Customer Reviews

Starsailor

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although it sometimes seems that there are more albums re-issued on CDs than ever could have been available on vinyl in the first place, there are a few notable albums for which no CD version is available. The recent overhaul of the Neil Young catalogue righted a few wrongs, but key albums by Albert Ayler, Alice Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Terry Riley and Toru Takemitsu remain undigitised, not to mention a hole slew of Motown albums. I particularly mourn the absence of Annette Peacock's I'm The One and Tim Buckley's albums Blue Afternoon and Starsailor.

However, Starsailor (and Blue Afternoon) had come out in America on Rhino in 1989 but had quickly disappeared in some kind of legal wrangle involving Frank Zappa's Straight/Bizarre labels, for which the album had originally been recorded in 1970. 

At its centre lies the starkly brilliant Song To The Siren, best known in its wonderful incarnation by This Mortal Coil, whose watery evocation of the tragic tidal pull of the sirens chillingly prefigures the premature death by drowning of his son Jeff Buckley in Memphis's Mississippi River. Elsewhere Tim's inspired vocal heights are matched by his own 12-sring accompaniment; the extraordinary, sympathetically fractured guitar and elemental keyboards of Lee Underwood; the deathless imploding bass of John Balkin; the Miles-inspired wind instruments of Buzz and Bunk Gardner and Maury Baker's traps and tympani. At times light and celebratory, and at other times harrowing and deeply primal these are songs that find unique territory to stake out and claim.

If the previous album, Lorca, sounds as if it is out on the edge looking for a foothold, on this album, that foothold has been found, and the ideas fully realised

It is a complete injustice to Tim Buckleys memory that this album is unavailable. I mean, we can buy cds of stuff that he never intended for release but we can't buy this which he considered, and quite rightly, his greatest achievement. Because of legal hassles we are denied the beauty of Starsailor.
Well not quite denied, we could pay ridiculous amounts for one of those rare cds that are out there or we could track down the vinyl.
I managed to download the album by dubious but not immoral means, (surely it is more immoral for the music to die than to be heard). I recommend you do the same. Once you've heard this album then all other music will sound dull in comparison.

Tim Buckley travelled along a lot of musical paths, and some of these travels resulted in glorious records. "Happy/sad" is the album I love best, but "Starsailor", while more difficult to get into, is very likely the artistical high point of his career.
I should mention that I'm not totally convinced of the contributions of Lee Underwood to Buckley's records: his shadow looms heavily over a lot of Buckley's work and as he's not the genius Buckley was, his presence sometimes is a bit much, and this holds true for "Starsailor" as well. On the other hand, all other contributors to this album deserve a lot of praise for outstanding work.
I find side one (with songs like Come here woman and Moulin Rouge) the weaker of the two, but side two can't be faulted. Suberbly imaginative and experimental songs flow in a well chosen order, leaving the listener completely stunned.
Most famous of course is "Song to the Siren" which doesn't need any introduction. Nevertheless, it's not the greatest song on the record. It's "Starsailor" itself. What an amazing piece of experimental work it is! The words of a great poem ("I am a bee out in the fields of winter ....") are twisted and turned in a swirl of Buckley voices, giving the song an otherworldly atmosphere. I feel that there are some ways out of the stalemate of the "pop/rock-format" which has been milked totally dry and one of them is signposted by this Tim Buckley song.
A lot of people reviewing this album seem to focus on songs like "Song to the Siren". I'm telling you that the real treasure lies in the song that gives the album its name.
Whenever this album is available again snap it up like lightning, because this is one of the truly great modern records.

I had the pleasure of hearing this album for the first time at the tender age of 14 (I am 23 now) at which time I was totally floored and blown away (I still have the same reaction to it when i listen to it now). Starsailor is in a totally different solar system than "Goodbye & Hello", "Happy/Sad", etc. This album is basically a free-form jazz album with Tim pouring his heart and soul and giving everything he's got into his vocals. I've never heard and will never again hear anything even close to what lies on this album. His vocal acrobatics will make your jaw drop each and every time you hear them. If you consider yourself a music lover, you MUST have this album in your collection. It's a shame that this and "Blue Afternoon" are out-of-print and damn near impossible to find. I searched for "Starsailor" in pretty much every record store in the NYC/Long Island area for about 4 years and came up empty handed. I was only able to get this album on CD (I have it on Vinyl) by the gift of Napster (pre-Metallica). Until it is re-released on CD, I recommend obtaining this album by any means necessary.

