Ozark Melody - uma música de Jeff Buckley sobre aliens

No dia 12/07, vazou na internet uma música creditada à Jeff Buckley chamada Ozark Melody. A letra foi inspirada em um livro sobre aliens chamado 'The Official Alien Abductees' Handbook: How to Recover From Alien Abduction, escrito por Joe Tripician.

O que chama a atenção nela é a maneira como foi composta. Em 1997, Jeff foi até o apartamento de Fred Reed (engenheiro do clube The Fez, um dos locais onde Buckley freqüentemente tocava) para ouvirem discos. No local, também estava Tripician.

Os três começaram a conversar sobre música e aliens, devido ao fato de Joe ter escrito um livro de humor sobre o assunto. Foi quando Fred disse à Jeff que Joe havia escrito um livro sobre aliens. Então, Buckley pegou um mandolin que havia no local, e começou a tocar, fazendo brincadeiras sobre o assunto, e cantando coisas como 'Oh, the aliens are coming'. Tripician foi até o quarto, e começou a escrever algumas coisas. Quando terminou, mostrou aos outros dois. Devido ao interesse, os três começaram a escrever a melodia, refrão, e acrescentar mais letras. Depois de 4 horas, tinham a música escrita, arranjada e gravada.

Nessa matéria, Reed conta com mais detalhes o que aconteceu no dia. No fim da entrevista, a música está disponível para audição e download. No ITunes, está disponível o podcast "Remembering Jeff Buckley", no qual ele fala sobre conversas privadas e incidências com Jeff Buckley. E, no Indaba, a possibilidade de ouvir as faixas não-mixadas da música.

"Lots of times I feel like I don't belong to this place" (Muitas vezes, me sinto como se não pertencesse à este lugar) - Jeff Buckley

"A lot of people don't know this... but that was not (my father's) voice he was singing with, just as I don't sing with mine. There's a long tradition that goes back generations in my family of singing with a high register voice" (Muitas pessoas não sabem disso, mas aquela não era a voz (do meu pai) quando ele cantava, como eu não canto com a minha. Há uma tradição na minha família, que vem de gerações, de cantar com a voz muito aguda)


Após ler essa frase (retirada do livro Grace, de Daphne Brooks), resolvi fuçar alguns blogs dedicados à Jeff Buckley, e encontrei várias citações. Postarei algumas delas:

Why He’s Hot

His voice. He could allegedly span 4 goddamn octaves.

His orgasmic cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is just that, ORGASMIC.

Look at his freakin’ eyes, look at all that soul, passion and goddamn beauty. I mean, who wouldn’t want to look into those deep eyes during some hot passionate sex?

Not only did he have a beautiful voice, he could wail on his guitar like the best of them. Believe it or not, he originally just wanted to play the axe, and wanted nothing to do with singing. Regardless, a man and his guitar is one of the sexiest things, ever.

And not only could he wail on his guitar, he could write the most amazing lyrics that tore your heart apart and melted your goddamn soul.

I mean, come on, he’s fuckin’ Jeff Buckley. He’s the total badass with the most fragile soul.

"And what do I want people to get from the music? Whatever they want. Whatever you like. Somebody asked me what I wanted to do. I just said I wanted to…just to give back to it what it’s given me. And to meet all the other people that are doing it…just to be in the world, really."

Jeff Buckley

"Jeff Buckley was a pure drop in an ocean of noise."

Bono - Mojo Magazine, August 1997

"His voice is an incredible instrument, angelic and powerful and mean at the same time. Tortured. He has been a huge inspiration and influence to me over the last two years."

Johnny Lang - Rolling Stone Magazine, issues #820, September 2, 1999

"It’s a song about a friend of mine, who’s led a rather excessive life…he is in trouble. This song is for him. I know what self-destruction can lead to, and I have tried to warn him. But I am one big hypocrite because when I called him up and told him about the song I’d written, that same night I took an overdose of hash and woke up the next day feeling terrible. It is very hard not to give in to one’s negative feelings. Life is total chaos."

Jeff Buckley on “Dream Brother”

"The album that I’ve been listening to for the last 18 months is Grace by Jeff Buckley. He is a great, great singer. He has such an emotional range, doing songs by Benjamin Britten and Leonard Cohen as well as his own - such technique and command. When the Page/Plant tour hit Australia, we saw them and we were knocked out. It was very moving. Someone heckled him from the audience - ‘Stop playing that heavy stuff!’ - but he made the perfect reply: ‘Music should be like making love - sometimes you want it soft and tender, other times you want it hard and aggressive.’ I felt he paid us a great compliment with his music in that style."

