Jeff Buckley, Elizabeth Fraser and jazz: the story of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’
The 1990s was one of the most fruitful decades for British music, with genres ranging from shoegaze to Britpop to trip-hop all gaining significant popularity. The latter, spearheaded by acts like Portishead and Massive Attack, gave us some incredible albums which have endured as some of the era’s most iconic.
One of these is Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, a masterpiece without a single bad song. Beginning with the sensual and bass-heavy ‘Angel’, the album is a hypnotising journey through pounding beats and hazy guitars, with notable vocal performances from guest artists like Sarah Jay Hawley and Elizabeth Fraser.
It’s easily the finest body of work the band have ever produced, and the contributions from Fraser on three tracks, ‘Teardrop’, ‘Black Milk’ and ‘Group Four’ elevate the record even higher. Her otherworldly voice is perfect for the songs she is featured on, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else giving such a mysterious and seductive performance on ‘Black Milk’, for example.
Yet, ‘Teardrop’ is her most famous contribution to the album, having reached number ten in the UK Singles Chart. The track has a fascinating backstory that connects it to another iconic 1990s musician – the late Jeff Buckley. The album was recorded between 1997 and 1998, several years after Fraser had ended a relationship with Buckley. It was an intense and deeply passionate connection that the two shared, with both admiring each other’s music and, more specifically, their astounding voices.
Fraser and Buckley were equally infatuated. She once said (via the documentary Jeff Buckley: Everybody Here Wants You), “I mean, he idolised me before he met me. It’s kind of creepy, and I was like that with him. This is embarrassing, but it’s the truth. I just couldn’t help falling in love with him. He was adorable.”
She also added, “I read his diaries, he read mine, you know we’d just swap, we’d literally just hand over this very personal stuff, and I’ve never done that with anybody else.” Evidently, their connection was stronger than she’d ever experienced before, but sometimes, such intense flames still find a way to die out. The pair broke things off in the end and they both moved on with their lives, starting new relationships.
Yet, Fraser’s memories of Buckley and her regrets surrounding the relationship all came flooding back when she was recording ‘Teardrop’. While she was in the studio, she was notified that Buckley had died while swimming in the Mississippi River. She was naturally devastated that someone she used to be so close to was now gone forever, so she channelled her feelings of grief into her performance. “That was so weird,” she told The Guardian, “I’d got letters out, and I was thinking about him. That song’s kind of about him – that’s how it feels to me anyway.”
Thus, the lyrics she’d written became even more potent. “Love, love is a verb/ Love is a doing word,” Fraser sings before exploring feelings of reflection, sadness, and the fact that her feelings for the subject still remain, or at least, she appreciates the time she spent with her ex-lover. These lyrics, written before Fraser knew Buckley had died, subsequently take on even more meaning, and her subsequent vocal delivery is incredibly moving and evocative.
The song, which Massive Attack’s Andrew Fowles initially sent to Madonna to sing, features a sample from ‘Sometimes I Cry’ by Les McCann, a jazz pianist. Released in 1973, the opening beat also opens up ‘Teardrop’, although Massive Attack up the pace. The result is one of their most recognisable songs, full of pure emotion.
