Rare is it to have two artists, one a father and the other a son, both who have talent in the same field. Think about it: while there are many offspring who try to follow in their parents' footsteps, the usual occurrence is that the child is nothing but a distant drop of what the parent was, and that is putting it kindly. Examples would be Sylvia Plath and Frieda Hughes, John and Thomas Steinbeck, Anne and Linda Sexton. Even more odd is it to have a parent artist die at the age of 28, only then to have his son die at the age of 30.
For those who might not know of him, Jeff Buckley is the son of Tim Buckley - the prolific songwriter from the 1970s. Although Tim died when Jeff was only eight, in this new biography by Jeff Apter, we learn that Jeff Buckley never really knew his father outside of meeting him only a handful of times. But for those who do know of Jeff Buckley, the opening of this review is likely to irritate, for it is well known that Jeff loathed being compared to his father, since he wanted to be, and clearly is, his own artist.
Jeff Buckley, born in 1966, lived a rich and talented life, one that was filled with many of the predictable elements within a musician’s days, such as booze, sex, touring, arguments, depression, and frustration. Jeff Buckley did live a full life, despite it being a short one, ending at the age of 30, when he drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis. Yet despite his short life, he has left behind a legacy, and his stellar album Grace, for which he is most known.
Apter admits that the writing of A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley was in itself a challenge, since he was composing a biography about a subject who had already died. In this book, he relies on Buckley’s friends and fellow musicians to deliver their personal experiences with Jeff, and also share their insights into his character. I can’t say for certain that the book paints an accurate picture of Buckley, but one can gather a sense that he was high on artistic talent yet low on emotional maturity.
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