The late American singer Jeff Buckley was the son of Tim Buckley, an influential musician who was active from 1966 until 1975 when he passed away at the age of 28. Born in the same year his late father started his musical career, Jeff Buckley became a professional musician in 1990, releasing four years later his praised album “Grace” (1994), which tragically ended up being the only one of his career. Back on May 29, 1997 in Memphis, the singer was working with his band in the studio and one day he decided to go swimming fully dressed in the Wolf River Harbor, reportedly singing the chorus of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love”.
A roadie named Keith Foti was with him that day and remained on the shore. After he moved a radio and a guitar to protect them from the water, he looked to the river and Jeff had vanished. The wake of a tugboat had swept him away from the shore and under water. It was only on June 4 that his body was found in another place caught in branches. With the success of his debut album at the time, many famous musicians talked about Jeff, including Robert Plant.
What is Robert Plant’s opinion on Jeff Buckley
Robert Plant was a big fan of Tim Buckley and even said that he was an influence to him in the early days of his career. When his son Jeff appeared on the scene, Plant also became a huge fan and lamented the tragic loss.
In an interview with CBC (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) back in 2010, he praised Jeff and the Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. “Both that you mentioned (are) two spectacular vocalists. I mean, both of whom had much better chops than me. I mean, real great, great singers. And I just get into songs and live them out, which is a different thing. I think that’s true. But I mean, Jeff Buckley’s voice…”
“I was playing with Jimmy (Page) in the mid-90s when we were working with an Egyptian ensemble and we were playing in a festival in Switzerland. Jeff Buckley was playing and we went to see him. It was mind altering, his voice, spectacular singing. So much conviction. I knew Freddy quite well and he was a wonderful guy. We used to sit and talk about what we would gonna do (when) our voices (would go away),” Robert Plant said.
Tim Buckley was an inspiration for Robert Plant in the early days
Back in 2002, Robert Plant was part of the VH1 program Storytellers, in which musicians would tell stories between the songs they played live. Before playing the famous Tim Buckley song “Song to the Siren”, he mentioned Jeff as an amazing artist that died too soon.
(Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “We were talking earlier about lyrics and beautiful lyrics. That particular period that we were dwelling upon this evening, partly, in fact definitely was a time for prolific writing. Recently, not long ago, we lost one of the better, most beautiful caucasian singers, Jeff Buckley.”
“Sadly way, way out to lose such a talent, such a heart. His father was a great influence. Tim Buckley, really influenced me when I was getting there, going to America and checking it out. The lyrics on this next song are probably some of the more beautiful I’ve ever heard in my life. This is a song called ‘Song to the Siren’,” Robert Plant said.
The song was written by Larry Beckett and recorded by Tim Buckley. It was featured on his sixth studio album “Starsailor” (1970). In 2002, Robert Plant released a cover of the song on his seventh solo studio album “Dreamland”.
Jeff Buckley was a big fan of Led Zeppelin
In many interviews during his career, Jeff Buckley mentioned Led Zeppelin as one of his favorite bands. He had the chance to know Page and Plant, since they were playing in the same festivals a few times.
When asked during a conversation with the Interview magazine in 1994, about Robert Plant, he praised the musician.
“That’s my man! The cool thing about all those Zeppelin songs is that, because of the way Plant sings, if you put them into a different musical setting, they would sound like R&B songs. With Led Zeppelin, everything was out of tune, and Plant sang wrong notes. But he was the one that showed me that there aren’t any wrong notes,” Jeff Buckley said.
