Customer Reviews

Lorca

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album, while a departure from Happy/Sad and Goodbye And Hello, isn't as difficult as some people would have you believe (from reading 30-year-old reviews by people who just didn't get it and believing that those reviews are gospel without actually bothering to listen to the songs and figure them out first).

For instance -- the first two songs (the first side on the original vinyl) are *not* free-form. "Lorca" has verses, and is based on a descending pattern in 5/4 where the minor key and the locrian mode on the same root are played off of each other throughout the first eight minutes of the song, in a droning mode. Nifty pun there -- "Lorca" with the locrian mode. It's not hard to follow once you figure out where the actual verses are, and once you do, it seems a lot shorter than it is.

"Anonymous Proposition" actually has a proper chord progression, but it sounds like the gestures moving from chord to chord are scripted (much like so called "freedom jazz" or "fire music"), so that the chord changes are implied. The scripted gestures happen in the voice as well. It's not hard to hear it, and once you figure it out, you will find that this song actually has verses too.

The final three songs *do* continue in the "Happy/Sad" mode, with strummed chords, verses and choruses and hooks, so if you like that stuff, especially the wilder stuff like "Gypsy Woman" this might be up your alley.

All in all -- don't believe the morgue files that tell you this album is "weird", "difficult", etc. Remember that the people who originally wrote those reviews didn't know how to comprehend the musical language that Buckley was speaking on the first side, what with "Lorca"'s polytonality and "Anonymous Proposition"'s gesture based structure. In fact this record would be a fine way to demonstrate how "fire music" or "freedom jazz" works and open up an entire new musical world for you ... and any record that has that sort of power is worth checking out.

I remember the day I bought this album after listening thousands of time to the Happy/Sad and Blue Afternoon albums. It was a real cultural shock. The Lorca song with its contemporary approach and the exploration Tim Buckley was doing with his voice blew me away. For a young singer in his early twenties, one wouldn't expect such a mature understanding of song writing in avant-garde style as well as in romantic ballads like I Had A Talk With My Woman. Definitely worlds ahead of his time... a timeless musical statement.

For such a young man Tim Buckley possesed one of the most glorious voices in the history of pop music. His was an instrument capable of stretching far beyond the usual parameters of so-called mainstream pop. Over the course of his brief carrer, Tim did what a true artiste does, grow and evolve, and at the expense of true commercial success, follow his muse. The five pieces presented in this stunning song cycle are innovative and beautiful, yet sad and extremely haunting. The almost 10-minute title track is a careening, twisting, disturbing journey into the heart of a man totally obsessed with his love and devotion to his woman ('let her be your blood, don't feel ashamed, she's your home, when no one wants you'.), and his belief in the redemptive power of that love,('she'll give you life, when you're so tired.) "Anonymous Proposition" is yet another tour-de-force performance highlighted by some great upright bass playing. Not every song on "Lorca" is a slow moan-along, "I Had A Talk With My Woman" is a sprightly acoustic guitar based ballad and sports the albums' prettiest melody and more of Tim's shivery vocals. "Driftin'" is the darkest section of the record, with it's thin sounding mix and disquieting lyrics, it works to chilling effect. The closer is "Nobody Walkin'" and ends the album on a fairly high note with wailing banshee vocals, hard strummed acoustic guitars and electric piano, it's the fastest song here and a final confirmation that the real artistic center of this work is Tim's remarkable voice. Fans of light, fluffy, easily dismissable radio trash will be barking up the wrong tree if they expect more of the same from this LP. This is music without boundaries and not for the narrow-minded, this is one man's pain, insecurity and joy turned into brilliant art. If you're not familiar with Tim Buckley's work, I believe this is a great place to start. It may take quite a few listens before it really starts to unfold, but your patience will be handsomely rewarded. OPEN YOUR MIND AND HEART, YOUR EARS WILL DO THE REST!

I was with Tim in the studio and at his home during the recording of this album. Please know that Tim was not I repeat, was not under the spell or influence of Heroin or whatever! A fine, inovative work by a talented, creative musician/writer. Also check out Starsailor.

IT's one of the most adventurous record of Buckley's. IF you look for "Tim Buckley" or "Happy/sad"'s romantic tinge you may be disappointed, but don't worry, you will soon find that it's replaced by the innovative, atonal yet impressive, stark yet brillant music. Best Cut: Driftin' and Anonymous Proposition. The lyric include romanticized sex, but unlike "greetings from LA", it's not as explicit, and are treated with beautiness. Also, Underwood's guitar, excellent. One week moment is the last track "nobody walkin", it seems to be suggesting his latter soul adventure (which for many is quite disappointing one)... but overall speaking you should try it, unless you are used to those rubbish pop nowadays. Still, it's a shame that starsailor, reportedly his best, is out of print! Also blue afternoon...

