The story of Jeff Buckley for some strange reason, perhaps because of that feeling of “damnation” behind him, makes you think to Dorian Gray. Two damned, good-looking boys, who have never seen their decadence except in death.
Grace, the debut single of Jeff’s eponymous studio album, appears to the public as a kind of premonition. “There’s the moon asking to stay / But it’s my time coming / Oh, drink a bit of wine, my love / We both might go tomorrow“. A timeless love story, sang with a shattered voice that makes you feel the worst. You get lost in the story and, once the bottom is reached, you think: “Am I not in the same situation?”
No, you’re not in the same situation. It’s just the power of real music, the one which comes out of the heart of the artist. Thanks also to a grotesque riff that creates an aura of mystery, to that voice that leaves no room for anything but tears of consciousness.
There’s the moon asking to stay
Long enough for the clouds to fly me away
Oh, it’s my time coming, I’m not afraid, afraid to die
My fading voice sings of love
But she cries to the clicking of time, ohWait in the fire
Wait in the fireAnd she weeps on my arm
Walking to the bright lights in sorrow
Oh, drink a bit of wine we both might go tomorrow
Oh, my loveAnd the rain is falling and I believe
My time has come
It reminds me of the pain I might leave
Leave behind
The song generated severals talks after the premature death of the singer and many fans thought about the hypothesis of suicide. But the meaning of the song had already been explained earlier: behind the record that Jimmy Page described as his “favorite album of the decade” there was a girl and the following message: “Despite all that can happen, the unpleasant situations and all the pains that you can experience in this life, if you have someone who loves you or who really loved you, nothing else really matters.” It means that you’ve done good in your life, and what you give somehow always comes back. And there is no more beautiful, rewarding sensation than this.
Only after trying this feeling, you are ready for your final goal. A sort of pacification with your own true self
Anaheim, November 17th, 1966 – Memphis, May 29th, 1997
Thanks Jeff.