Jimmy Page - Mojo Magazine, January 1997

"Artists just need to shut the fuck up and listen to what exactly is coming from inside. You just have to find exactly what you should be doing, and if you didn’t have that thing, you would die. Perish, slowly or quickly, violently. And every choice is made from that. I have to do this, I’m made to do this. I can’t do anything else. I tried. I don’t really feel fulfilled any other way."

Jeff Buckley

Jimmy Gnecco - “I Heard You Singing”

Beautiful song that (many fans think) Jimmy wrote with Jeff in mind.

This is a great quote from him when he played a show in June of 2007 in Memphis:

About 8 years later, I had taken a break from singing. I felt like our music had become a little too self-serving and that we were doing it for the wrong reasons. During that time a friend of mine asked me “Are you sure you don’t know this guy Jeff that just put this record out?” We were like “No we don’t him personally, we know of him, we know his music, but we don’t know him.” Basically, I thought it was strange that we didn’t know each other, and we had probably crossed each other’s paths so many times in New York City and played maybe a lot of the same places and sounded so similar to some people, we thought it was strange. I got know him shortly before he died, I was to come down here to Memphis and spend some time with him as he was writing and recording his new record. Race came in my place, because I could not get off from work and I was home actually working on songs. So, long story short, I was not Jeff’s roadie…he was a friend of mine, and tonight we sing for him and his spirit, his body that he left here in Memphis, but his spirit that lives on in all of us and so many people still to come in the future.

"Jeff Buckley’s recording of ‘Hallelujah’ humbles me and takes him to that special place that only very few songs manage to do."

Douglas Payne (from the band Travis) - Interview Magazine

"Jeff is one of my favorite musicians and singers of all time. Never have I seen such infinite musical potential in anyone. It’s just gone. It’s chilling how much it hurts."

Ben Harper (from Canada’s JAM! Music)

"My last memory of him was at the little party in the green room afterwards. There were all these people sitting round Jeff who’d never met before - Fretwork, the viol group, a classical pianist and some jazz player —all talking and laughing about music. He’d charmed everybody. I’d much rather remember that than anything."

Elvis Costello: Mojo Magazine, August 1997

"Jeff was somebody who would have been one of those people that influenced other singers. He was an amazing singer. I had an idea of what his music meant to people because he did this amazing thing in such a short period of time. He’s going to be the most important artist to so many people throughout their lives. We were really good friends and as an individual he was different from any other friend I’ve had. I was looking forward to a long friendship with him. As an artist, he was one of the few people that really inspired me. I was counting on him to be one of the persons who would pressure me to move my limits in many years to come. It’s very important to have this kind of challenge, someone who inspires you to grow with the challenge. That push to get you to do new things is very healthy and Jeff was one of those people who inspired you to expand your way of thinking about yourself and music."

Chris Cornell (from Jeff Buckley Newsletter, November 5, 1999)

"I don’t write my music for Sony. I write it for the people who are screaming down the road crying to a full-blast stereo."

Jeff Buckley

"I miss protecting him. I think that’s probably the hardest thing. I’ve never said that or thought about it, but it was protecting him and protecting his music and bringing him across the way he wanted to be brought across. That’s the joy of it. Forget the money, forget all the other bullshit, because at the end of the day when you walk in the door and you see him, you see that you’ve protected his baby. And that’s his art. And him personally."

Dave Lory (one of Jeff’s managers), A Wished-For Song

“All along, he was willing to say fuck you to the business. When you look at that video of ‘Last Goodbye,’ at the very end he looks at the video camera really pissed off. That is not an act. He was so pissed off that he had to do that video.”

George Stein (Jeff’s other manager)

"He came here a lot to eat. He didn’t come in here just because we gave him free food, he just came because he knew if I was here I was going to sit down and talk to him and if I wasn’t, he could just be anonymous and have his meal. He was very wanted here. It really makes me cry, because I know how he felt and I felt so….pleased that we could give that to him and I really feel that was more important than giving him a stage to play on because he could get that anywhere."

Ellen Cavolina, A Wished-For Song

"The details of Jeff Buckley’s Mississippi River demise are murky. The details of his mercurial full-length solo album, Grace, have absolute clarity: It is an album of blues turmoil and folk beauty. Buckley’s falsetto soars while mournfully evoking lost love and eternal life, backed by lush, almost musical Zep-inspired rock. the intensity of his feeling patches over the music’s rough spots and cements his legacy as the angst angel of the infinite melancholy."

Jessica Grose in Spin Magazine’s 100 Greatest Albums: 1985-2005 list, July 2005 (Grace came in at #82)

"Jeff is so talented he should be looked for in ‘93 and many years to come. When you hear him sing, you will understand"

Bob Mould (in Spin Magazines “Who Do You Love?” column, January 1993)

"I think I was very lucky. I think he always trusted me and I’m very proud to be able to say that. And I think he always knew I was there to protect him and to look after him and not to exploit him. Although my brief was to promote an artist it was more sort of artist relations, to make sure that the artist was happy. And I did, I felt very maternal toward him, as anybody would with Jeff. I think he brought out that quality, he was so likable and so innocent, for want of a better word. I took it very seriously. That was another quality about Jeff: he would bring out this thing in people where you wanted to please him. That was why so many people put so much care into what they did around him. Because he deserved it, he did what he did so well that you couldn’t let him down."

Sam Way, A Wished-For Song

"He had very good instincts. He’d reject nine out of ten offers, things that’d make him a lot of money. Like the Prada shoot, things like that, and movie roles like The Mirror Has Two Faces. “Look, I’m a musician,” is what he’d say. “I’m not an actor, I’m not a model, why do I have to waste time on that, that’s gonna get in the way of my real important purpose in life, music. Music for the people."

Jack Bookbinder, A Wished-For Song

"I learned that I shouldn’t put on the radio if Jeff was in the car with me because he would just focus so much on the radio and play with the dial like he’d never seen a radio before. He couldn’t resist it, you’d lose him…it was a very funny thing."

George Stein, A Wished For Song

"I just didn’t want him to think that the person that he was was not important, the person was more important. If he never sang another day in his life it would be everybody’s loss, but he was so…important. For some reason I think he wasn’t sure about that, he knew that he had the gift, but I’m not sure that he knew that if he didn’t have the gift, that he was still okay, that he was of great value anyway."

Ellen Cavolina, A Wished-For Song



"This is a song about politicians, religious fanatics, and morons who cut school and shit, and governmental education to become St. Lucas and plug their secretaries. This world doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to lovers who sing their souls. It belongs to people who make love with no shame, who love their bodies. The bodies of women, the bodies of men, the bodies of hope. Anything else is death!"

 Jeff Buckley, On Eternal Life





"And then on the 7th day God got into his underwear and got a broom and he invented rocking out!"

 Jeff Buckley, On Kick Out The Jams



"If you want to get somewhere in this life, learn to draw beautiful women."

Jeff Buckley

13 anos sem Jeff Buckley

O título desse post resume o que aconteceu no dia 29/05, mais especificamente no dia 29/05/97: a morte de Jeff Buckley, por afogamento.

Resolvi deixar o link da sua página oficial no YouTube. Para os admiradores, uma maneira para tentar amenizar a dor. Para quem não o conhece, aqui está a oportunidade para conhecer um pouco do trabalho desse talento que nos deixou cedo demais.

Discografia de Jeff Buckley em vinil

A Music On Vinyl (selo holandês que relança álbuns somente em vinil de 180g) está relançando os álbuns de Jeff Buckley, há um tempo, disponíveis somente em CD.

Por enqüanto, estão disponíveis em LP (conforme data do relançamento nesse formato) os álbuns Grace (1994), Mystery White Boy (2000), The Grace EPs (2002), e Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk (1998).

Até o momento, não tem informações sobre o relançamento dos álbuns Live At Sin-é (1993), Live At L'Olympia (2001), Songs To No One (2002) e So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley (2007).


Fontes: Music On Vinyl (informações sobre os relançamentos) e jeffbuckley.com (ano de lançamento)

Pergunte-me no Formspring.me

Ontem, fiz a seguinte pergunta para uma das pessoas que sigo no Twitter, a Raíza (@raizalovers):

"Se você tivesse a oportunidade de conversar com o Jeff Buckley por 15 minutos, e tivesse que fazer apenas uma pergunta à ele, o que perguntaria?"


Ela respondeu o seguinte:

Gente, eu nunca pensei nisso. Difícil!

Na verdade a primeira coisa que falaria pra ele era "Obrigada".
E pediria pra ele cantar a música Calling You pra mim! Ia chorar horrores


Ela fez a mesma pergunta para mim. Levei minutos pensando na resposta. E acabei respondendo o seguinte:

Hahahahahahaha. Caramba, é difícil responder essa pergunta... ainda mais se tratando do Jeff Buckley.

Primeiro, vou citar uma coisa que aconteceu comigo quando conheci o Chris Cornell. Quando fiquei cara-a-cara com ele, simplesmente não conseguia falar nada, somente olhava para ele, quieta. Só consegui falar algo 5 minutos antes de sairmos do camarim.

No caso do Jeff, eu acho que iria chorar muito, devido a oportunidade que me deram para conversar com ele, por alguns minutos. Primeiro, falaria que "A história da sua vida, embora trágica, soube superá-la com dignidade. Você é um exemplo de determinação e persistência". Também diria "Muito, muito obrigada pela inspiração", pois é por causa dele que comecei a estudar canto. E pediria para ele cantar "Grace", e perguntaria se eu poderia cantar junto.