Few artists can lay claim to the uncompromising artistic integrity that Tim Buckley displays on Starsailor and which helps make Starsailor one of the greatest moments in the history of recorded music. Tim could care less what you thought about his songs and he certainly could care less about what the record companies thought. Buckley lays out his tortured soul for the duration of the album in a pure way that has no regard for the rules of conventional folk or rock music. With its fractured, wild vocal melodies and lack of traditional song structure, hardly a note on the entire record seems like it was planned in any way by Buckley. I doubt that Buckley was even consciously aware of the feelings that he airs out in Starsailor. Just as he begs of the listener, he learns as he goes and takes his voice wherever it may lead him, whether that be into shrieks, yodels, howls, or groans. Buckley regresses to a point deeper in our musical history and unleashes the remnants of a primitive or tribal instinct buried deep within us. As one listens to Starsailor, it is easy to imagine Buckley playing for an audience at a sacrificial bonfire in the middle of a jungle in sub-Saharan Africa. The sounds contained in Starsailor are free, organic, and celebratory, but they are also simultaneously pained and frightening.

Starsailor kicks off with "Come Here Woman", a song that bleeds of desperation and lust for a girl that only wants to tease. The creepiness created by Buckley is propelled by the driving two-note guitar riff of Larry Underwood that drones on and burns into your psyche. Such a repetitive and simple guitar riff is characteristic of many of the songs on the rest of the album and aids Buckley's far-out vocals in adding a primitive edge to the tunes. "Moulin Rouge" is a more conventional tune that feels out of place after the mind-bending creativity that precedes it, but it is a gorgeous song in its own right that gets a little crazy as Tim sings in French near the end. The stripped-down and heavily emotional take on "Song to the Siren" presented here is far removed from the simple folk tune that Buckley had earlier performed on The Monkee's television show, with Buckley's wounded delivery and poignant lyrics working together to create what I believe to be one of the greatest songs of all time.

Things start to get really heavy in Side B. "Jungle Fire" is another highlight that showcases Buckley's vocal ability as he transitions from relatively normal to a yelling and yodeling madman by mid-track. Somehow he effortlessly makes it sound like a totally natural progression. "Starsailor-The Healing Festival" is clearly the most experimental track on an album in no shortage of experimental tracks. In this song, Buckley overlaid 16 takes of his beautiful vocals to create an immersive and truly original work of pure art. Starsailor ends much like it began in "Down by the Borderline", with Underwood hypnotizing you with a driving guitar riff as Tim once again demonstrates his amazing vocal acrobatics by stuttering and hopping all over the track. It's a more light-hearted and catchy number that would not sound out of place blaring on some tropical island.

Starsailor is a genuine rarity in music. It is a shame that more artists do not try the risk taking and artistic leaps that Tim shows in this set of songs, but given that the market for such original music is so small, it cannot be surprising. Although Tim will not be around to see it, his following will only increase as more and more people will discover it and pass on word of its power. For now it remains a cult favorite, but truly deserves to have the classic status that has been bestowed upon far lesser works.

Starsailor remains one of the few rock albums that meets free improvised music on its own terms. Most pop and rock has only been able to cope with free soloing in very short doses (the great Albert Ayler-ish sax breaks in Ian Drury's 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick' are a potent example). For those with ears, Starsailor is an unique listening experience and it seems a shame that this, and other (perhaps more conventional jazz-influenced) albums like Joni Mitchell's Mingus, should have sold so poorly when first released.
Several UK mail-order shops already have this listed for reissue on 180gm vinyl by 4 Men And A Beard Records at the end of June 2007 and for £15 (roughly $28). I'm sure amazon will do the same once a release date is fully confirmed?

If you can think of a more experimental folk album, feel free to tell me, because I thought long and hard and can't

Starsailor pulls all the jazz elements Tim Buckley started to work with on albums like Happy Sad and Lorca. Here, the chamber jazz and avant gaurd forays of those albums are pulled into an amazing whole.

Starsailor is frightening, daring, jarring and lyrical. Buckely is using electronics here, against a small band of guitars, bass, drums, and a fantastic trumpet player.

The music here is heavy as it gets: you would think this would collapse under the weight, but it never does. The architechture may be folk, but it is folk built strong enough to support Buckley's deep and textured sojourn to the absolute outer limits.

Buckley was a folk singer, but you have to give him the highest admiration for his ability to take the biggest musical risks.

And more so his ability to make them pay off.

