I’ve been a fan of both Tim and Jeff Buckley for a long time. They both have beautiful voices and their song choices have always spoken to my soul. Jeff’s version of Hallelujah, is in my opinion, the best ever recorded, even better than Leonard Cohen’s own version. It’s transcendant and lifts me up every time I hear it – gives me chills.
Jeff Buckley had a sad and short life. Although Tim Buckley was his father, I’ve read that they only met once when Jeff was 8. Tim died of a drug overdose in 1975 and Jeff never really knew him. Jeff only released one album during his short life, called Grace. There were others released posthumously, but only the one while he was alive.
On May 29, 1997, Jeff went swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a channel of the Mississippi River and drowned. His body was found about a week later and an autopsy showed no drug or alcohol abuse, and those around him at the time said that he was in good spirits and no one believed this was a suicide. He was singing the chorus of “Whole Lotta’ Love” by Led Zeppelin when he dove into the river and given the tone and ferocity of that song, it doesn’t seem that his frame of mind would have been suicidal. He was only 30 when he died. I guess it was just his time.
I was listening to this on my IPod this morning, and thought I’d like to post it up here to share with anyone visiting. It’s so beautiful and haunting and yet somehow it always lifts me up. Enjoy. (Sorry about the ad at the beginning of the video, but this is the live version that I like the best).
I never heard this version before–really nice, Claudia! Always loved Leonard Cohen.