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HERE ARE FOUR EMAILS THAT I RECEIVED FROM MEMBERS, WHEN THE BOOK WAS FIRST RELEASED.
Hello Jack,
you've asked for some personal impressions/reactions to the book. Are you
looking for critical responses or more emotional ones? I ask because I don't
wish to bore you with personal obsessions that are of no interest!
Just a few random jottings before I turn in...no order to them!
I approached the book with natural curiosity but wariness. I am not a fan of
most rock journalism. Firstly, it is clearly a book about Jeff and I find
those sections of the book less "distanced" from the author. Obviously, they
are less distanced in time so fresher in peoples minds.
I would have liked more social/musical context to Tim and Jeff's work.
No interviews with Liz Fraser. Perhaps she did not wish to speak but for me
this is a huge gap. Reasons - Jeff greatly admired the Cocteau Twins. They
and the associated bands were responsible for bringing Tim back into the
public's conciousness. Jeff and Liz were close friends. There is something
here I'm trying to express and I can't quite put it into words! I never
really believed stuff Jeff said about not being influenced by his father
because of his friendship with and admiration for Liz Fraser. "Kangeroo", one
of Jeff's favourites, is also covered on "It'll End in Tears" along with
"Song to the Siren".....I think it was an important album for Jeff.
Mary Guibert is still alive...now, this gets personal, so I'll be brief! I
suffered the fall-out of my father abandoning my mother with five kids and
one on the way. For years I was the brunt of her bitterness. I love my mum
but I also love my dad and as he did not die, I was fortunate to get to know
him and be his friend. The book reveals extracts from Jeff's diary which
affirm my instincts that Jeff had indeed known and respected his father's
work and furthermore,that he had developed a love for his father despite his
absence and that before he died, he was coming to terms with his father's
actions. I understand the ability to have a relationship with family members
one has never known, but I won't bore you with that. Let's just say, I
understand the process! So that the quote about Tim from Jeff's diaries
chosen for the sleeve art of "Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk" would
appear to have more to do with Mary's apparent bitterness than anything
Jeff may have been feeling at the time of his death. There were, after all,
many positive quotes that could equally have been chosen. I do not say this
from any prior judgement of Mary - but this is the conclusion I have now
drawn.
The music business is not a place for sensitive artists, period!
Agents...well, again, I understand the pressure they bring to
bear...generally, they take on an artist because thay recognize their talent
and then they run rough-shod over the essence of that talant and think it
can be applied to anything that will make money. Scary people.
Sorry Jack - it's getting into personal obsession time! I'll write some more
when I'm awake!!!
Lots of love,
Hi Jack,
My daughter ordered the UK version for me for Christmas and it amazingly showed up yesterday. I've rushed through the book since last night, so I should probably re-read for the things I missed. But here are my initial impressions:
1) I think it's a well-researched, wonderfully written, serious biography that tears your heart out. It's not fluff (like Dave Marsh's Springsteen fanzines) and it's not vicious, what a relief.
2) That being said, it seems Browne still had a hard time writing a 3-D picture of Tim; he still seems fuzzy. Or maybe I just don't want to see the picture he's painted. (I started thinking about Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown")
3) His story of Jeff is devastating -- dysfunctional childhood is an understatement -- but also really captures what was so extraordinary about him. I'm familiar with Grace, but now I want to check out everything else. Do you have a decent version of the Tim tribute concert? I've downloaded "....Mountain" and "Sefronia" from Napster, but the quality is poor.
4) It reconfirmed my previous impression -- that I had been working very hard to talk myself out of -- that Tim lost his musical way after Starsailor.
5) Browne seems to be saying that Herb Cohen et al were absolutely no help and in fact helped dig the grave -- both musically and personally. Did Herb Cohen rip him off on publishing?
6) Came off better than I expected: Jane Goldstein and Dan Gordon
7) Came off worse than expected: Mary G., Judy B., Lee Underwood (probably because he didn't want to help Browne write his book.
8) One of the best things Browne did was to use Jeff's journal entries or quotes from interviews at the beginning of each chapter. It became clear that he indeed was trying to understand Tim and that at least at some points in time was feeling positively towards him. Contrast all those quotes with the vicious little thing Mary G. (I assume) chose to include in the liner notes to Sketches: "They will accuse me of stealing from my father. They already stand in baited judgment, waiting for my first move, waiting to dump their loads of garbage upon me. I face them like the man he never was and say 'The only thing I ever stole from my FATHER was a fleeting GLIMPSE!!'"
Okay, Jack, anything I've missed? Do you agree/disagree?
dear jack,
> well long time, how have you been.. im doing good.. lots of
> music coming my way and having a good time in general though
> that may just be the good time christmas vibes i get from
> christmas songs this year (though they never change).. .. umm
> anyway i got dream brother last week and am only half way
> through it as i have been very busy but i would like to know
> what you thought as u have read it and are in opinion about the
> buckleys...
> i am at the bit where tim has joined straight and jeff has
> started in sin.. my view of tim has changed slightly and im not
> finished the book yet.. he has become more ... cant find the
> right word,.,, like happy sad i always thought that everyone
> with that loved the progression but it turns out they didnt..
> the way tim changed players notably david friedman and the
> other,, carter collins view whom is someone i always thought tim
> admired and enjoyed becomes redundant..the comment on lee's
> playing being below standard?? who was the culprit! and other
> bits at the start of the book.. the jeff journal excerpts are
> very interesting from his point of view - the comments on
> lorca,, the bitter buckley twist.. mother and father escape
> escape,,, all very personal.. the story of the tim tribute was
> an excellent piece of writing i think... i guess there was more
> information first hand of jeffs life than tims though its as far
> as i can tell a 50/50 book about both... credit must be given to
> david browne for all his work and i very much look forward to
> reading the interview you do with him..
> let me know what you think,,
> hope you are well,
>
> ps - the uk cover looks almost like a poster for a boxing
> match... well..
>
Hi Jack
But now, the sensations I have about the Browne's book are various.
Beforehand, I note that Browne seems more interested in Jeff than Tim, just
contrariwise me. And it's normal if he thought, at the first time, to write
on Jeff, and after, seeing that his father had been interesting, he decided
to write on Tim too.
The way of writing is very straight. Browne doesn't come in complex language
structures nor literary sentences. He goes directly and knows what he wish
tell us. He has interviewed almost relevant people in the life of Tim, and
he has made finally a excellent Biography. And in this sense, the strong
personality of Tim, sometimes, seems so beliaveble, that our heart gets
smaller, every page we read until the end, when Tim, accidentally dies.
Although, I miss so much more comments about the music...
Browne paints, very well documented, a figure very sad, insecure, neurotic
and contradictory, but without explaining the connection between this figure
and the capital circumstance in his life: the music. So, masterworks like
'Happy Sad', 'Blue Afternoon' and 'Starsailor' deserves a treatment deeper,
but in the book are seen quickly, as if they were only pages of a book,
while really they contains the songs that make us love Tim forever.
Another negative fact to me it's the role Browne gives to Lee Underwood,
that is fundamental throughout the Tim's life and career. I don't understand
how his name almost isn't cited during the book.
The book lacks more detailed information about discography, bibliography,
bootlegs, etc., sections that I guess must include at the end.
Anyway, I really recommend the book to any Tim Buckley fan. Above all,
because even for a spanish reader, can be read nicely.
What aobut the Bob Niemi's book. Do you know if he has finished, and if
there is some publisher interested?
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