Mary Guibert, a resident of Silverlake, recently came to UCLA
for an independent singer-songwriter symposium. She came to speak
about musicians maintaining their artistic status while making
money. She is an expert on the subject because her son was one of
the premier niche artists of the 1990s. Her son was Jeff
Buckley.
“Brad Pitt was the one who came to me and said, “˜How
did I not know about your son? I was in N. Y. at the very same
time. I was pretty hip. I was there in town, how did I not know
about him?'” Guibert said. “But, it starts with
that thing where people didn’t really want to spoil knowing
about Jeff. And plus he was totally OK with that. He did not want
to be famous. He wanted to be very organic in growth.”
Buckley’s fan base stayed relatively exclusive during his
lifetime, but since his death on May 29, 1997, his intense cult
following has continued to grow. Multiple posthumous releases and
repackagings have come out since his passing, and with the release
last month of “Songs To No One” and an upcoming box set
of EPs slated to come out, still more music lovers are sure to be
introduced to Buckley’s fan club.
A select but non-exclusive club, Buckley’s fans include
everyone from Pitt and other talented celebrities like PJ Harvey,
Thom Yorke and Hal Willner to the downright creepy.
“There’s a couple girls, thank God they don’t
live in this country, who are channeling Jeff,” Guibert said
of some of the strangest fan mail she’s received for her son.
“One of them swears that she’s found a medium on the
Internet who will guarantee her if she can get a real article of
Jeff’s clothing that she can bear his child.”
Some fans were also one-time doubters.
Take for instance a classical pianist at the Elvis
Costello-hosted Meltdown festival in 1996. When Buckley walked up
with holey jeans and greasy hair she was less than enthusiastic
about accompanying him, according to Guibert.
“Elvis talked to her and told her to just warm up with
him, and if you really can’t do it, you can’t,”
Guibert said. “It was a choir boy (song they were supposed to
play) just like “˜Corpus Christi Carol’ and he starts
and Elvis says her head went up”¦ and he could just see her
head melt into pools on the stool.”
The time period documented on “Songs To No One,”
was, according to Guibert, the most important period of development
in Buckley’s life. The spring of 1991 marked the first time
Buckley sang in public. At the Tim Buckley (Jeff’s father)
memorial concert, Jeff sang four of his father’s songs to a
large audience that included Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and Gary
Lucas.
After going public with his vocal talent, Buckley didn’t
slow down. Lucas, a former guitarist for Captain Beefheart,
approached him with ideas for a collaboration. For the next year
Buckley worked with Lucas, honed his songwriting, and built a live
following in New York.
“We have this little picture of him, this little corner,
which is the “˜Gods and Monsters’ rehearsals where he
was just sitting in Gary’s living room,” Guibert said.
“So this was lovely historically speaking, but it sounded
like shit. And Gary thought it was lovely.”
According to Guibert, after Buckley’s passing, Lucas would
contact her every few months wanting to release the tapes. Busy
putting together the first posthumous release “Sketches for
My Sweetheart the Drunk” and dealing with her loss, it
wasn’t until more recently when the tapes were taken to Hal
Willner that the release became a possibility. Guibert had thought
that the material was high enough quality to release, but Willner
put together material from the tapes with some live tracks that
became “Songs,” which she was pleased with.
Guibert wrote the liner notes for the upcoming box set release,
which puts together foreign released material with other rare
Buckley moments like the B-side “Tongue.”
“(The “˜Tongue’ session) was the first time
(Buckley and his future bandmates) all played together and they
decided to do this little jam that they called “˜Tongue’
and that’s the only time they ever played it,” Guibert
said. “So this was the moment for them when they looked up at
the end and knew they were a group.”
While immediate synergy could account for much of
Buckley’s success as talented people came together, Guibert
says he’s an example of anyone being able to make it in the
art scene, even in New York.
“He played at Two Boots Pizza,” Guibert said.
“He literally played anywhere that would let him stand up
with a guitar and sing.”
“He had a buck ninety the day the check came through from
Sony. It can be done,” she added.