Where do I begin with Starsailor? It was the peak of all of Buckley's wild experimentation and was far too much for most listeners to handle. And it is without a doubt one of the greatest albums ever made. Adding flute and sax to his already strongly jazz influenced brand of folk, Buckley refined his work into an avant-garde masterpiece of songs that strongly showcased his unbelievable talent as a vocal expressionist. Just 23 years old at the time of Starsailor's release, he was already on his sixth album and his work was becoming more amorous and simultaneously harsh with each release. Showing that he could still work within the framework that started his career though, Buckley's "Moulin Rouge" is a soft mid-album repose before the onslaught that is the second half. Starsailor is a wonderful, imaginitive and fiercly original album from one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and quite honestly sounds like nothing else I have ever heard.

First of all, its a travesty that this album is still OOP and is going for about $100 on auction sites. That said, its probably a testament to the fact that this is one of those rare wonderful albums (like "Giant" by Woodentops) that is sought after so many decades after original release.

'Starsailor' is a work of a man with a unique artistic vision. Nothing else has ever sounded quite like this album, even bearing in mind the other albums Tim Buckley himself released. 'Starsailor' has jazz based backings and rhythms, but they are so very loose. It's a good way to be, Tim floats over the top, often with wordless vocal refrains and he certainly isn't sticking to any kind of structure. The lyrics are mysterious, possibly without any meaning to anybody except that they had meaning to Tim himself - but that's to underestimate them. There aren't that many words here, by the way - but the phrases come out at you. "You caught me staring / so gently he teased me", for example - the opening line of the startling 'Come Here Woman'. It's avant garde jazz, then more purposeful, moving off into a real funky riff repeated and repeated - then goes off into freeform jazz groove.

'I Woke Up' is weary sounding, harrowing - like somebody presiding over the death of somebody close to them, reflecting upon it - or reflecting upon a huge wealth of sadness present in this world. For contrast, 'Monterey' is fast and striking and purposeful. Energy right next to beautiful contemplation, or at least, ugly beautiful thoughts and reflection. 'Moulin Rouge' moves along with French words, and French words sung by Tim Buckley sound impossibly beautiful. Especially married to this happy, jaunty little melody. After the relative starkness and/or darkness of the earlier songs on this album, 'Moulin Rouge' is perfectly placed to change your emotions, to add to the overall emotion the album can provide a listener.

'Song To The Siren', most famously, has been sung by Elizabeth Frazer of The Cocteau Twins - she sang the song and did it justice and it was a performance rightly remembered right to this day. I'd never heard the original, this Tim Buckley version. All I can say is, it's so beautiful, the music so bare, a single guitar playing about five notes every ten seconds, or so. Female backing vocals are present in places, but in so few places.... used just right.

'Song To The Siren' is a vocal melody, an impossibly beautiful one, wonderfully sang. Real emotion, "All my heart, all my heart - shies from the sorrow" sings Tim, and I can associate with that. "I'm as puzzled as a new born child" - the world is confusing, and 'Song To The Siren' transcends the ages, a song to live forever. A bass guitar is noticeable during 'Jungle Fire' but it has a hard time following 'Song To The Siren'. Tim really does wail and let himself free, vocally, all through the track. This isn't singing, it's vocal expression, wordless vocal expression at that. As the band begin to cook up a groove behind him... the effect becomes excitingly striking.

For the title song, voices appear layered over each other, ghostly and disturbing. It sounds like insanity, a true journey into somebodys soul without any words being expressed, although the word 'fields' can be made out at a certain point. Such a song was never likely to be played on the radio and it's a difficult song to listen to. Extremely difficult. However, 'The Healing Game' is a glorious jazz/rock assault with Tim weaving a magical spell over the top and the closing song a funky jazz trumpet based number with Tim again, letting himself go, flying free.

Try getting this on Itunes or elsewhere, since its out of print. But do get it. As a Jeff Buckley fan, its a wonder that I'm rediscovering old LPs by his father that are seeming more and more essential to me as time goes on.

