Jeff Buckley

I’ve been listening to Jeff Buckley a lot lately. I don’t think I’ve ever really appreaciated his work and his voice as much as I do now. He has one of the most elastic, expressive voices I have ever heard — kind of like his father (Tim Buckley). I think Adam Lambert has the same sort of voice (though that didn’t even dawn on me until a couple of days ago). I don’t think I’ve ever heard a rock vocalist with as wide of a range as Jeff had. Maybe Steven Tyler and Robert Plant came close. I get more out of listening to his album Grace each time I hear it — it’s like slowly unfolding new layers of each song. Even his earlier recordings from ’92/’93 are pretty incredible, and especially notable for his cover choices. I can’t think of many rock acts that have covered Judy Garland, Nina Simone and Johnny Cash, all the while being able to put their own signature on the songs.

I also heard yesterday that they are making a biopic on his life. Would be interesting to see, though apart from his death, I’m not sure that his life was all that interesting. The two main contenders for the role are James Franco and Robert Pattison. Franco seems to be the obvious choice — he looks pretty similar to Buckley and I think he could probably nail the performance. Pattison really isn’t that great of an actor and I’d hate to see Buckley’s story drowned out in all that Twilight hype.