The unwelcome comparison that made Jeff Buckley pause the ‘Grace’ sessions
Jeff Buckley is one of few artists who transcends comparison. Inheriting his father’s powerful vocals and weaving them into gorgeous, classic rock-inspired soundscapes, the singer-songwriter delivered just one album before his death, but it has had a lasting impact.
Comprising a Leonard Cohen cover, a unique take on an Early Modern English hymn, and a collection of stunning original tracks, Grace was a one-of-a-kind record, and Buckley knew it. He was a perfectionist in the studio, keen to make sure that the songs he put to record were worthy of being immortalised.
With that overwhelming pressure and perfectionism on his mind, it’s easy to see how an unwelcome comparison to another singer stopped Buckley in his tracks. While he was penning and producing the record, a review in Newsday likened his 1993 live EP, Live at Sin-é, to the work of pop-rock singer Michael Bolton.
The review suggested that they were both white vocalists with “affecting voices drawn directly from black idioms,” each of them awkwardly reaching for a “balance of emotion and technique, eventually relying on sheer voice of will, oversinging, flaking out”.
The less than complimentary account reportedly led Buckley to postpone work on his debut record for two days. According to Andy Wallace, who produced the record, the comparison “stopped him cold”.
“If someone had thought, ‘Who can I use to really get his goat?’ you couldn’t have chosen somebody better than Michael Bolton,” he stated in Dream Brother.
In a later conversation with Interview magazine, Buckley demonstrated his continued disdain for the comparison, calling it “disgusting”, before clarifying: “The thing is, I’m not taking from that tradition. I don’t want to be black. Michael Bolton desperately wants to be black, black, black. He also sucks.”
Despite his protests, Buckley, like many musicians, was almost certainly inspired by the blues, jazz, and soul of the black artists that came before him. He even once stated, “When I was younger I wanted to be Miles Davis. He gave me a really deep love of jazz, the stuff where the composition has a seduction to it,” via the Jeff Buckley website.
Buckley eventually continued work on Grace, perhaps enthused with a new sense of purpose, delivering his debut in the summer of 1994. He continued to borrow from that seductive style of composition while undoubtedly setting himself apart from the musical stylings of Bolton. Despite his efforts, the album was met with a fairly underwhelming reception, one only time could alter. In the three decades since then, Grace has come to be recognised as one of the greatest records of all time.
