oh shit, the quote feature works again…dope. Sorry for the late replay to Tim Buckely. Right off the bat I was perplexed. I’d never heard of Tim Buckley. Or maybe I had, but just confused him with Jeff, who I learn was his son? I never connected with Jeff Buckley, but to be fair, I only gave him a few chances so far. Regardless, it was impossible for me to have any perspective on whether Greetings From L.A. was Tim’s “sellout record” since I hadn’t heard anything before. So I picked out his top 2 albums at besteveralbums.com and listened to those first, which were Goodbye and Hello (1967) and Starsailor (1970).
Starsailor was the higher rated of the two, but I listened to Goodbye and Hello first since it was older. It was certainly interesting, but not anything that immediately connected with me. It sounded very much of its time, folky and a bit psychedelic sounding with a bunch of his vocals almost sounding like Grace Slick. Starsailor retained a lot of folk, but added an avant-garde edge, at times sounding like the male counterpart to Nico’s Desertshore. Tim’s weird vocals take a bit to get used to, you almost have to abandon what is considered good taste in a Captain Beefheart Trout Mask Replica kind of way before it can begin to connect. These two albums were a lot to take in and I’m not sure if I will ever really connect to them, but they are weird enough to maybe try to put in the effort…I don’t know…haven’t made up my mind.
So, that brings me to Greetings From L.A. - its as weird as the other two albums, its just the key influences have changed a bit. However, from the little I’ve heard and just based on these three albums, I still don’t understand the sellout part. It just sounds like to me that Tim’s music is heavily influenced by popular or cutting edge music of his time, from Jefferson Airplane and psychedelic influencing his folk in 1967 to more avant-garde influences by 1970, to the Rolling Stones, jazz fusion, funk and cocaine fueled early 70s. If Greetings From L.A. was a sellout, then he was always selling out. But it feels more like he was just reflecting what probably interested him most at the time…kind of like Beck. Depending on his timing, and like Beck, sometimes Tim can probably come across as a cutting edge influencer of other artists, and at other times as a sellout just following the latest musical trends.