It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley

On a frosty Friday evening, we did go out anyway to see the Jeff Buckley documentary. It is 32 years since the release of 'Grace', the only album he released in his far too short life. Next year it is 30 years since his untimely demise.

Since the start of WoNoBlog, I have written a few times on Jeff Buckley or mentioned him. Only last Friday I did because of the link Belgian act Raman. laid between his music and Buckley. (Go and listen to 'I Do'!) The impact 'Grace' had on me, is unmeasurable. It's a long time ago, but I would say it was immediate and certainly irreversible. The live show I saw in 1995 in Nighttown in Rotterdam confirmed it all to me. Around me I only saw resignation to total devotion on the faces of those present. And then came those few lines in a news add in 'NRC Handelsblad': "singer found dead in the Mississippi river".

I have never met Jeff Buckley. Only experienced the influence his music had on me. Despite that, I felt an instant feeling of deep mourning, as if someone I knew really, really well had been taken away from me. A feeling that did not leave me for some time. When in 1998 his second and unfinished album 'Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk' was released, I bought it, of course, but I found I could not listen to it. It was too painful. When a colleague lent me his video of a Buckley show, I switched it off. It was still too painful and we are talking circa 2002 here.

'Grace' though kept growing and growing. The album only got better and better over time. The kind of album that is in my musical stratosphere. An album deserving a 6 where 5 is the maximum and an 11 where 10 is. Even 'Corpus Christi Carol', the song I always skipped at the time, is now a song of profound beauty.

In the years since his demise, I, not being a religious person at all, came to the conclusion that the world was lent an angel that was allowed to share extreme beauty and goodness through its music and was called back, having served its purpose. The voice of Jeff Buckley was angelic, but strong and with a bite that could shock. No voice ever had this impact on me again and probably none ever will.

Reading about him through the years, I've found that many people have experienced what I had experienced. There was even a lady who had made an altar for him. What I saw and experienced at Nighttown was genuine and this must have happened all around the world. It explains the slow rise of his popularity through the decades. It still is. He now has three songs in the Dutch end of year fest called 'Top 2000'. Three, out of his ten songs. Songs that I never hear on the radio.

It's Never Over, gave me a chance to get to know Jeff Buckley from a distance. I realise that the movie is close to hagiographic. People look back on the person who made the difference in all their lives. His mother has become super rich, I think. All the people he worked with would have been considerably less, if at all known, as would most of his girlfriends, bar Joan Wasser I think. They have a stake in making him look good. That's o.k. though, I already think he's an angel anyway.

What the movie shows well, is the impact he made on people, including very famous musicians (and Brad Pitt). That impact is the truth and the reason why people keep discovering 'Grace'. This is his true legacy. One that will last for many years to come. It is nice to see pictures from his youth, the talking heads, etc., but that does not add to the music and that sounded just fantastic in the cinema. Overwhelmingly powerful. In the end it's what it is all about.

One small point of critique is in place. Where was Gary Lucas, beside that one isolated and unexplained photo? Even if he did not want to be in the movie, or couldn't for some reason, a mention of his working with Jeff, that led to two brilliant songs, 'Mojo Pin' and 'Grace', would have been justified. He sprinkled some magical stardust over Jeff, that never rubbed off. Amy Berg made a loving documentary, building on and expanding the legend. Just what fans will want to see.

Finally, although Jeff Buckley battled with some dark thoughts, he turns out to be a nice guy, fairly normal and not too deeply troubled, nor addicted to whatever, besides music (and I can totally relate to that). He was struggling with facets of growing up that we all struggle with and maybe received a little more than most. It is like Joan Wasser said at the end. "When we get older, we grow out of it". Jeff never got that chance.

It's Never Over. What and aptly titled movie. For me this will only be over when my brain stops functioning. Except, we will never know what what in store for us and that is a miss the world will have to live with. We have 'Grace' and that is enough.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght