Image ofTim Buckley

Tim Buckley

Musician
Forlisteners curious about late-60s/early-70s singer-songwriters who pushed into jazz/psychedelia/avant-garde, and readers who enjoy poetic long-form music criticism.
24 Reviews 37 Definitions 93 Charts
Folk Jazz Folk Rock

The Profile

Timothy Charles Buckley III (1947–1975) was an American singer-songwriter known for an exceptional vocal range and for expanding folk into jazz, psychedelia, and avant-garde forms across late-1960s/early-1970s albums. He died in 1975 at age 28.

Born February 14, 1947, in Amsterdam, New York; died June 29, 1975 (age 28). Widely noted for a multi-octave vocal range and for albums spanning folk to experimental works; father of Jeff Buckley.

Across these reviews Tim Buckley is portrayed as an unclassifiable, genre-bending singer whose voice is treated as a full-blown instrument. The most praised stretch centers on 1967–1971 (Goodbye and Hello, Happy Sad, Lorca, Starsailor, Blue Afternoon), with Lorca/Starsailor framed as boundary-pushing peaks. Several writers stress his cult status, lack of mainstream recognition, and an early death at 28. Later records (e.g., Greetings from L.A., Sefronia, Look at the Fool) are often seen as compromised or weaker—though the voice remains the constant.

Notable Quotes

❝ “A legendary voice, which has indelibly marked rock music. His records are the object of a cult, also due to his tragic ending at only 28 years old, on June 29, 1975.”
❝ “No one has ever managed to create the void around the voice like Tim Buckley did”
❝ “Starsailor is the unattainable, and the way to get there, Starsailor is not a difficult or easy album, it is not rock, it is not jazz, it is not even music.”
❝ “In 1974 Tim wrote to Lee Underwood, faithful guitarist and friend: “There are no words for solitude - black, bitter, dark solitude that plucks my roots in the silence of the night”.”
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