40 Year Itch : Death My Bride

"He continually took chances with his life. He'd drive like a maniac, risking accidents. For a couple of years he drank a lot and took downers to the point where it nearly killed him, but he'd always escape. Then he got into this romantic heroin-taking thing. Then his luck ran out."
     -Lyricist Larry Beckett

   On June 29, 1975 Tim Buckley died of an overdose, apparently by snorting what he thought was cocaine but turned out to be heroin. A coroner's report also found morphine in Buckley's system. The dose was given to Buckley by a friend named Richard Keeling, who would face second degree murder charges that were eventually dropped. Buckley was hurting right away and Keeling got him home where Buckley's wife got him to bed. When she checked in on him again, he was blue.

   Buckley left us with nine albums that leap from folkie introspection to far out avant garde rock to four octave sex god yowling, each album so different from the previous one that his audience appeared and disappeared in waves. Never big enough to sell "successful " numbers.

   His masterpiece is "Song of the Siren", which somehow found its way on the final episode of The Monkees TV show. In the 1980's, This Mortal Coil's rendition reignited some interest but it was son, Jeff Buckley's, short-lived fame that encourages most fans to pursue this artist's back catalog. There are gems to be sure. I have a soft spot for Greetings From L.A. But most readers will be happy with the two CD anthology Morning Glory.

40 Year Itch : The Campus Report

For October 19, 1973

   According to Tulane University's John Abbott, WTUL's Top 3 most played albums this week were

1. Grover Washington Jr : Soulbox



2. Sopwith Camel: The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon



 3. Tim Buckley Sefronia



While across Freret street, at Loyola University, Thaddeus Jones reported these three albums were the most played

1. The Meters Cabbage Alley



2. Severin Brown (st)



3. Elvin Jones Mr Jones



Finally, Wake Forest's Keith Young says at WFDD-FM the top three albums are

1. Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band Smoke Dreams



2. Robb Kunkel Abyss



3. Spencer Davis Group Gluggo

40 Year Itch: The Sex Album

[Purchase]

Dear Penthouse;

   Though I've been a long time reader of your fine magazine, I never thought I'd have a reason to write you a letter. That is, until a September day in 1972, when I purchased Tim Buckley's new album Greetings From L.A. The cover may have shown a smogged-in City of Angels, but the music inside was a crystal clear celebration of energetic, banging against the bedposts sex.

The album opens with "Move With Me" in which our "hero" meets a big ol' healthy black girl in a meat rack tavern and winds up in bed with her. It's all good until the man of the house walks in, grab shim by the throat and tosses him down the stairs. "Get On Top" was my introduction to Buckley: a celebration of the cowgirl position, speaking in tongues and squeaky bed springs.





  Side Two finds Buckley driving a cab with a dangerous Vietnam vet in the back seat; remembering a love making session on a train and hitching a ride with hopes of finding the kind of girl who will "beat me whip me spank me"..and make it right again.




For the folksinger turned esoteric jazz man, Buckley's Greetings introduced a new phase featuring the "sex funk" sound that would last until Buckley's fatal overdose in 1975 at the age of 28. He left behind a strange assortment of albums and, of course, a son named Jeffrey Scott ( Jeff Buckley).

Dave Wakeling (English Beat) Picks His Top Ten Fave Songs (1980)

English Beat songwriter and guitarist Dave Wakeling provided this list for the April 3, 1980 issue of Smash Hits courtesy of  Like Punk Never Happened. At the time, The Beat were just weeks away from releasing their monumental debut I Just Can't Stop It.

1. Toots and The Maytals: Pomp and Pride
2. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: Tracks Of My Tears
3. Manfred Mann: Ha Ha Said The Clown
4. The Congo: Children Cry
5. Tim Buckley: Sweet Surrender
6. Tapper Zukie: Viago
7. Elvis Costello And The Attractions: Secondary Modern
8. Percy Sledge: When A Man Loves A Woman
9. The Undertones: Male Model
10. Captain Beefheart: Moonlight On Vermont

"I like all of these because of their lyrics, especially the Tim Buckley one."