Tim Buckley - Starsailor [Vinyl]
![Starsailor [Vinyl]](/images/Starsailor-Vinyl-B000P6R9U8-L.jpg)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Tim BuckleyEdition: Vinyl
CD Release Date: 2007-08-03
Music Label: 4 Men With Beards
Product features:
- Folk/Neofolk, Pop, Rock
Free Music Notes for Starsailor [Vinyl]
Free Music Review: Tim Buckley's undisputed masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
I wasnt sure what to expect, when i ordered this title on LP format. Naturally, i've wanted to hear this title since I got into Tim Buckley maybe 15 years ago. However, as anyone reading this knows, this title, and Blue Afternoon are unavailable on CD. (If you buy the two CD "Best of" box set MORNING GLORY, you get almost the whole Blue Afternoon CD, but the set only has three of the STARSAILOR songs....ten minutes worth of music. That's hardly enough to form any kind of judgement on the album.) Anyway, I ordered this LP when i saw it available. It arrived in a box, with the LP pressed on virgin vinyl, 180 gram heavy stuff. So, the sound is good. Now, about the actual album. WOW. Nothing from the Morning Glory box set, with the exception of perhaps Monterey, can prepare one for what is on this album. My favorite song is STARSAILOR, personally. I had heard in interviews about what Tim was listening to when he wrote this piece, went far beyond the folk, psychedelia, jazz, and bluesy type material on the other albums. On this album LEGETTI, the composer who wrote the strange music heard in 2001 A SPACE ODDESSY, was an influence. When you hear the song STARSAILOR, you can hear why. Tim had overdubbed tons of vocal parts to achieve the sound on that song. The effect is unknown from any other "POP" or "Rock" music that I'm aware of. Other songs, seem very classical almost, in that "third stream" way, where classical music got crossed with jazz music. (As opposed to FUSION JAZZ, where jazz and rock music shook hands.) From Frank Zappa's classic MOTHER OF INVENTIONS, Buck Gardner plays amazing trumpet parts on this album. Lee Underwood is on guitar again, and I believe ART TRIPP was on drums, tho he isnt on the live songs from this album that are on that new Tim Buckley DVD that has been released recently. Anyway, the percussion is achieved by a drummer playing something like jazz drums, with mallets, instead of the bongos normally heard backed up with marimba parts, from the 68-69 period. I've listened over and over to this album since I've recieved it. If I didnt know that I was listening to Tim Buckley, I would think that I was hearing music by someone in the FREAK FOLK movement, or more exactly, some kind of avant guard jazz group from NYC. (except you have Buckley strumming his 12 string guitar thruout the album....not a normal timbre for jazz fusion music.) Its the odd fusion of so many types of music, that makes this the masterpiece so many people believe it to be. You have folk, avant guard jazz, third stream classical, even some twelve tone type sounds. Again, on the live DVD, when you watch this music played, you can tell how the band was approaching the life production of this music. (and yes, these songs could be played life, for the most part apparently. THAT would have been a concert to see.) Some songs are very far out, basically. I WOKE UP and COME HERE WOMAN, the first two tracks on the album, are typical of what you find here. The one song has chords sliding back and forth, in and out of any key center, with the band inprovising around the basic sound. Still, Tim wasnt playing the chords randomly. HE had that all written out ,and memorized. Amazing, when you hear these two and three chord songs that so much folk and rock music is based upon. The other song, is based on a riff, which moves via a signal from Tim, into a heavily strummed single chord, where the band improvises randomly, and then does more of the same. Two songs seem to lack any normal verse chorus verse chorus structures. The exception is MOULIN ROUGE, very much an "ART SONG", that sounds like some of the tin pan alley/dancehall type music played by The Kinks, Beatles, etc. This song is only a couple of minutes long, but is really charming, and beautifully melodic. SONG TO A SIREN is a folk song, with just vocals and guitar. It sounds very thin in some ways next to the rest of the album's sound. Then again, these changes thruout the album keep it fresh. SONG TO A SIREN, written in 1967, is considered one of Tim's very best, and I believe its the song that THIS MORTAL COIL had covered. Then, you have the avant guard song STARSAILOR that sounds like it could have been written by Legetti. The rest of the songs, are of a type of their own. I wish i could say "just listen to LORCA, and imagine it with a good jazz trumpet in the sound." But Tim was much more far out with this album than he was with LORCA. Sadly, at the time this LP was a disaster, and could very well have been the pin that pop's Tim's belief in his audience's ability to follow where he was going with his musical direction. Maybe the strangest part of this album, is when you realize that Tim Buckley went from here, to GREETINGS FROM LA. That is to say, from avant guard masterpiece to mainstream funk-rock, very pop orienated, very cliche ridden, etc. Now that we are in the year 2007, maybe some of us have the musical acumen to appreciate what STARSAILOR was really about. Actually, if you are a FRANK ZAPPA fan from his jazzy 1968-1970 period (during the period when ZAPPA had Tim Buckley signed to his own label, BIZARRE STRAIGHT) this album would have been within reach of your own freak esthetic. Like the best music by Zappa, STARSAILOR has the atonality, the classical influence, the strong jazz improvising, the devil may care chances with audience acceptance, short songs set against long improv workouts, etc. All i can say in summation, is if you enjoy Tim Buckley, and like LORCA, (which was recorded right before STARSAILOR, tho released after it), then you ought to enjoy this album immensely. Somewhat like Joni Mitchell's album by album advance from well done folk music, right into jazz, each TIM BUCKLEY album is an advancement, and builds on the album before it. Unlike Joni, Tim advanced his vision too quickly, lost most of his core audience, and became a bitter disallusioned man. I think most people who know and respect most musical forms now agree, this was the SUMMIT of Tim Buckley's career. And, if you don't want to pay a hundred dollars for a used CD, or don't want to wait til the rights get cleared (if thats the case) for the CD release, DO buy this LP. You'd be glad you did. But do it soon, because I can't believe it will stay in print forever.
Starsailor [Vinyl] Poster
Originally released in 1970, Starsailor is the most unique and uncompromising release of Tim Buckley's brief but productive career. Combining jazz and avant-garde elements with folk-rock and Buckley's acrobatic vocal performances, Starsailor is one of the most experimental singer-songwriter albums of all time. Though it was a commercial failure at the time of its release, Starsailor has since become a sought after cult classic. Deluxe 180 gram vinyl reissue.Classic Rock Music CDs
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