The one singer Patti Smith said was as good as an angel: “That natural voice”
The music that Patti Smith was always after had to mean something more than a bunch of chords.
A lot of her favourite underground bands didn’t really need to know much in the ways of music theory, but when they got up onstage, they could say more than some of the greatest arena rock acts could ever hope to say. But while a lot of Smith’s lyrics could be incredibly complex, some of the most gifted musicians were the ones who could get their point across with the pure sound of their instruments.
And yes, that includes Smith’s use of her own voice. From the minute she walked into a recording studio, she knew that the way she delivered her vocals were as important as the roaring guitars in the background, and when listening to Horses, hearing her go from a rip-roaring moment in ‘Gloria’ to suddenly calming things down to a slow crawl on ‘Elegie’ is still one of the most beautiful contrasts anyone has ever made on record.
That’s really the keyword here: contrast. Not many artists are able to keep changing the tone of their music throughout making a record, and even if there were some moments where they switched things up, half the time it would be played off as a gimmick rather than them revealing another side of themselves.
But after years of the most faceless rock bands clogging up MTV, Smith at least found some hope in rock and roll when hearing bands like Nirvana. Kurt Cobain wasn’t afraid to show different sides of his personality in song, and even if the songs themselves weren’t always the most comprehensible lyrics in the world, it’s impossible not to have the same feeling as Cobain does, whether that’s the anger of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ or the melancholy of ‘Something in the Way’.
While Smith never got the chance to work with Cobain, she did find a similar magical soul in Jeff Buckley. She had already been in love with his father’s music for a long time, but even with all of the talent that he showed on an album like Grace, Smith was shocked to learn how insecure he was when it came to his own voice and the emotion that he brought across on every single track.
Because as far as Smith was concerned, his was a voice that was ripped straight from the heavens, saying, “He was lying on the couch with his face turned away and I realised he was weeping. I asked him, ‘Are you alright? What’s wrong?’. And he said, ‘I wish I was better.’ And I can tell you, he couldn’t possibly [get any better]. He could even rival an angel [with] that natural voice he had.”
If you listen to any album on Grace and half of Sketches for my Sweetheart the Dunk, angelic still feels like far too little of a word. Buckley was responsible for the greatest vocals of the 1990s, and beyond being a fantastic all-around musician, every song he wrote felt like a unique experience, especially when he channelled Robert Plant with that high register before bringing everything back down as quiet as possible.
Any artist might struggle with insecurities from time to time, but the fact that Buckley still felt he needed to get better spoke volumes about the kind of artist that he wanted to be. He was a perfectionist in many senses, but if he wanted to make sure that everything sounded right, he knew that he needed to give his whole self over to the muse whenever that beautiful high voice soared into the clouds.
