Tim Buckley Goodbye and Hello Elektra [Listen]

Tim Buckley's second album was a far cry from the folk-rock conventions of his 1966 debut, rich in acid-Renaissance trimmings (harpsichord, harmonium) and dominated by the elaborate title suite. Compared to the radical vocal freedom and liquid sadness of Buckley's imminent classics (1969's Happy Sad, 1971's Starsailor), Goodbye and Hello - produced by Lovin' Spoonful guitarist Jerry Yester - was a triumph of form, with Buckley's light tenor voice curling through "Hallucinations" and "Morning Glory" like incense smoke. But Goodbye and Hello was also a deeply personal album, even though Buckley wrote lyrics to only half of the ten songs (he co-wrote the others with Larry Beckett). In the thrilling gallop and stratospheric scat-singing of "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain," Buckley soars in desperate need yet defends the wanderlust that was breaking up his marriage. The song was so important to him - the child in the second verse, "wrapped in bitter tales and heartache," was his then-infant son, Jeff - that Buckley did twenty-three vocal takes, singing live with the studio band.