Track Listing

1. Dolphins
2. Honey Man
3. Morning Glory
4. Coming Home To You (Happy Time)
5. Sing A Song For You
6. Hallucinations/Troubadour
7. Once I Was
8. I Don't Need It To Rain

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154470 in Music
• Released on: 1999-07-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

CD Description
Several posthumous live Tim Buckley recordings have been released, some with overlapping material, so navigation can bea daunting task. For the record, ONCE I WAS consists of five tunes previously included on THE PEEL SESSIONS (now out ofprint), one available as an import on THE COPENHAGEN TAPES,and two 1974 cuts never before released. The latter featureBuckley in his late-period, rocked up mode, moving through a Fred Neil chestnut and a lusty original composition.
The meat of the album is the BBC cuts, which capture Buckley in a transitional period, not quite exited from his folk troubadour mode, and just about to burst into the jazz-folk glory of HAPPY SAD. The concluding Copenhagen selection, "I Don't Need It to Rain", finds Buckley letting loose his voice injazzy/funky flights of sheer musical joy over a loose groove, and it's here that he seems the most comfortable and unselfconscious.

Customer Reviews

Timeless
Bizarrely, this is in my opinion the best Tim Buckley cd out there. Gleaned from different live BBC sessions, it provides a direct glimpse of his talent, unfettered by studio production or complex jazz/folk arrangements. What you get is Tim's voice, stripped down acoustic guitar and some minimal (but beautiful) musical backing from his band. In particular, the guitar work on 'Hallucinations/Troubadour' is outstanding. (Lee Underwood who played on this sounds like a forerunner to John Frusciante who has explored the same territory on Red Hot Chilli Pepper tracks like 'Scar Tissue' and 'I Could Have Lied' as well as his own solo work).

As well as this track, which is mesmerising, there is the glorious funk/blues howl of 'Honey Man' and the classic 'Sing A Song For You' which is the purest and best version of this track I've heard.

His studio albums now sound a bit dated, probably because the production of them ties them so distinctly to the sixties/seventies. But here the songs sound timeless, like they could have been recorded yesterday. Even if you have everything else by him, buy this, it's Tim Buckley as you have probably never heard him before.