Jeff Buckley:
This website is a biography of Jeff Buckleys life and career.
Jeff Buckley was born in Californias Orange Country on the 17th of November 1966, the son of Marie Guibert and Tim Buckley. He started his career off in “New Yorks avant-grade club scene in the 1990’s and was one of the most remarkable musical artists of his generation, acclaimed by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians alike.” His first commercial recording was his 4 track EP Live at Sin-e was released December 1993 on Columbia records. The EP showed Jeff Buckley captured him playing in a tiny coffeehouse in New Yorks east village where he accompanied himself on electric guitar.
By the time the EP was released in the autumn of 1993, he was already in the studio with Mick Grondahl (bass), Matt Johnson (drummer), and producer Andy Wallace working on seven original songs for his debut album Grace, where he also included three cover songs, his most famous being Hallelujah. The guitarist Michael Tighe became a permanent member of Jeff Buckley’s ensemble and went on to co-write and perform on Grace’s “So Real” just prior to the release of the album.
He then went to tour the world, going to countries all over Europe and Australia as well as touring the US and became a well known musical artist inspiring other big bands.
His death:
The shocking and mysterious death of Jeff Buckley – Far Out Magazine
“On the night of May 29th, 1997, when Jeff Buckley was in Memphis, Tennessee, while waiting for the arrival of the rest of his band to do some work on his anticipated second record, Buckley decided to go for a swim in the Mississippi River. As a boat went by, Buckley got caught up in the wake of the passing boat and after the water calmed down, his body did not come back up.
It wasn’t until June 4th, some six days later, when passengers on board the American Queen riverboat found his body.
An autopsy revealed that there were no drugs or alcohol in his system, ruling out any cause to believe that it was suicide.
According to Lydia Hutchinson writing for Performing Songwriter, Jeff Buckley did tend to disappear for days at a time. The night of Buckley’s death was preceded by his disappearance for a few days after he went for a swim in Wolf River, a tributary to the Mississippi River. Buckley was with a friend, Keith Foti, and the two were driving to the rented rehearsal space when they got lost.
According to Buckley’s manager, Dave Lory, Buckley had been acting especially “erratic” in the couple of weeks leading up to his death. “He was trying to buy a house that wasn’t for sale,” Lory said according to the NME. “He was trying to buy a car that wasn’t for sale. He proposed to Joan [Wasser, Buckley’s girlfriend]. He even applied for a job to be a butterfly keeper at Memphis Zoo – a lot of weird stuff that was uncharacteristic for him. I think it was a yearning to settle down. He wanted a normal life.””
Radiohead:
Radiohead is an English Rock band that formed in 1986. The band members, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Phil Selway and Ed O’Brien met at Oxfordshire’s Abingdon School and formed a band called ‘On A Friday’ where they went to play their first gig in Oxford’ Jericho Tavern (Nme, 2007). From there they became the band ‘Radiohead’ as we know and embarked on a journey to fame to be one of the greatest bands of all time.
My Iron Lung was a single released on the 24th October 1994 on EMI, to then be in the album The Bends. The Bends album was Radiohead’s second album to be released, after Pablo Honey where their first hit Creep was from. Classic Rock review (2016) states “The Bends is the classic rock coming of age album by Radiohead, for which they received critical acclaim as well as chart and commercial success. This 1995 album was at once a major shift in the group’s musical direction as well as a move towards accessible tunes, as reflected in its five charting singles.”
A cool fact about the song Fake Plastic Trees from The Bends album is that Thom Yorke was struggling to get the vocals right for the song until he went to see Jeff Buckley playing upstairs at The Garage in London. Thom went straight to the studio after the gig and recorded the take and it was perfect.
Nirvana:
https://youtu.be/Tt4UuWqm1ZQ?si=5jDYPErhHU_URZPC
Kurt Cobain (the lead singer and guitarist) me Krist Novosic (the bassist) in Aberdeen Washington in 1985 and played in multiple bands together, then in 1987 Nirvana was born with what would be the 1st of 6 drummers. They moved to Seattle and quickly gained an audience, critically acclaimed and a record deal with Seattle Bass Sub Pop Records.
Nirvana went onto to releasing their first sub pop single in November 1988, a cover of Shocking Blues, Love Buzz. Their first debut album, Bleach, was released in 1989, made for $600 in 3 days, and initially sold 35000 copies. Krist states that when they were making the album, the band got sick and Kurt brought back codeine cough syrups back and they mixed the entire album in “la la land”. By mid 1991 Nirvana started working on what would become their major label debut, Nevermind, and the band settled on the producer Butch Vig. The Nevermind album (released in September 1991) would not only become the years, but the decades most fascinating success story. Within a month of release, Nevermind sold 1 million copies, and by 2 years 4 million copies were sold in the US alone.
