A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley [Hardcover]

Jeff Apter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2009

It was Bono who said that "Jeff Buckley was a pure drop in an ocean of noise." During his 30 years, Jeff Scott Buckley lived many lives: suburban loner, music school misfit, and rock and roll gypsy. His real life was only revealed after his tragic death 10 years ago, when he was found in the Mississippi river just hours before he was due to start rehearsals for the follow-up album to Grace. In this startling new bio, Jeff Buckley's friends, peers, enemies, lovers, collaborators, and others all speak of the Jeff Buckley they knew - or, in some cases, thought they knew. The contents of his many personal letters are revealed for the first time. His struggle with writer's block is explored, as are his battles with the concept of stardom, his desire for escape, and his attempts to deal with the unavoidable legacy of his equally gifted father, Tim Buckley. Even 10 years after his death, Buckley is still influential - Radiohead and Coldplay readily confess to the debt they owe him.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The former Music Editor of Australian Rolling Stone, Jeff Apter is the author of the critically and commercially successful books, Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story, Never Enough: THe Story of The Cure, A New Tomorrow, The Silverchair Story, amongst others. He lives in Sydney with his wife, two children and a heft music collection.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879309547
• ISBN-13: 978-0879309541
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #108,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeff Apter is one of Australia's foremost writers of non-fiction. He has written more than a dozen acclaimed biographies, including studies of Keith Urban, Jeff Buckley, Silverchair, cricketer Michael Slater and the Finn brothers. In 2011 he co-wrote two bestsellers, A Little Bird Told Me (with Kasey Chambers) and Dirty Deeds (with Mark Evans) and also released Chasing the Dragon: The Life and Death of Marc Hunter.
He has contributed to Rolling Stone (where he spent five years as Music Editor), the Sydney Morning Herald, Vogue, GQ, Australian Hi-Fi and the renowned Rock's Back Pages website. Jeff lives on the New South Wales south coast with his wife Diana, his children Elizabeth Asha and Christian Jai, and is represented worldwide by literary agent Curtis Brown.
See www.jeffapter.com.au and
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chasing-the-Dragon-The-Life-and-Death-of-Marc-Hunter/345514765467426

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On "A Pure Drop: the Life of Jeff Buckley", November 8, 2009

By 

Eric C. Calderone (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley (Hardcover)

Allow me to lay my biases on the table: I am a dyed in the wool Jeff Buckley fan. If I could reshape the world, there would only be one biography about Jeff, and there would be no such thing as rumor mongering and gossiping, for no one would be prone to commit, or listen to, that sort of thing. But this is the real world: I have lost count of biographies written about my hero; and they keep on coming. They have spread so much innuendo, smut, over the Jeff's legacy. With this in mind, I salute Apter's biography: it is factual, generally avoids exploiting gossip or sensationalism. It more often than not demonstrates a dispassionate examination of the subject. When it draws inferences, or throws its weight in one direction, in my opinion it comes fairly close to the truth as a reasonable person with the facts would perceive them.

Apter obviously is familiar with the music scene, coming from Australia's Rolling Stone magazine. The reader benefits from the author's relevant background. Discussions about Jeff Buckley's interactions with fellow musicians and acquaintenances during his short career, from L.A. to New York; the burden of having to deal with his dead father's musical legacy; his being thrust into the paws of the media monster, AKA Columbia/Sony, and how he endeavored to foster his career yet remain true to his professional principles, all make for extremely interesting reading.

On the enticing, but very problematic and subjective topic of Jeff Buckley's frame of mind, his psychology, Apter succeeds in refraining from unsubstantiated melodrama. Unlike Browne in Dream Brothers, he avoids drawing inferences based on hearsay, he refuses to exploit the sensational for the sake of selling more books. Based on what Jeff's closest friends have said, there is absolutely no reason to conclude, or suspect, that Jeff Buckley was ever on the verge of a nervous breakdown or that he ever contemplated suicide. Yes, even as a young adult he can be accused of immaturity, though his prolonged Grace tours seem to have propelled him to emotional maturity towards the very end. He can accurately be suspected of not being professionally focused, though I never would have thought that this constitutes a psychological pathology. Yes, he resented the fact that his biological father, Tim Buckley, abandoned him. Yet, who wouldn't harbor resentment over abandonment by one's parent? Nothning bizarre or pathological about that. And again, yes, Buckley suffered from a writer's block. But that is hardly what most of us would consider a pathology. Apter provides some very good insights on the topic of Jeff's writing inertia. The author draws a portrait of a very talented young man, who is essentially honest, caring and loyal to his friends to a fault. Yes, he had some emotional baggage. But don't we all? I wouldn't mind being the type of person Jeff Buckley was. Not at all.

Apter shows considerable courage in raising the topic of just which parent ultimately may have done Jeff Buckley more harm: his deceased biological father or his still very much alive mother, Mary Guibert? He informs the reader about how Jeff constantly moved from one location to another while growing up. We learn that Buckley was ashamed to apply for a job upon graduation from High School because he never spent more than a few months in any one school and would have had to list the reams of schools he attended within the space of a few years in any job application. He lets the reader know that Jeff as an adult purposefully kept minimal contact with his mother. This topic is quite relevant to the masses of Jeff Buckley fans who very much want to benefit from and enjoy the products of Buckley's genius, and to show their respect for this phenomenal musician, but run into the brickwall known as the Jeff Buckley Estate, controlled by Mary Guibert, its Executor. In the Coda of the book, Apter provides a short but meaningful discussion on just how the Estate has managed, or exploited, the development and release of Jeff Buckley's musical legacy.

A Pure Drop is a well-written and researched biography. It treats its subject with respect and impartiality. It portrays Jeff as human like the rest of us, but doesn't exploit his foibles to the extent that his undeniable genius and basic humanity are overshadowed. Bravo, Jeff Apter, for a work well done!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sterling work, September 5, 2010

By 

Lee Underwood (Oakhurst, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley (Hardcover)

I knew Jeff Buckley. I know Jeff Apter as a writer. I played lead guitar with Tim Buckley and wrote about Tim and Jeff Buckley in my book, Blue Melody: Tim Buckley Remembered. Having explored Tim and Jeff Buckley's lives in depth, I can vouch 100% for Apter's Pure Drop.
His research is solid and comprehensive. His insights are right-on. His appreciation for Jeff Buckley's struggles and accomplishments is above reproach. His understanding of Jeff's domineering mother, Mary, is unmatched for accuracy, insight, and mature judgment. Five stars for Jeff Buckley, five stars for Jeff Apter, and five stars for A Pure Drop!

5.0 out of 5 stars More honest account, January 9, 2012

By 

jamesblue - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley (Hardcover)

I read Dream Brother and found it a little bit slanted as painting his mother as a victim of life mainly because she was in the writers ear the whole time spinning the facts. A Pure Drop was more of a brutaly honest account and I enjoyed it alot more.