Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley Anthology

Tim Buckley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 20, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1966
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000059RJR
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,485 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Wings

2. She Is

3. Song Slowly Song

4. It Happens Every Time

5. Aren't You The Girl

6. Pleasant Street

7. Hallucinations

8. No Man Can Find The War

9. Once I Was

10. Morning Glory

See all 17 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Happy Time

2. Chase The Blues Away

3. I Must Have Been Blind

4. The River

5. So Lonely

6. Blue Melody

7. I Had A Talk With My Woman (Live)

8. Moulin Rouge

9. Song To The Siren

10. Monterey

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives, but Tim Buckley wouldn't listen. Morning Glory brings together the two extraordinary, albeit all-too-brief, incarnations of Buckley's musical career: the pure-voiced '60s troubadour who gave us stunningly beautiful albums like Goodbye & Hello and the howling early-'70s experimentalist seemingly hell-bent on ravaging his past romanticism. For those put off by the tortured, erratic brilliance that came to the fore on the difficult Starsailor and downright strange Greetings from L.A. albums, this two-CD, 34-song anthology nicely condenses the artist's nine-album, nine-year evolution from folk innocent to soul-scorched iconoclast. Heard in this context, the title song's tale of a sheltered romantic who befriends and ultimately condemns an uncompromising vagrant feels like it's the young Buckley confronting the artist he would later become. Profoundly moving and richly rewarding, Morning Glory finds resonance between the two sides of Buckley's genius that he was unable to reconcile in his own short life. --Bill Forman

Product Description

For the first time ever, Rhino has put together a thoroughly annotated, career-spanning anthology that selects 33 tracks recorded from 1966 to 1975, covering all phases of this man's ever-changing, ever-probing work. Includes Once I Was; Buzzin' Fly; Song Slowly Song; Wings; She Is; Goodbye and Hello; Morning Glory; Strange Feelin'; Phantasmagoria in Two (live); So Lonely; Blue Melody; Happy Time; Monterey; Sweet Surrender , and more, featuring an UNRELEASED performance of Song to the Siren taken from Tim's appearance on The Monkees TV show! Produced with the cooperation of the Buckley family and estate.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The track selection could be better, but get this now, October 29, 2002

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley Anthology (Audio CD)

Tim Buckley's output was little known during his tragically brief life, but since his death in 1975 more and more people are recognizing him as one of the most outstanding vocalists of the last fifty years. His incredible range was as powerful as any instrument allowed him to eschew large bands, making for intimate and moving songs and giving him the flexibility needed to make original contributions to music. Rhino's MORNING GLORY: THE TIM BUCKLEY ANTHOLOGY collects some of his best material, including songs from the now out-of-print albums BLUE AFTERNOON and the magisterial STARSAILOR.

Disc 1 covers Tim Buckley's first two releases, his eponymous debut and 1967's GOODBYE AND HELLO. These albums were in a folk vein, but songs such as the nightmarish "No Man Can Find the War" and the frenetic "Pleasant Street" are complex pieces that move beyond anything that had been offered before in American folk. The first songs show that his first album was somewhat overproduced, with Elektra giving him a string orchestra for no particular reason, but on the tracks that follow the production was ideal, with that amazing voice accompanied by just the right instruments in just the right quantities. The closing track is the live song of "Troubadour", recorded in London in 1968. Even if you have all of Tim Buckley's studio albums, this heartbreaking and tear-inducing song is enough to merit buying MORNING GLORY (or the live album DREAM LETTER, from which it was taken).

Disc 2 contains Buckley's work from the latter half of his career. More abstract music, highly influenced by free-form jazz, these songs were blasted by critics upon their release but are now recognized as Buckley's finest work. "Happy Time" rejects easy hooks in favour of solid composition. "I Must Have Been Blind", afterwards made popular in covers by This Mortal Coil and Brendan Perry, moves with a delicate magic. The peak of this disc is without a doubt two songs from STARSAILOR, Buckley's masterpiece and one of the most important releases of contemporary music. "Song to the Siren", whose cover by Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of TMC in 1984 resurrected interest in Tim Buckley, is perhaps his finest vocal performance, with a vocal track of wails accompanying him in the background. On the chilling "Monterey" Buckley's voice becomes as abstract and cutting as the wild instruments which back it up. Three songs are featured from his controversial 1973 album GREETINGS FROM L.A., in which the jaded singer wrote songs of desperate love and frank sexuality. "Sweet Surrender" almost reaches the height of his STARSAILOR material with its astounding vocals, and while Buckley's voice usually overshadowed his band, the masochistic "Make It Right" features some incredible drumming.