I wasnt sure what to expect, when i ordered this title on LP format. Naturally, i've wanted to hear this title since I got into Tim Buckley maybe 15 years ago. However, as anyone reading this knows, this title, and Blue Afternoon are unavailable on CD. (If you buy the two CD "Best of" box set MORNING GLORY, you get almost the whole Blue Afternoon CD, but the set only has three of the STARSAILOR songs....ten minutes worth of music. That's hardly enough to form any kind of judgement on the album.) Anyway, I ordered this LP when i saw it available. It arrived in a box, with the LP pressed on virgin vinyl, 180 gram heavy stuff. So, the sound is good. Now, about the actual album. WOW. Nothing from the Morning Glory box set, with the exception of perhaps Monterey, can prepare one for what is on this album. My favorite song is STARSAILOR, personally. I had heard in interviews about what Tim was listening to when he wrote this piece, went far beyond the folk, psychedelia, jazz, and bluesy type material on the other albums. On this album LEGETTI, the composer who wrote the strange music heard in 2001 A SPACE ODDESSY, was an influence. When you hear the song STARSAILOR, you can hear why. Tim had overdubbed tons of vocal parts to achieve the sound on that song. The effect is unknown from any other "POP" or "Rock" music that I'm aware of. Other songs, seem very classical almost, in that "third stream" way, where classical music got crossed with jazz music. (As opposed to FUSION JAZZ, where jazz and rock music shook hands.) From Frank Zappa's classic MOTHER OF INVENTIONS, Buck Gardner plays amazing trumpet parts on this album. Lee Underwood is on guitar again, and I believe ART TRIPP was on drums, tho he isnt on the live songs from this album that are on that new Tim Buckley DVD that has been released recently. Anyway, the percussion is achieved by a drummer playing something like jazz drums, with mallets, instead of the bongos normally heard backed up with marimba parts, from the 68-69 period. I've listened over and over to this album since I've recieved it. If I didnt know that I was listening to Tim Buckley, I would think that I was hearing music by someone in the FREAK FOLK movement, or more exactly, some kind of avant guard jazz group from NYC. (except you have Buckley strumming his 12 string guitar thruout the album....not a normal timbre for jazz fusion music.) Its the odd fusion of so many types of music, that makes this the masterpiece so many people believe it to be. You have folk, avant guard jazz, third stream classical, even some twelve tone type sounds. Again, on the live DVD, when you watch this music played, you can tell how the band was approaching the life production of this music. (and yes, these songs could be played life, for the most part apparently. THAT would have been a concert to see.) Some songs are very far out, basically. I WOKE UP and COME HERE WOMAN, the first two tracks on the album, are typical of what you find here. The one song has chords sliding back and forth, in and out of any key center, with the band inprovising around the basic sound. Still, Tim wasnt playing the chords randomly. HE had that all written out ,and memorized. Amazing, when you hear these two and three chord songs that so much folk and rock music is based upon. The other song, is based on a riff, which moves via a signal from Tim, into a heavily strummed single chord, where the band improvises randomly, and then does more of the same. Two songs seem to lack any normal verse chorus verse chorus structures. The exception is MOULIN ROUGE, very much an "ART SONG", that sounds like some of the tin pan alley/dancehall type music played by The Kinks, Beatles, etc. This song is only a couple of minutes long, but is really charming, and beautifully melodic. SONG TO A SIREN is a folk song, with just vocals and guitar. It sounds very thin in some ways next to the rest of the album's sound. Then again, these changes thruout the album keep it fresh. SONG TO A SIREN, written in 1967, is considered one of Tim's very best, and I believe its the song that THIS MORTAL COIL had covered. Then, you have the avant guard song STARSAILOR that sounds like it could have been written by Legetti. The rest of the songs, are of a type of their own. I wish i could say "just listen to LORCA, and imagine it with a good jazz trumpet in the sound." But Tim was much more far out with this album than he was with LORCA. Sadly, at the time this LP was a disaster, and could very well have been the pin that pop's Tim's belief in his audience's ability to follow where he was going with his musical direction. Maybe the strangest part of this album, is when you realize that Tim Buckley went from here, to GREETINGS FROM LA. That is to say, from avant guard masterpiece to mainstream funk-rock, very pop orienated, very cliche ridden, etc. Now that we are in the year 2007, maybe some of us have the musical acumen to appreciate what STARSAILOR was really about. Actually, if you are a FRANK ZAPPA fan from his jazzy 1968-1970 period (during the period when ZAPPA had Tim Buckley signed to his own label, BIZARRE STRAIGHT) this album would have been within reach of your own freak esthetic. Like the best music by Zappa, STARSAILOR has the atonality, the classical influence, the strong jazz improvising, the devil may care chances with audience acceptance, short songs set against long improv workouts, etc. All i can say in summation, is if you enjoy Tim Buckley, and like LORCA, (which was recorded right before STARSAILOR, tho released after it), then you ought to enjoy this album immensely. Somewhat like Joni Mitchell's album by album advance from well done folk music, right into jazz, each TIM BUCKLEY album is an advancement, and builds on the album before it. Unlike Joni, Tim advanced his vision too quickly, lost most of his core audience, and became a bitter disallusioned man. I think most people who know and respect most musical forms now agree, this was the SUMMIT of Tim Buckley's career. And, if you don't want to pay a hundred dollars for a used CD, or don't want to wait til the rights get cleared (if thats the case) for the CD release, DO buy this LP. You'd be glad you did. But do it soon, because I can't believe it will stay in print forever.