Great topic of debate here at Matadornights: Ten Songs By Musicians Who Died Too Soon. Their list includes:
Elliot Smith “Needle In The Hay”
Metallica “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth” (featuring the late Cliff Burton)
Jeff Buckley “Halleluja (live at Sin-e)”
Nirvana “Drain You (live in Seattle, WA, October 31, 1991)”
Buddy Holly “Everyday”
Chris Bell “I Am The Cosmos”
Matthew Jay “Please Don’t Send Me Away”
AC/DC “Let There Be Rock (Live)” (featuring the late Bon Scott)
Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Robert Johnson “Sweet Home Chicago”
I would add: John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey,” The Minutemen’s “Cohesion” and Johnny Ace‘s “Please Forgive Me.”
What would you add?
Over on his personal blog, Glam-Racket, GLONO contributor Todd Totale remembers Jeff Buckley on the tenth anniversary of his death: The Memories Fire.
As far as the other posthumous titles, well, let’s just say that [Buckley’s mother, Mary] Guibert is treading on some exploitative practices. Eight titles, both new releases and expanded re-issues, have found their way into Buckley’s catalog in the ten years since he passed. With any artist that is taken so quickly, there is an overwhelming desire to want every shred of recorded evidence that they created. At the same time, there is a need for some kind of balance. Matching the quality and the significance of the performances against the eventual perception of “scraping the bottom of the barrel” is important when managing the release schedule of an artist that’s no longer with us.
Check out Buckley’s live cover of The Smith’s “I Know It’s Over” that appears on the latest Buckley comp, So Real: Songs Of Jeff Buckley (courtesy of Michael Goldberg at mog.com):
Jeff Buckley’s class act – A guy takes a poetry class in New York in 1996 to meet women but ends up meeting Jeff Buckley.
Rock and roll can change your life.
