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With this second work Buckley begins to venture into the experiments that will consecrate him as a "navigator of the stars", leaving his shadow etched among the vaults of singer-songwriters of all time.
Already the tempos of the songs begin to show themselves more and more fluid and malleable, the arrangements become a dense echo of the journeys into the depths of drugs: listen to the pompous "Pleasant Street" in light of this, with its evident reference to the tunnel of addiction and the impossibility of doing without what gives the most vivid images.
Tim is always accompanied by his trusted lyricist Larry Beckett and guitarist Lee Undrwood, and on this occasion the precious work of Leonard Cohen's conga player, Carter Collins, lends its hand.
What Tim Buckley accomplishes on this record is one of the countless steps forward towards pure experimentation, driven by his jazz guardian spirits like Coltrane and Miles Davis; he fills the compositions with sudden tempo changes, free-form risks and surges into pure psychedelia, playing like a voice acrobat in the carnival of throats.
The pure gem "Once I Was" shines, which will later be revisited by his son Jeff, as if between the two there always existed a mysterious and transcendental umbilical cord: Tim pays homage to the abandoned family with "Dream Letter" and Jeff treasures his father's legacy in his short career.
"Hallucinations" forcefully transports us to a medieval market where Jethro Tull plays as guests; where the harp's carpet and the play of guitars give us a richly jagged wall on which to draw the graffiti of imagination.
"I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain" is the farewell declaration to his wife and son Jeff, elegantly played with a voice laid over a dense hammering of percussion and guitars: a liberating yet bitter anthem where abandonment can give a sense of newfound freedom but also fear of the unknown. This is a track where the neurotic sense of racing becomes penetrating and gasping: an Ode to Joy in acid where Tim almost screams not to hear the recriminations of those abandoned.
"Phantasmagoria in Two" is genuinely what the title declares: a melancholy and imaginative song in 2/4 sung with a falsetto barely cracked by tears; here too the sense of motion is very strong, serving on a golden platter the sound of the wind, the rustle of leaves teased by Underwood's free guitar.
Lee Underwood once declared that it was impossible to be bored with Buckley on stage, because he was always ready to change and play with genres, to experiment with his voice where no one had gone before.
The title track "Goodbye and Hello" is the vinyl equivalent of this free-spirited song, a child of its lysergic and psychedelic times, with proud trumpets breaking in between verses, with continuous angry bursts that turn the song in surprising, incalculable, and also very spontaneous directions, making joyful what was gloomy and difficult a moment before.
Once a very dear person to me said that poetry in order to be beautiful must surprise, continually move the camera from one scene to another, working on the juxtapositions of images and sounds not to bore and to enter the heart.
Goodbye And Hello is a poem.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
04 Hallucinations (04:53)
I saw you walking
Only yesterday
When I ran to catch you
You disappeared
And the street was gray
The candle died
Now you are gone
For the flame was too bright
Now you are gone
I heard you laughing
With your laugh of gold
When I called out to you
Silence returned
And the air was cold
The castle fell
Now you are gone
No more rings the bell
Now you are gone
I found a letter
On the day it rained
When I tore it open
There in my hands
Only ash remained
The castle fell
Now you are gone
No more rings the bell
Now you are gone
I felt you breathing
As I fell asleep
When I reached out to touch you
No one was there
And the night was deep
The candle died
Now you are gone
For the flame was too bright
Now you are gone
I saw you walking
Only yesterday
When I ran to catch you
You disappeared
And the street was gray
The castle fell
Now you are gone
No more rings the bell
Now you are gone
05 I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain (06:05)
O I never asked to be your mountain
I never asked to fly
Remember when you came to me
And told me of his lies
You didn't understand my love
You don't know why I try
And the rain was falling on that day
And damn the reason why
The Flying Pisces sails for time
And tells me of my child
Wrapped in bitter tales and heartache
He begs for just a smile
O he never asked to be her mountain
He never asked to fly
And through his eye he comes his love
And tells her not to cry
She says, "Your scoundrel father flies
With a dancer called a queen
And with her stolen cards he plays
And laughs, but never wins"
O the child dreams to be his hands
In the counting of the rain
But only barren breasts he feels
For her milk will never drain
As I die I can't remember
Where I saw the rain:
Could it be that her laughter
Drove me down again?
Charming dancer will you stop,
Stop and talk to me?
Is there someone else you feel
In your dreams? you will, you see:
In midnight gazes
I've found you far from me:
If you lead me on
Please leave me down
O Flying Flying Fish
Please flutter by my door:
Yes you can drink my lies
If first you read my eyes:
Each one is titled
"I'm drowning back to you":
I can't swim your waters
And you can't walk my lands:
I'm sailing all my sins
And I'm climbing all my fears
And soon now I'll fly
my love is the flower that lies amoung the grains
my love is the thousands souls that it sings
and all the insane madmen tell me im not as well behaved
maybe not a lands in bloom to spead my ash along the way
O I never asked to be your mountain
I never asked to fly
Remember when you came to me
And told me of his lies
You didn't understand my love
You don't know why I try
And the rain was falling on that day
And that's the reason why
Sweet lover, will you come back
And love me for a while?
Please take my hand
Leave all your fears behind
I've been gone too long
Now I'm home to stay
Please don't leave me
Again this way
Please come home
06 Once I Was (03:23)
Once I was a soldier
And I fought on foreign sands for you
Once I was a hunter
And I brought home fresh meat for you
Once I was a lover
And I searched behind your eyes for you
And soon there'll be another
To tell you I was just a lie
And sometimes I wonder
Just for a while
Will you remember me
And though you have forgotten
All of our rubbish dreams
I find myself searching
Through the ashes of our ruins
For the days when we smiled
And the hours that ran wild
With the magic of our eyes
And the silence of our words
And sometimes I wonder
Just for a while
Will you remember me
08 Knight-Errant (01:59)
O whither has my lady wandered?
I'll search until I know I've found her
One green day she left her wings
And cut away her childhood strings
But dropping smiles along the trail
She left a trace I will not fail
O whither has my lady wandered?
I'll search until I know I've found her
When I catch my sudden maid
I'll deck her out in lace and jade
I will take her to her room
I will take her to her room
I love her upstairs
I love her downstairs
But I love my lady's chamber
O whither has my lady wandered?
I'll search until I know I've found her
10 Morning Glory (02:49)
I lit my purest candle close to my
Window, hoping it would catch the eye
Of any vagabond who passed it by,
And I waited in my fleeting house
Before he came I felt him drawing near;
As he neared I felt the ancient fear
That he had come to wound my door and jeer,
And I waited in my fleeting house
"Tell me stories," I called to the Hobo;
"Stories of cold," I smiled at the Hobo;
"Stories of old," I knelt to the Hobo;
And he stood before my fleeting house
"No," said the Hobo, "No more tales of time;
Don't ask me now to wash away the grime;
I can't come in 'cause it's too high a climb,"
And he walked away from my fleeting house
"Then you be damned!" I screamed to the Hobo;
"Leave me alone," I wept to the Hobo;
"Turn into stone," I knelt to the Hobo;
And he walked away from my fleeting house
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By luludia
"Goodbye and Hello" is one of those records that you also remember where you were the first time you heard it.
"Tim’s guitar thundered... the struggle between the chaos of feelings and the desire for freedom is staged... the result leaves you breathless."
