Works in Progress [Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Tim Buckley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 4, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B0000DJZ8W
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,528 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Danang [Take 7 + 8, Intercut, A Fragment Later the Third M]

2. Sing a Song for You [Take 11][#]

3. Buzzin' Fly [Take 3][#]

4. Song to the Siren [Take 7][#]

5. Happy Time [Take 14][#]

6. Sing a Song for You [Take 8, Labeled "Skies (Let Me Sing a Song for Yo]

7. Chase the Blues Away [Take 3][#]

8. Hi Lily, Hi Lo [Take 7][#]

9. Buzzin' Fly [Take 9][#]

10. Wayfaring Stranger Take 4

11. Ashbury Park Version 1 [Take 8][#]

12. Ashbury Park Version 2 [Take]

13. Ashbury Park Version 2 [Take 25, Labeled Master, A Fragment Later the]

14. Dream Letter [Takes 17-16, Intercut]

15. The Father Song [Take 3][#]

16. The Fiddler [Rough Mix, Instrumental Version of Phantasmagoria][#]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime Bliss!, December 5, 2003

By 

Arvind Mohindra (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Works in Progress (Audio CD)

Tim Buckley's Works in Progress CD starts with floating Danang (fragment from Love from Room 109 from Happy Sad album) and seamlessly slips into a beautiful rendition of Sing a Song for You. Alternate versions of already available tracks on previously available 9 studio albums such as Buzzin' Fly (two versions), Song to the Siren, Sing a song for You (two versions), Happy Time, Chase the Blues Away and Dream Letter provide Buckley's afficionados with beautiful insights. Sounds quality is great (given the limitations of the reel recordings which were uncovered after decades) and hey this is Tim Buckley - sound quality does not matter - it is the music that just lifts your spirits soaring high in the skies.

Kudos to Rhino Handmade for relasing this gem! Message for the Rhino Execs - Fans are waiting with baited breaths for Blue Afternoon and Starsailor - two missing gems from Rhino catalog to surface sooner than later (till then the only hope is ebay for used copies of these albums - ranging anywhere from $65 to $100 for used CDs). Classics lost in time! Till then, just enjoy this beautiful collection of lost gems, georgeous booklet in high quality paper with lyrics and brilliant liner notes by Lee Underwood!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tim Buckley must-have, October 3, 2007

By 

Angela (Boston) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Works in Progress (Audio CD)

If you are as much as a casual fan of Tim Buckley, I can highly recommend you get this album, even if you already have all several of his proper records and Dream Letter: Live in London 1968 (another must-have).

This CD is a wonderful and unique listening experience: the recording sessions fell into the period in which Tim produced many of his most popular and most melodic songs. The singing here is for the most soulful and gentle, and the ocassional studio banter lends this album an additional sense of initimacy.

If you own some of the studio albums and the live CD, this album will be a worthy addition to your collection. This is also your chance to own a rare studio version of 'Wayfaring Stranger'.

You also get the booklet with lyrics and extensive liner notes by Tim's guitarist Lee Underwood providing an in-depth discussion of the songs and giving valuable insights into where Tim stood creatively at the time of these sessions.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, intense, meaningful, January 14, 2007

By 

Don Schmittdiel "running_man" (Clinton Twp., MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Works in Progress (Audio CD)

Although Tim Buckley was never as commercially accessible as his late-1960's peers, his beautifully sculpted recordings fill a brooding, painful niche that supercedes the superficiality of artists such as James Taylor and Carole King, and the bludgeoning excesses of the emerging heavy metal artists such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. These particular recordings, not discovered until the 1990's, add to Buckley's legacy as one of the stellar vocalists and songwriters of the era.

Tim Buckley can be a difficult artist to listen to. The personal demons that haunted the performer drove him into a period of drug abuse that culminated in his untimely 1975 death. Those demons are frequently on display in Buckley's own compositions, and on 'Works In Progress', a major emotional crisis claims tracks thirteen through fifteen, laying down thoughts such as "Listen darling to my empty prayers" ('Dream Letter'), and on 'Father Song', "Oh tell me Father, is there shame in your heart for me... why do you curse the day I was born"? Fortunately, the disc finishes with a vibrant, toe-tapping instrumental ('Fiddler') featuring the strongest drumbeat in the set.

There are lighter moments on the disc, in particular two versions of one of my favorite Buckley compositions, 'Buzzin' Fly', featuring lyrics like "I wanna know everything about you, Darlin'...what makes you smile, what makes you wild...". The track 3 version weaves Lee Underwood's smooth electric lead guitar through Buckley's vocals, while the tauter take on track nine finds Underwood's instrument sharper and well-defined. Lighter fare can also be found on the delicate invitation to romance that is 'Hi Lily, Hi Lo' ("Come and dance and dance a while with me..."), and 'Happy Time', where an upbeat conga and vibes brace a quick-strummed acoustic guitar, helping to tell a "coming home to stay" tale. Similarly, 'Asbury Park' is a song of gratitude to a woman who "came into my hotel life and made my room a home". Its melodious and hopeful strains confirm the imagery of "you changed an old man filled with pity into a child again". While most of Buckley's songs are relationship based, commentary on social conditions is also fair game. 'Wayfaring Stranger', for example, features an intense interplay between conga and acoustic guitar, with lyrics preaching the 1960's dictum that "men will rise and stand side by side".

Buckley can also ride the fence, shadowing bright landscapes with darkened hues. Such is the case with the opening track, 'Danang', a slow ballad tinged with progressions of flat notes. Why the song is named after the famous Vietnamese city is a mystery to me, but it also evokes troubled times. Track two, 'Sing a Song For You', which is reprised in a denser, deeper, and darker version on track six, while engaging and hopeful, honors the "until I find peace in this world, I'll sing my song" sentiment. Similarly, the beauty of 'Song To the Siren' serenades, while teetering on the disaster of being "broken on your rocks", and describes the serenadee as "troubled as the tide".

'Works In Progress' at times reveals itself to be what the title implies... a collection of unfinished projects. Yet all of these 'takes' are close to finished versions, and the studio banter between Buckley and his associates ("Aw... that was beautiful!" "Let's do it again!") denotes their own satisfaction with their performances. If you're a fan of Buckley's early acoustic persona, I believe you'll be every bit as enthused as these musicians were when producing this treasure-trove Rhino Handmade has finally and fortunately unearthed.