Influencer: Jeff Buckley
- Bridget Graf
- Jul 6, 2017
- 3 min read
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Many artists have conceded Jeff Buckley's influence on their own music. "Jeff Buckley was a pure drop in an ocean of noise," said U2 frontman Bono.
Though he only had one studio album, Grace, his influence lives on, even after his tragic death in 1997.
Listen to the full playlist on Youtube or Spotify, but keep reading for insight into Buckley's influential yet short career.
1. "Hallelujah"- Jeff Buckley
What initially piqued my interest in Jeff Buckley was this Malcom Gladwell podcast about the iterations of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and Rufus Wainwright, among many others.
Each artist brings a different element to the song, but Buckley's take is more eerie than the rest. "Hallelujah" was the sixth track on his only album, Grace. The cover was re-released as a single ten years after his death and was recognized by Rolling Stone as #264 on their list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
He plays with the melody more than Cohen's uniform approach. His voice both soars above the guitar strums and is reduced by decrescendo to a whisper.
2. "Shiver" - Coldplay
Lead singer Chris Martin told BBC that the band's single "Shiver" was a more than just inspired by Buckley.
"It’s a blatant Jeff Buckley attempt,” he told BBC radio host Chris Moyles. “Not quite as good, that’s what I think. We were 21 and he was very much a hero, and as with those things it tends to filter through.”
Martin echoes Buckley's trademark emotional falsetto, and the guitar chords mimic Buckley's on "Grace."
3. "Cannonball" - Damien Rice
Like Buckley, Rice is intimately in touch with his emotional side, as evidenced lyrically in "Cannonball" and throughout his body of work.
Rice's airy voice floating above the finger-picked guitar is reminiscent of Buckley's style. Rice himself has been a Buckley fan throughout his career, performing his own version of "Hallelujah" here.
4. "Fake Plastic Trees" - Radiohead
Legend has it that, after seeing a stunning live Jeff Buckley performance, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke penned "Fake Plastic Trees." Yorke said the 1995 song, Radiohead's first U.S. single was a “joke that wasn’t really a joke, a very lonely, drunken evening, and, well, a breakdown of sorts.”
The combination of social commentary, eerie organ, soaring falsetto, and acoustic guitar introduction is reminiscent of Buckley. Radiohead takes it a step further with Yorke's eternal note with the swell of the band behind him. It is clear that Yorke took cues from Buckley's live performances.
5. "Memphis Skyline" - Rufus Wainwright
Though Wainwright's iteration of Cohen's "Hallelujah" is perhaps more popular than Buckley's, Wainwright was once resentful of Buckley. Eventually, after meeting the singer-songwriter, Wainwright began to empathize.
"I realized he was just a very, very delicate and sensitive and depressed guy who, if you blew on him, would crumble," he told Contact Music in 2004.
Not only was "Memphis Skyline" inspired by Buckley's style, Wainwright also sheds a light on his own relation with Buckley and his untimely death.
He sings, "Always hated him for the way he looked in the gaslight of the morning/Then came Hallelujah sounding like mad Ophelia for me in my room living."
6. "When We Were Young" - Adele
Adele confessed to Sirius XM that, while she tries listening to upbeat music when she's feeling down, she always returns to Jeff Buckley's Grace.
"I remember falling out with my best friend when I was like seven and listening to Jeff Buckley, because my mom was a huge fan. Grace has always been around me," she said.
"When We Were Young" echoes Buckley's combination of nostalgia and sadness, as heard in his song, "Lover, You Should've Come Over."
7. "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" - Lana Del Rey (originally Leonard Cohen)
The song's original artist, Leonard Cohen, also wrote the original version of "Hallelujah." Cohen revealed that this song is about an encounter at the Chelsea Hotel with late singer Janis Joplin.
Lana Del Rey's version evokes the melodrama and romance of Buckley's vocals.
She tells Nylon that Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley, and Jim Morrison are huge inspirations on her work.
"I mean, we talk about these people like we know them. They're a part of our relationship. We always say, 'All of our friends are dead and they never knew us,'" Del Rey revealed.
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