Buckley often regarded his tenor voice as an instrument, a talent most noticeable on his albums Happy Sad, Lorca, and Starsailor. His first marriage was to Mary Guibert, with whom he had a child, musician Jeff Buckley. They divorced in 1968 and after this Buckley would meet with his son only once more. Buckley married second wife Judy Brejot Sutcliffe in 1970 and adopted her son, Taylor.
Born in Washington DC, Buckley,an Irish-American, lived for 10 years in Amsterdam, New York, before moving to southern California, initially to Bell Gardens and later settling in Anaheim in 1965. His experiences with music were through his family, artists such as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland being particular favorites in the household. During his childhood, Buckley was a fan of Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Nat King Cole and Miles Davis, although country music was his foremost passion. Reflecting this, at the age of 11 Buckley learned how to play the banjo, an instrument which his mother had bought to occupy him following a bout of mumps. He attended Loara High School in Anaheim, California, and, amongst others, made friends with Don Gordon, Larry Beckett, Jim Fielder (original member of Blood, Sweat & Tears) and future wife, Mary Guibert. He was an accomplished high school athlete, becoming a quarterback for the school team in addition to getting a place on the baseball team. During this period playing as quarterback, Buckley broke the first two fingers on his left hand but they never fully returned to normal and made guitar playing more difficult. At the age of 15, Buckley abandoned the banjo and moved on to the guitar, playing with Princess Ramona & The Cherokee Riders, a country and western band. However, the lead singer saw Buckley was uninterested and instead suggested he apply himself to the emerging 1960's folk scene.
Buckley's career began with his 1966 debut Tim Buckley, its mix of pop and folk rock drawing on popular influences of the time. His popularity peaked with second album Goodbye and Hello, a more mature record with avant-garde influences and political sentiments. In the three years that followed Buckley was at his most prolific and experimental, producing four albums of varying styles. Happy Sad and Blue Afternoon showed Buckley's folk roots while Lorca veered to more avant-garde styles. The final album of this period, Starsailor, is a mix of jazz, funk and avant-garde styles, representing his continual evolution in genre. This period, while garnering some critical success, proved disastrous for his record sales as the disparity of his styles caused his fan-base to all but disappear.
Following this Buckley changed genres again, with 1972 release Greetings from L.A., which incorporated the funk, rhythm and blues and soul sounds of the early 1970s in to his music. However, this release and the following album Sefronia did not match up to the success of his previous work. In 1974, having alienated much of his fan-base and squandered money made at his peak, Buckley released Look at the Fool, which was neither well received by the public nor the majority of critics. By this point Buckley had grown disillusioned with the music industry and his drug abuse of the past seven years had affected him.
In spite of this, in early 1975, desperate for musical recognition and an escape from poverty and obscurity, Buckley dropped his drug dependencies and engaged the musical press regarding a live album comeback. Buckley began performing material drawn from his whole career as a response to the desires of his audience, desires he had always spurned in the past. However, Buckley relapsed and on June 28, 1975, he overdosed on heroin. His wife Judy, having earlier put him in bed, was unable to rouse him and paramedics pronounced him dead on arrival. He was 28 years old and was survived by his wife and adopted son Taylor, and his biological son, Jeff (who also died at a young age).
Morning Glory
Tim Buckley Lyrics
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Window, hoping it would catch the eye
Of any vagabond who passed it by,
And I waited in my fleeting house
Before he came I felt him drawing near
As he neared I felt the ancient fear
That he had come to wound my door and jeer,
"Tell me stories," I called to the Hobo
"Stories of cold," I smiled at the Hobo
"Stories of old," I knelt to the Hobo
And he stood before my fleeting house
"No," said the Hobo, "No more tales of time
Don't ask me now to wash away the grime
I can't come in 'cause it's too high a climb,"
And he walked away from my fleeting house
"Then you be damned!" I screamed to the Hobo
"Leave me alone," I wept to the Hobo
"Turn into stone," I knelt to the Hobo
And he walked away from my fleeting house
In Tim Buckley's song Morning Glory, the lyrics depict a scene where the singer is waiting in his "fleeting house" for a vagabond to approach. He lit a candle in the window, hoping to catch the attention of someone passing by. As he waits, he becomes apprehensive, feeling the "ancient fear" that the vagabond has come to harm him. When the vagabond finally appears, the singer implores him to share stories, specifically ones about the cold and from old times. The vagabond refuses, stating that he cannot wash away the grime of his life and cannot climb to the singer's house. This angers the singer, and he screams at the vagabond, asking him to turn into stone and leave.
