This day, the third Monday of January, is, we are told, Blue Monday – the unhappiest day of the year, as calculated by 'an equation' devised in 2005 (and applicable only in the Northern Hemisphere). Well, we all like a bit of pseudoscience to start the day, don't we, and this one is harmless enough.
An idle train of thought led me from Blue Monday to Blue Afternoon, one of the best albums of Tim Buckley's musical maturity (after he'd moved on from his early folky stuff into the more jazz-infused musical landscapes that he made entirely his own). Tim's posthumous reputation sometimes seems in danger of being eclipsed by that of his son Jeff – so, to keep the flame alive, and as a reminder of what an extraordinary singer Tim Buckley was, here is 'Blue Melody' from the Blue Afternoon album. Enjoy...
Monday 18 January 2021
Blue Monday, Blue Melody
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'Blue Afrernoon' is such a gorgeous album. Of course, compared to his other stuff from that period, it's practically 'The Birds The Vees & The Monkees.' I used to play 'Starsailor' for my daughter's high school friends 20 years ago just to see their eyes bug out at the thought something like that could be released on a (sort of) major label once upon a time. What did the A & R department at Elektra do when the tapes for 'Lorca' arrived? I wonder how those amazing LPs would have fared on ESP or IMPULSE.
ReplyDeleteYes Jeff, I think he was always ahead of, or completely out of, his time. And quite happy to alienate his fans. To think that Happy Sad, Blue Afternoon, Lorca and Starsailor were all made in one two-year period – and then came Greetings from LA! And he was still only 25 when he'd done all that...
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