Tim Buckley

Dreamily handsome, possessed of a genuine, if eccentric, poetic gift, capable of singing a veritable choir of voices, and brandishing an archetypal romantic sen-sibility, Tim Buckley was a sort of late-'60s folkie Coleridge -- overwhelmed by the gods with too many gifts. His work was as ambitious as that of any of his contemporaries: It was also a commercial disaster. His fatal overdose in 1975, however metaphorically apt, was a tragedy -- and for a long time even the Buckley myth was an obscure one, as most of his records had gone out of print.

With such curious instrumentation as bottleneck guitar, harmonium, kalimba, and the vibes that would become a Buckley trademark, Goodbye and Hello drew critical raves for its meandering beauty, willful vision, and strange grace. Somewhat psychically akin to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Leonard Cohen's earliest work, this was orphic, amorphously lovely stuff. With titles such as "Phantasmagoria in Two" and "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain," the record's lyrics recalled Wallace Stevens, and Buckley's voice seemed almost a little mad in its dramatic versatility (he sounds alternately like a child, a crone, and a straightforwardly expert folk singer). With his tone poems extending to 10 and 12 minutes on Happy/Sad, the songs soared past any verse-chorus-verse structure; this was abstract expressionism of a rare bravery. So were Buckley's next three albums, with the jazzy Starsailor being that cluster's standout. Perhaps frustrated with his cult status, Buckley then veered wildly -- Greetings from L.A. was rock, of a sort, and Look at the Fool was desperate (his voice sounds like a croaking Al Green, and the record funks around to no purpose). In his glory hour, however, Buckley was a solid live performer who flourished in concert, and both Dream Letter and Honeyman are outstanding. The mid-'90s witnessed a welcome revival of interest in the singer, largely due to the arrival of his son, Jeff, yet another brilliant talent, who also, sadly, died young. (PAUL EVANS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide