JEFF Buckley inherited the voice and songwriting talent of, the late Tim Buckey, but the last thing he expected to do was follow his father into an early grave. The 30 year old singer songwriter disappeared while swimming near the Mississippi River last week, and is now presumed drowned. His father, Tim Buckley, died of a heroin overdose in 1975. Authorities in Memphis, Tennessee have stressed that there is no evidence of drug or alcohol abuse in Jeff Buckley's drowning, and Buckley's mother, Mary Guibert, has urged people not to speculate beyond the facts of the tragedy, nor to believe any rumours which may start to circulate.
Here are the facts as relayed last Tuesday by Buckley's record label, Sony Music at around 9 p.m. on Thursday May 28th, Jeff and his friend, Keith Foti, were on their way to a rehearsal studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where Buckley was preparing to record his second album. They had been to a local restaurant for something to eat, but before they went on to the studio, they stopped off at a nearby marina where Buckley had gone swimming before. The singer got into the water fully clothed, and horsed around for 15 minutes, laughing and singing. Foti stayed on shore with the pair's portable radio/cassette player, from where he could see and speak to Buckley while he swam.
A number of boats then passed by, causing waves, and Foti turned around to move the ghettoblaster and stop it from getting wet. When he turned back to Buckley, the singer was gone.
Foti called out to his friend for 10 minutes before calling the police, and Memphis authorities believe that Buckley was swept away by an undertow caused by the passing boats. They began an extensive search of the area - a dangerous stretch of water - at 10 pm., using boats, horse and foot patrols, helicopters and scuba divers. The search went on through the weekend, hampered by heavy rain on the surface and poor visibility in the water, but though Buckley's body had not yet been found, his family and friends were certain that he had drowned.
"It has become apparent to me that my son will not be walking out of the river," said his mother, Mary Guibert. "It is now time to make plans for a life that was golden. I ask people who cared about Jeff to please be honourable and faithful to his memory, to send their best wishes to Jeff and to all of us who are mourning his passing."
Early on Thursday morning, it was reported that a passenger on the American Queen riverboat had spotted Buckey's body floating in the river near Memphis's famous Beale Street. His clothes and pierced navel fitted the description given to police, which seems to confirm that Jeff Buckley is indeed dead.
The world at large may not know much about Jeff Buckley, but in the world of alternative rock, the singer is already a legend. His father, Tim Buckley, released eight critically acclaimed albums, show casing an awesome vocal power which never translated into commercial success. A troubled artist who fought with drug addiction, Tim Buckley left his wife when Jeff was just six months old, so the younger Buckley never knew his father.
"I'm actually the son of Mary Guibert," Buckley told The Irish Times in a 1995 interview. "My mother was born in the Panama Canal zone, and came to America when she was five, with my grandmother and grandfather. and that was the family I knew. Everybody sang, everybody had songs all the time and they loved music."
Buckley grew up in California, and he described his, adolescence as "rootless", moving from one small town to another, never settling Ion enough to feel at home. At the age of five, he found his grandmothers guitar, and started to play. He wrote his first song at 13, and by the time he was 17, he had quit school and started playing in rock and reggae bands around Hollywood.
Buckley moved to New York in, 1990, where he finally got the courage to strike out as a solo artist. During the next couple of years, he played the coffeehouse circuit, doing cover versions of rock songs and interpreting folk standards, and he was a frequent fixture at SinE Cafe in the East Village. Word got around about the singer with the beautiful, versatile voice, And on one memorable night in SinE, the street was jammed with limousines, all belonging to the A & R people who had come to see Buckley perform. A four song CD, Live At Sin-E, records Buckley in full flight during that period.
Epic Records won the chequebook battle, and, realising they had signed a legend in the making, allowed Buckley complete artistic control over his music. His debut album, Grace, had no obvious hit singles, but it did feature an incredible cover version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and songs like Last Goodbye, Mojo Pin and Dream Brother showed a burgeoning songwriting talent which could outlive any hype. "I don't choose the songs, the songs choose me," said Buckley.
The singer came to Dublin in 1994, playing a solo gig in Whelans on Wexford Street, and winning a large fan following here. He also made many friends in Ireland, including Welsh Breton singer songwriter Katell Keineg and Frames singer Glen Hansard.
In 1995, Buckley played the Tivoli Theatre with his band, and 1,000 Irish fans crammed into the Francis Street venue to hear "the voice" in action. By this time, Buckley had become a bona fide cult, but even then he played down his status, and I also refused to trade on his father's".
"I'm far from being a consummate artist," he said. "I mean, this is. just my first album, and the work is very new. I'm just beginning, and I'm certainly not worthy of demigod status. There's absolutely no danger of me reaching that."
Sadly, Buckley's beginning was also his end, and he never got a chance to record the follow up to Grace. Ironically, his premature death may gain him that demigod status which he so categorically denied. The NME reports that, after the news broke about Buckley's disappearance, fans held a vigil outside the building in New York which used to house Sin-E cafe, and that during U2's concert at the Giants Stadium in New York last Saturday, Bono dedicated Staring At The Sign to the memory of the singer.
"Sometimes you have to look deep to find a person's soul," says Glen Hansard, who played with Buckley in New York. "But there are a rare few people whose soul is so near the surface that you can feel it immediately. Jeff was one of those people. We met in New York before I even knew he was a singer, but I lost contact with him in the last couple of years. He seemed to be surrounded by this big entourage, and the last time he was in Dublin, he was wrecked from all the gigging and promotion. Anybody with a shining soul, people seem to latch onto it and want to stop others from getting near it.
"I heard he went into the water with all his clothes on, singing and playing the guitar. That was just like Jeff. One time we were in Belfast, and he just took off and started strolling along the streets, singing and playing the guitar. He lived life on that level he'd just pick it up and wander off and see where it brought him."
