Tim Buckley - Greetings From L.A.
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.69 You Save: $8.29 (59%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.15 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Greetings From L.A.
Free Music Review: Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Forget two things: everything you think you know about Tim Buckley, and everything the critics have told you about this album.
Actually, let me take that first comment back, or at least qualify it: you probably know Buckley had one of the best voices in rock. He could lilt babies to sleep with his early folk, but once he got into the avant-gaurd, he could wale and fly into deep space in octives only Robert Plant could then compete with. Here, this has not changed a bit. His soaring voice adds to the subject matter here--in fact it is taylor cut for this.
But on Greetings From LA, Buckley is not lighting any purest candle for any vagabond. This is the 1970s, and the bard has cut his curls and is on the strip, on the hunt. Morning Glory? Who cares.
Greetings from LA is about the night. About when 1960s free love became 1970s pleasure hunt. He is only lighting the candle for the "b*i-t-c---h dog in heat" described on "Get On Top." (And I am being conservitive in the lyric qoutes, just to get this published.)
All this is done to a deep, exotic, popping funk, provided by the best in the business: Chuck Rainey and many other funky associates. These were THE guys to get if making jazz or funk or both in the 70s. (It seems every fourth or fifth album I love, Rainey is on it. A good penny.)
These songs are long, girating canvases, played perefectly by these amazing musicians. This is funk, not disco, but it is amazing how hard the beat is driven, yet how musically it is played. The opener is blues funk. "Get On Top" works as proto-dance music. "Sweet Surrender" is exotic, middle eastern, a slow naughty satin burn--the stuff of your knuckle rapping top-bottoned school teacher's most pleasent dreams.
Buckely had of course dealt with intimacy before: "Gypsy Women" for example. But this was the stuff of the kids bathing in creeks at Woodstock in 1969, not in the 1974 key clubs. The mileu is ENTIERLY different. What is Buckley up to?
Is he exploring the freedom those kids at Woodstock faught for? Is he documenting what was then current behavior--a failed 1967 utopia turned into a 1974 free for all, armed with a gas mask? Or is he just being as naughty as he wants because he wants to? Because he now can and its fun?
Well,its hard to tell, but no doubt that the music is sure as hell great--some of the best funk out there.
That alone makes this worth getting
.
Free Music Review: Terrific album - but it ain't live!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is tremendous album. Buckley's voice was something else: he had a truly astonishing range, great control and timbre, and the ability to be both powerful and delicate. He was also a fine artist, who used his amazing voice more like a musical instrument.But just one note of correction: this album was NOT recorded live. It is a STUDIO album. Apart from the fact that there is no crowd noise whatsoever (even in between the tracks), the CD itself clearly states: "Recorded at Far Out Studios, Hollywood, CA"!
For me, the two standout tracks are Sweet Surrender and Hong Kong Bar. The former is a simply amazing vocal performance. The latter is an acoustic number that is more reserved, but is quite emotional and touching. Move With Me, Get On Top and Devil Eyes and are all good. The weakest tracks are Nighthawkin' and Make It Right, but only because they seem almost ordinary compared to the others.
Altogether, this is an album that ought to rank in any serious list of classic rock albums.
Free Music Review: A buried treasure
Hit: 5 Stars
Why isn't this record ever listed in the pantheon of classic rock LPs? I've had several Tim Buckley records in my collection since teenhood, but I'd never heard "Greetings" until last week (30 years after its original release). It's not only Buckley's best album, it's one of the best rock albums I've ever heard. Released in 1972, it could have been recorded yesterday. Or tomorrow. There's perfection in every aspect: songwriting, arrangements, recording (and live at that!), sequencing and especially performance. And Buckley's sexuality is blistering throughout. Every modern record buyer and recording artist should discover this record. They just don't make 'em like this anymore....
Free Music Review: Whodo Voodoo
Hit: 5 Stars
With proper promotion this could have been a huge commercial success, but then that would have spoiled the arc that Tim was on, uncompromising artistic integrity, and unrivaled talent, unnoticed and all the more powerful without the hype from Tin Pan Alley and the Under Assistant
West Coast Promo Man.
This album just flat out rocks and I wish people would quit comparing it to Jeff; it stands on its own as an authentic piece of soul music uncategorized. Personally, I never met a Buckley album that I didnt like, though some fans are still trapped in the Goodbye and Hello phase.
They have missed a lot of good music in between.
Free Music Review: Essential Album
Hit: 5 Stars
Obscure, hard to find, and most definitely, brilliant, this ain't no live album. Perhaps a little respect for one of the greatest albums ever made! Funky and silky smooth, with the greatest vocal work ever laid down on vinyl, perhaps the critics couldn't handle it coming from a 'folk' artist. The music is timeless, it could of been made yesterday. It was also, obviously, Jeff Buckley's greatest inspiration. If you like old time rock or blues, or Jeff's work, or just like good music, there ain't no excuse for not having this album.