UNDERAPPRECIATED MUSIC: TIM BUCKLEY

The amazing talents of Tim Buckley were laid to waste in 1975 when, at the age of 28, he died after ingesting a bag of heroin.  Moving from folk sound to other types of music, Buckley was an instrumental and vocal innovator who was not a great commercial success during his lifetime but who became more and more influential after his death as people began to recognize his abilities.

Buckley was a popular student in high school and captained the school's football team; an injury during one game left him with two permanently damaged fingers which left him unable to play certain guitar chords and pushed him into using extended chords.  An unhappy home life with an increasingly abusive father, a "shotgun" wedding to his high school sweetheart leading to a disruptive and short-lived year-long marriage, and an even shorter (two weeks!) college career all led to a full-time dedication to music.  All of this may have had some role in his self-destructive obsession with the fast life; according to his lyricist,  "He continually took chances with his life.  He's drive like a maniac, risking accidents.  For a couple of years he dranks 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."  Nonetheless, his overose took friends, family, and fans by surprise.

Buckley's son Jeff was born a month after his divorce from his first wife and was raised by his mother and stepfather.  Jeff met his father only once -- when he was eight, the same yeaar when Tim Buckley died.  Jeff Buckley became a successful musician and died in an accidental drowning in the Mississippi River.  He was only thirty -- two years older than his father when he died.  Unlike his father, there was no question about drugs being inolvved in his death.

The link brings to what one Youtuber feels was the ten best songs of Tim Hardin -- strangely, the link contains 13 songs.  Oh well.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU462DCBkgLwMDnt65zLbIqwxDitygOdW

And here's son Jeff with a fantastic cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YjbJTS5C_I