Tim Buckley

Sudden death at the age of 28 not only shortened the career of Tim Buckley, a fearless artist intent on breaking down musical moulds, it helped foster the legend of a shy character who attracted interest anew after the success (and equally sudden early death) of his son, Jeff Buckley. Teaching himself banjo when he was 13, Buckley was drawn to folk music, joining two groups The Bohemians and Harlequin 3. Still in his teens, he started writing songs with Larry Beckett, leading to his folk-orientated self-titled debut album where a jazz and country influence was already detectable. At 20 he appeared regularly in Los Angeles bars and coffee houses and was already a father with a failed marriage behind him when his second album Goodbye And Hello was released in 1967. Buckley's songs were featured in the 1969 movie Changes and one of his most evocative tracks Song To The Siren - from the 1970 album Starsailor - took on a life of its own after being used in The Monkees TV show; it became a hit in 1983 for This Mortal Coil. Buckley's hatred of publicity and unpredictable nature hampered his commercial potential as, after Starsailor, he increasingly experimented with jazz and the avant-garde. And by the time of his death from a drug overdose in 1975 Buckley had also embraced funk.

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