Tim Buckley - BBC Sessions (1967-1974)

First off, I have to say it's a bit of a stretch to call this album "BBC Sessions." Only eight of the 15 songs were actually done for the BBC. But the rest are from other TV or radio shows, so it all fits that general theme. And all the songs sound great, with most of them done in recording studios or at least sounding like it.

These days, I suppose that the main reason people have heard of Tim Buckley is because they know he's the father of Jeff Buckley, the singer who burned brightly in the 1990s but died after only releasing one album in his lifetime. That's too bad, because Tim Buckley's music is very critically acclaimed, though it has only sold a tiny fraction of what Jeff Buckley's music has sold.

Tim Buckley was an American singer-songwriter who released about an album a year from 1966 to 1974, then died of a drug overdose in 1975. In all that time, he only did one proper BBC studio session, in 1968. The songs from that session are tracks two through six here. They're the only officially released performances on this album, coming out on an EP called "The Peel Sessions." But "Happy Time" is from an appearance on a 1968 BBC TV show, and the last two songs are from an appearance on another BBC TV show, in 1974.

The rest of the songs are generally TV appearances that I found through the 2007 movie documentary about him called "My Fleeting House." Thankfully, that documentary has talking between songs, but no talking over the songs. That documentary rounded up pretty much all the TV footage of him known to exist, in excellent sound quality. So I converted the movie file into mp3s of the songs that I didn't have here already. (There were only one or two song with multiple versions that I didn't use.)

"Song to the Siren" is of particular interest. This version was recorded in 1967 for the last episode of the US TV show "The Monkees." Buckley wouldn't put the song on album until 1970. This version is significantly different from the album version, especially because it consists of just him and his acoustic guitar instead of a full band.

If you're not familiar with Buckley's music, this is a good place to start. It contains versions of his most famous songs. And being an hour and six minutes long, it's not an overwhelming amount of music. Note though that he has a kind of jazzy improv style that's rare for most singer songwriters. Some people love it, but other people can't get into it. 

By the way, I believe all the songs are written or co-written by Buckley except for "Sally Go Round the Roses" and "The Dolphins."

01 Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley)
02 Morning Glory (Tim Buckley)
03 Coming Home to You [Happy Time] (Tim Buckley)
04 Sing a Song for You (Tim Buckley)
05 Hallucinations - Troubadour (Tim Buckley)
06 Once I Was (Tim Buckley)
07 Happy Time (Tim Buckley)
08 Come Here Woman (Tim Buckley)
09 I Woke Up (Tim Buckley)
10 Blue Melody (Tim Buckley)
11 Venice Beach [Music Boats by the Bay] (Tim Buckley)
12 Pleasant Street (Tim Buckley)
13 Sally Go Round the Roses (Tim Buckley)
14 Honey Man (Tim Buckley)
15 The Dolphins (Tim Buckley)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16067884/TimBuck_1967-1974_BBSessions_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is a screenshot I took from an appearance he did on a TV show called "The Show" in 1970.