Pena que a única maneira para falar com ele é somente em sonho. :(


O Formspring.me é um site no qual os usuários (principalmente os do Twitter) postam vários tipos de perguntas para outros responderem. É uma forma criativa para conhecermos outras pessoas.

O mundo do rock de luto

Hoje de manhã, tive um susto enorme quando li no caderno Ilustrada, da Folha de S. Paulo, a seguinte notícia: "Morre Ronnie James Dio, ex-vocalista do grupo Black Sabbath". Como estou sem condições psicológicas para escrever sobre a sua pessoa, resolvi disponibilizar o link da notícia. É só clicar no link para ler a matéria completa no site do jornal.

Um leitor postou a seguinte frase em seu comentário: "O Dio... ah, esse teve atitude, respeito próprio, postura e, acima de tudo, talento!

Que voz! Descanse em paz! São seres humanos assim que o Brasil deveria espelhar-se!"

O dia 16/05/2010 ficará marcado como o dia em que o mundo da música perdeu um dos músicos mais carismáticos e talentosos do rock/metal.

Da minha parte, não lhe direi "Adeus". E, sim, "Até Logo!". E, como diz uma das suas músicas mais conhecidas: "Long Live Rock And Roll".

É só. :'(

Quem procura, sempre acha (mesmo que demore anos)

Imagina passar 2, 5, 10 anos procurando algo que você deseja, mas que nunca acha. Ou, quando acha, pede para guardarem e, quando vai buscar, descobre que foi vendido (detalhe: era o último no estoque, e o pior, fora de catálogo). Pois é, eu passei por isso. Durante mais de 5 anos, procurei um álbum do Jeff Buckley chamado Grace, mas o que eu queria era o vinil.

"Mas você não tem o CD?", talvez você deva estar se perguntando. Sim, eu tenho o CD. Mas o vinil tem algo que não dá para explicar, uma sensação que não dá para descrever. Além do mais, eu cresci ouvindo os discos do meu pai, então, poderia ser uma explicação válida.

Essa "novela" acabou da seguinte maneira:

Um belo dia de janeiro desse ano, fui em uma loja da Galeria do Rock chamada Zeitgeist buscar uma caixa de CDs que tinha encomendado em outubro de 2009. Conversando com o dono da loja, comentei que queria comprar uns vinis, mas tinha muita dificuldade para achar o do Jeff Buckley. Olhando o catálogo, ele me disse que dava para encomendar, mas demoraria um pouco para chegar, já que viria da Europa. Claro que não me importei com isso, afinal, finalmente eu iria ter em vinil um dos meus álbuns preferidos.

No dia 06/03, lendo os e-mails, dei de cara com um escrito no assunto "LP do Jeff Buckley". Fiquei intrigada com aquilo, pois tinha me esquecido que tinha encomendado. Já estava quase me conformando em ter que encomendar pela Amazon, ou algo parecido. Quando abri o e-mail, dizia que o LP já estava na loja. Na hora, tive uma mistura de sensações: satisfação, surpresa, alívio...

No dia 08/03, eu iria resolver uns pepinos na Barra Funda. De lá, pegaria o ônibus, e iria até a Galeria buscar a encomenda. Pelo horário que saí de casa, acabei chegando no centro da cidade por volta das 15:00. Como não iria mais dar tempo para ir à Barra Funda, acabei ficando por lá mesmo. Ao chegar na loja, e me identificar, o dono me mostrou o LP que tinha encomendado. Quando fui pagar, o primeiro perrengue: a maquininha não lia o meu cartão. Tive que ir até o banco em frente da Galeria, e enfrentar o segundo perrengue: uma bela fila estava formada no local, só para saque.

Voltei na loja e, depois de pagar, saí do local com o vinil nas mãos. Fui pegar o ônibus na Praça da República. Na sorte, apareceu um trólebus que iria para o Terminal Pq. D. Pedro. No terminal, tava parado o ônibus que iria até a minha casa. Levei em torno de 1:15, pois o ônibus que peguei iria pela Radial Leste, e era o começo do horário de pico.

No meio do caminho, lembrei que teria que descer um ponto antes, pois iria passar na casa de um amigo e pegar um songbook emprestado. Ele quase teve um treco quando me viu segurando o vinil (ele também é fã do Buckley). Pena que ele não estava mais com o songbook, pois era emprestado...

Pois bem, depois de todos esses anos de angústia e todos esses perrengues, enfim, posso falar: finalmente tenho o vinil do Jeff Buckley. Aqui está:

Capa:

Contracapa:

Frente do encarte:

Verso do encarte:

Vinil (com o envelope protetor):

Vinil (sem o envelope protetor):