A CLIFFORD HODGE REVIEW
Tim Buckley was an enormous talent, and it was inevitable that he would engage in bold experimentation after brilliant folk/pop work like GOODBYE AND HELLO. He had more art than he could contain, and it forces its way out in LORCA, a jazz-influenced album which sounds like an artist giving birth to his transcendental masterpiece without anesthesia. It defies categorization, but it may be said that if you like John Martyn's SOLID AIR, and INSIDE OUT, and Roy Harper's STORMCOCK, and you find yourself wanting to add those albums and square the sum, you might like LORCA. Try to imagine scat singing by the sleep-deprived, and you might get some idea of the moody, floating singing style Buckley uses. Some will find it to be brilliant, others dull, when pursued over the course of an entire LP. This is not what you call "accessible". In the case of an album like this, one can neither advise someone not to get it nor eagerly endorse it. If you are curious, which you probably are, you will have to check it out for yourself. It is a progressive, experimental, very complex personal album, and beyond that, too hard to describe - but in a good way.

This album is just beautiful. It really shows that Tim was way ahead of his time and place. A must hear before you listern to Starsailor (the best album of all time) and see the direction one man was willing to take music.

An example of full-blown heroin excess or not, this album is a stunning achievement. Often regarded as a "tough listen", I was pleasantly surprised to find that the songs flow nicely and are easy to grasp, even though they average about 8 minutes each and for the most part have no readily discernible structure or choruses.

This is exactly the sort of album that requires the listener to lie down and get comfortable and really dedicate him- or herself to the record - it would make kind for odd background music and definitely isn't a record to be heard with a crowd. ... Happily, this record succeeds in a more immediate fashion .... Listening to it under appropriate conditions, you'll either like it right away or you never will - but if you like it you'll gain an even deeper appreciation on subsequent listens.

"Lorca", the title track, is a spooky sounding evocation of a muse, while "Anonymous Proposition" is sort of a lengthy blues number with no actual (musical) blues elements. "I Had A Talk With My Woman" is the stunner (for me) - it starts off very much in the Fred Neil style of establishing a basic groove and melody before meandering to the extent that it perpetually feels like the whole thing will collapse - without ever doing so. "Driftin'" is another hazy and romantic number, and while "Nobody Walkin'" breaks the mold by being a little bit more dissonant than the rest, it functions ....

I'm too young to remember any aspect of the 60s realistically, but this definitely has kind of an early morning on the beach 1970post-LSD trip vibe to it - the music is minimalistic enough that it could be replicated convinvingly with just a guitar and vocals, though there's sporadic bass, congas, organ and piano. There's certainly no doubt that this is a relic of the post-Manson murders, the-dream-has-faded era . . . it definitely lets you know the party was over by this point.

If you like the early, folkier Tim Buckley, this may be a bit harder to take. But I'd rate it as one of his better albums, challenging though it may be. ...

Lorca was astonishing. More than even his fans could take. And, of course, it didn't get much beyond that crowd anyway. I only knew a couple of people who had this record. So here we go with the that's-too-bad part because there really was deep music "happening" in the air. Very creative, singular expression, if spooky, Lorca. I may still not really get it, but I admire the nerve it took to step outside the expected pathways and explore. To begin with, his vocals could go places the hit-maker boys and girls couldn't go. So in a way, improvisation was easily wide open to him. Then also, he of the times, had chemical assistance--as did Lennon and all the really Rich Guys of pop music. He just kept going farther and farther away. From us, that is. Maybe not from himself. In hindsight, this jazz-folk-vocal thing seems quite appropriate. More people are into more things. Back then it just looked like he missed the mark--i.e. the charts. Which may have been the point. He wasn't doing commercials. The middle three tracks of this album are very drifty twelve-string songs with his beachnik accompaniment. Nobody Walkin' picks up the pace and the record leaves you in a far different place than where it began. This record will make the wide-ranging listener happy. Unique in my collection.

Of Tim Buckley's whole distography, Lorca is by far the most abstract. Starsailor took abstraction and intagrated it with rock and folk and jazz.

But Lorca is pure jazz action painting. The whole album is electric keyboards, not far from Miles Davis' experiments at the time. Buckley's voice sings over these electric panio canvases, sometimes whistful, other times wailing like a saxaphone.

This is not the easiest Buckley listen or his best album. But it was his first foray into the avant-garde, and provided a wider palate for him to further paint upon.