademark talking in tongues.
This is the rock band as jazzband ; they seem to avoid falling into fusion (admittedly something which has recently been rehabilitated)this is jazz as in the Coltrane Quintet rather than Return To Forever.
The material here mainly comes from the LP ‘Greetings From L.A.’ the best of his funk period. Funk here retains its original meaning the smell of sex, during this set its overpowering. There are 2 songs that have been in his repertoire for a lot longer though , ‘Buzzin’ Fly’ here played twice as fast as in its original incarnation 7 years earlier on HappySad his first jazzfolk LP, the other is Fred Neil’s ‘Dolphins’ a song that had its official debut on ‘Sefronia’ in 1974 but had been played by Buckley since at least 68,it appears on ‘Dream Letter’, the posthumously released Royal Festival Hall recording from that year ,in a less electric form. The speed seems similar but here is punctuated by Johnson’s
double-speed note flurries. otherwise it retains its original stateliness.
Also on the disc are 5 tracks from June 1975, just prior to his death. The band here is almost completely different apart from the drummer, and the sound quality is far ”lower-fi” but you can tell he still cut it live. This is material from his last two LPs ones that are almost universally disavowed. Here the songs sound great perhaps it was just the studio that messed things up.
(the recent The Dream Belongs to me would seem to confirm this)
Capping things off is the performance of ‘Song To The Siren’ from a1967 “Monkees” show. This is a tune not normally thought of prior to the1970 performance on the actual ‘Starsailor ‘album. Apparently Buckley dropped the song because his bassist’s girlfriend made him self -conscious about the lyrics “I’m as puzzled as an oyster.” From what I remember that line is dropped in the later version.
In conclusion I would say the £15 odd I spent on this was very well spent. This must rank as one of the greatest live albums I’ve heard. Why somebody doesn’t get it together to release a remastered version of the video footage is beyond me. They might consider re-releasing ‘Blue Afternoon’ another currently unjustly lost classic.
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HARDROCK SAMPLER
Early Soft Machine (1966-68)
5-Track
Li Jianhong
The Routes
OMD
XTC
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Van Morrison
Vsevelodon the Bigot Nest (Vsevelod and the Big Nest)