Unfortunately, Rhino was prejudiced towards the folk portion of Buckley's career and I would have preferred more tracks from his free-form period. Considering that STARSAILOR is now out of print and almost impossible to find, it would have been nice if Rhino had put more tracks from that incredible album on this anthology. The liner notes, provided by some critic named Barry Alfonso, are enlightening, but give short shrift to Buckley's post-1972 output. These albums, in which Buckley decided to give the unsympathetic public what they wanted after the poor sales of STARSAILOR, are highly sexual and desperate, but they nonetheless feature incredible vocal performance. It's also a shame that "Dream Letter", a haunting meditation on his distant son Jeff Buckley, who in the 90's put out incredible material and died young like his father, wasn't included.

Tim Buckley was an incredible singer and songwriter, and his output went unnoticed and underappreciated for far too long. MORNING GLORY: A TIM BUCKLEY anthrology is a great way to experience his incredible music, and I'd recommend it to everyone.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Talented folkie and experimental genius, June 6, 2004

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley Anthology (Audio CD)

Tim Buckley started out as a folk-rocker but ended up as a musical explorer whose sound would extend the boundaries of popular music and defy categorisation. The billowing beauty of his later work, on Starsailor in particular, would only begin to be appreciated after his death in 1975.

His first album Tim Buckley was released in October 1966 when he was only 19 years old. Buckley's passionate voice exquisitely wrapped itself around lyricist Larry Becket's romantic songs like Song Slowly Sung and the lovely Valentine Melody which is absent here.

During the hippy year of 1967 Buckley was doing the folk club circuit in New York City where he recorded his first masterpiece, the accessible Goodbye And Hello which was his breakthrough album and largest seller ever. Classic tracks included the impressive I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain, the moving Once I Was, omitted here, and of course the Dylan-influenced title track.

But instead of consolidating his success Buckley veered off into the most experimental of directions, rather too unusual for his 1960s folk audience to appreciate. Initially he moved into minimalism on the album Happy/Sad (1968), co-produced with ex-Loving Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanofsky. The wistful Blue Afternoon (1969) and Lorca (1970) are jazz-folk fusions.

The next album, Starsailor, was even weirder. It is a strange journey into the realms of avant-garde jazz where Buckley applies his voice as an instrument to spectacular effect. Scott Walker in his weirder moments comes to mind. But it did include two very accessible masterpieces: The poignant Moulin Rouge (sung partly in French) and the exquisite Song To The Siren, which was beautifully covered by This Mortal Coil in 1984.

Considered by many to be his opus magnum, the uncompromisingly erotic Greetings From LA (1973) was an enthusiastic embrace of all things funky, effusive and sensual. Move With Me deals with the wrath of a jealous husband, whilst Sweet Surrender is an explanation of his infidelity. There is great sadness in Hong Kong Bar, social commentary in Nighthawkin' (unfortunately not present on this compilation) and shades of sado-masochism in Make It Right, a song comparable in theme to Velvet Underground's Venus In Furs.

Greetings From LA was followed by the unremarkable Sefronia (1973) and Look At The Fool (1974), which proved to be his last album as he died on June 29, 1975 in Santa Monica, California of an overdose. Buckley left a memorable body of work that is being appreciated more and more with the passing time. Although not perfect (vide the omissions listed above) this compilation is a great introduction to the work of a unique musical genius. Like Nick Drake and Tim Hardin, Buckley's music has stood the test of time very well and his reputation continues to grow. I give the album only 4 stars because of the omissions.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous introduction to an utterly unique performer, May 10, 2003

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley Anthology (Audio CD)

First, almost no one is going to like everything that Tim Buckley did. That is not a reflection of his talent, but of the extraordinary diversity of his musical output. Tim Buckley was one of rock's greatest experimentalists, and embraced such a vast number of styles during his tragically short career, that very few will find all of his attempts congenial. This collection does a great job of collecting the high points from each period in his career. Many will prefer the earlier songs, where he appears more as a folk troubadour. Myself, I am more of a fan of the later, more challenging songs. Best of all, this album features both the original version of the amazing "Song to the Siren" off STAR SAILOR, as well as the rare acoustic version of the same song from the Monkees TV show.

Buckley possessed one of the truly great voices in the history of rock, with a range that was surpassed possibly only by Roy Orbison. He not only had a remarkable range, but also could change the timbre of his voice. One listening to the two versions of "Song to the Siren" noted above, if he or she didn't know that Buckley was singing both, might find it hard to believe that both were by the same person. He was always a tenor, but he seemed to be able to kick into a high tenor that sounded almost female at times. At times his voice was thin, at times almost like a woodwind instrument as he would hold out a note.

Buckley was also a gifted songwriter, as this album amply demonstrates. Given all this, one might be led to ask, why wasn't he bigger than he was? The answer primarily lies in his diversity. He did too many things, sang in too many styles, and as a result was never able to really nail down a target audience.