Their next album was their 1993 album, In Utero, produced by Steve Albini and the album ended up being number 1 in both the US and the UK. “It’s still the three of us so it’s still the same kind of the Nirvana song writing… but it’s a lot more… spontaneous” says Dave Grohl in an interview. Heart Shaped Box is from this album.
In the midst of Nirvana growing popular so fast, Kurt really started struggling with the pressure of fame, people relying on him and the whole world watching him. There’s multiple interviews where he acts stressed and gives little information to questions, even in some instances, leaving the interview completely. In 1990 Kurt ended up starting a romantic relationship with the lead singer of Hole (Kourtney Love) cemented in a common love of punk music, common sense of humour and a common habit of drug abuse. They went on to marry in Hawaii in 1992 and had a daughter called Frances Bean Cobain 6 months later. In late 1992 Kurt admitted to being a heroin user, by mid 93 Kurt’s addiction had become so routine it was apart of life at the Cobain house. During 93 alone, he had over a dozen overdoses and multiple near death experiences. He tried to overdose on pills and champagne in Rome on holiday with his wife, found clutching a suicide note. After this Kourtney sent him to an intervention program which resulted in him being addmissioned into the exodus recovery center however he escaped on April 1st and went missing. On April 5th, Kurt shot himself in the head in the guest house above the garage of his home, his body was found April 8th, 1994, he was only 27 year old.
Queens Of The Stone Age:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_of_the_Stone_Age_discography
Queens Of The Stone Age (QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 by Josh Homme who does vocals and guitar who was originally from the bad Kyuss. The band formed with the independent label Loosegroves Records and collaborated with Kyuss to release the Kyuss/Queens Of The Stone Age extended play in 1997. They then went onto sign with Interscope Records and released their 2nd album, Rated R.
In 2001, Queens Of The Stone Age were joined by the vocalist Mark Lanegan and drummer Dave Grohl to create the album that became Songs For The Deaf. The album brought a whole new level of commercial success and a full-fledged tour in support of the album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_the_Deaf
The Songs For The Deaf album received critical acclaim and was the first album for Queens Of The Stone Age to earn a Gold Certification in the United States. One million copies were sold in Europe, earning a platinum certification from the International Federation of the Phonographic in 2008. The three singles released were No One Knows, Go With The Flow (what we are covering) and First Is Giveth.
Foo Fighters:
https://dtc-wsuv.org/veldridge18/sequential/
Foo Fighters was created by the former drummer of Nirvana. Dave Grohl wrote songs on his guitar when he was on tours with Nirvana however was too intimidated by Kurt’s own songs the held the songs back and kept them to himself. He ended up taking time to book studios and recorded demos and covers of songs he liked, issuing a cassette of some of the songs under the name Pocketwatch under the pseudonym “Late!” in 1992.
The website states “Grohl hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title “Foo Fighters”, taken from the World War II term “foo fighter”, used to refer to unidentified flying objects. “Around the time that I recorded the first FF tape, I was reading a lot of books on UFO’s. Not only is it a fascinating subject, but there’s a treasure trove of band names in those UFO books!” he said….
Prior to the release of Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut album Foo Fighters, which featured Grohl as the only official member, Grohl recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith, both formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear to complete the lineup. The band began with performances in Portland, Oregon. Goldsmith quit during the recording of the group’s second album, The Colour and the Shape (1997), when most of the drum parts were re-recorded by Grohl himself. Smear’s departure followed soon afterward, though he would rejoin them in 2006.
They were replaced by Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the group’s third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999). The band briefly continued as a trio until Chris Shiflett joined as the band’s lead guitarist after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose.”
References:
Biography (no date) Jeff Buckley. Available at: https://jeffbuckley.com/biography/ (Accessed: 06 May 2024).
Eldridge, V. (no date) Foo Fighters- A Brief History, Foo figthers – A brief history. Available at: https://dtc-wsuv.org/veldridge18/sequential/ (Accessed: 06 April 2024).
NIRVANA, C. (2015) The story of Nirvana (documentary), YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/Tt4UuWqm1ZQ?si=5jDYPErhHU_URZPC (Accessed: 06 May 2024).
Queens of the stone age discography (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_of_the_Stone_Age_discography (Accessed: 06 May 2024).
Songs for the deaf (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_the_Deaf (Accessed: 06 April 2024).
The Bends by Radiohead – Classic Rock Review (2016). Available at: https://www.classicrockreview.com/2016/02/1995-radiohead-the-bends/#:~:text=The%20Bends%20is%20the%20classic%20rock%20coming%20of (Accessed: 7 April 2024).
Wardle@DrewAlanWardle1, D. and Wardle, D. (2021) The shocking and mysterious death of Jeff Buckley, Far Out Magazine. Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/jeff-buckley-shocking-and-mysterious-death/ (Accessed: 06 May 2024).