Tim Buckley
Born on Valentine's Day 1947, California-raised Buckley's heroes
were Nat King Cole and Johnny Cash, and his 1966 folk rock debut
leaned heavily on psychedelia.
A mere three years later he was recording three albums
simultaneously - Lorca, Blue Afternoon and Starsailor
- using avant-garde vocal gymnastics inspired by Italian
singer Cathy Berberian and choosing words for their phonetic
sound, not their meaning.
While Lorca began Buckley's journey into the
avant-garde, it was on Starsailor (1970) that
he turned space cowboy and headed for the outer reaches of
the solar system on one of the most extraordinary voyages into the
unknown ever launched from the West Coast.
Too way out for the folk scene, heroin and dwindling sales
followed. He died from a drug overdose on 29 June 1975 after
snorting heroin, thinking it was cocaine. His reputation as an
other-worldly vocalist lives on.
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