The prodigiously talented Jeff Buckley only made one studio album, 1994’s Grace, before his accidental drowning in the Mississippi River in 1997. \His estate has continued to release a wealth of posthumous material. These range from top notch material like the drafts for his second album, released as Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, as well as great songs like ‘Forget Her’, a Grace outtake, but his clearing of the decks has also felt like it’s scraping the bottom of the barrel with releases like Grace Around the World.
But despite all the posthumous activity, one fascinating song by Buckley remains in the archive – collaborator Elizabeth Fraser has dismissed the song as “unfinished, you see. I don’t want it to be heard.” Fraser, the lead singer of the Cocteau Twins, previously recorded a version of Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren’ in the mid 1980s. She was in a relationship with Jeff Buckley in the mid 1990s, and they sang together on ‘All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun’. Even if it’s unvarnished, with Fraser and Buckley only accompanied by an acoustic guitar, it’s still enthralling – two unique, spectacular voices in an unlikely pairing.
My eyes are
A baptism
Oh, I am fuse
And sing her
Into my thoughts
Oh, phantom elusive thingOh, all flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no-one for you
But here is one
All flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no-one for you
But here is one, but here is one…
Here is one…Oh, all flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no-one for you
But here is one
All flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no-one for you
But here is one, but here is one…Keep it going in me, wicked traveller
Fading farther from me
With your face in my window glow
Oh, where will you weep for me?
Sweet willowIt’s ok to be angry
But not to hurt me
Your happiness
Yes, yes, yes
Darling, darling, darlingAll flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no one for you
But here is one
All flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no one for you
But here is one
All flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no one for you
But here is one
All flowers in time bend towards the sun
I know you say that there’s no one for you
But here is one
But here is one
But here is one…
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Never knew about this. If I had, definitely would have dropped it into my post on This Mortal Coil and ‘Song to the Siren’. Fascinating. Thanks Graham.
Are you a Jeff Buckley fan? I think Grace is a little overrated, but at the same time he was crazy talented and could have done all sorts of amazing things.
Agree with all of the above! ‘Grace’ kind of irritated me a bit – kind of young man’s ‘try hard’, but the talent was prodigious and potential amazing, as you say.
Love Jeff; such a shame he died so young. I wonder what he’d be doing musically if he was still with us!
Elizabeth is new to me as of a few weeks ago – I agree with that description of unique & spectacular!
Yeah, it’s a pretty cool voice. And would have been interesting to see where Buckley’s career went.
Would have been interesting to hear his music evolve. His dad’s music took lots of turns. I haven’t listened to ‘Grace’ for a while. Time for a revisit.
I haven’t bothered with most of the reissue stuff, but there’s some good stuff on his first posthumous record, Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk. He covers Genesis’ ‘Back in NYC’!
That Genesis song sounds interesting. I really like the original. I love offbeat choices like that.
It’s not the slickest version out there….
I listened to it. I have never heard anyone else do it so hats off to him for that choice. Pretty hard song to tackle.