The lyrics of Morning Glory paint a picture of a man who is desperately seeking some form of comfort, perhaps even enlightenment, in the stories of others. His purest candle symbolizes the purity of his intentions, and his fleeting house represents something that is temporary and fragile. It is likely that the singer represents Tim Buckley himself, who, as an artist, may have felt misunderstood or isolated from the world around him. The vagabond, on the other hand, represents a sort of otherness, implying that the singer is trying to connect with something outside his own world.
Line by Line Meaning
I lit my purest candle close to my Window, hoping it would catch the eye
I lit a candle hoping to attract the attention of a wandering stranger passing by my home.
Of any vagabond who passed it by,
Hoping that any wandering traveler would see my lit candle.
And I waited in my fleeting house
I waited in my impermanent home for the traveler to arrive.
Before he came I felt him drawing near;
I sensed the presence of the traveler before he arrived.
As he neared I felt the ancient fear
As he got closer, I felt a deep-rooted fear.
That he had come to wound my door and jeer,
I feared that he had come to harm me and mock me.
And I waited in my fleeting house
I continued to wait in my impermanent home.
"Tell me stories," I called to the Hobo;
I asked the traveler to share his stories with me.
"Stories of cold," I smiled at the Hobo;
I requested tales of hardship and difficult situations.
"Stories of old," I knelt to the Hobo;
I humbled myself before the traveler and begged him for tales of the past.
And he stood before my fleeting house
The traveler stood in front of my temporary home.
"No," said the Hobo, "No more tales of time;
The traveler refused and said he wouldn't share any more stories.
Don't ask me now to wash away the grime;
The traveler didn't want to be bothered to clean himself up.
I can't come in 'cause it's too high a climb,"
The traveler couldn't enter my home because it was too difficult to reach.
And he walked away from my fleeting house
The traveler left my temporary home and continued on his journey.
"Then you be damned!" I screamed to the Hobo;
I was angry and cursed at the traveler for not sharing his stories and leaving.
"Leave me alone," I wept to the Hobo;
I cried and begged the traveler to stay and keep me company.
"Turn into stone," I knelt to the Hobo;
I prayed for the traveler to turn to stone so that he would never leave me.
And he walked away from my fleeting house
The traveler continued on his journey and left me alone in my temporary home.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Larry Beckett, Tim Buckley
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Cinnamombunz
This is one of those songs that stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it. I was in a music store in Houston (probably summer of '69) and they were playing it. I don't think I took a breath until it was over, then went up and asked who it was. At the time I had almost no money and nothing on which to play a record, but I bought it anyhow. The man was a genius. Sad loss.
@RobinASmith138
Me too, when I first heard this it captured my attention and I was instantly in love with this song and then started to listen to other songs of Tim, and then I was hooked. But this was the first song…
@federicoridolfi3282
❤
@Luiz-pt2bf
💩
@user-tb6sm4jg4d
Homeless people can be difficult, but man it must be hard for them. Thank you, Tim Buckley, for helping us to reflect and be introspective about those of us who, for whatever reason, must be without a home, sometimes for the rest of their lives.
@ikramreffas4308
Tim Buckley was one of the most underrated singer ... just a great and pure artist .
@garyrouyea8314
He kills me, man...maybe not the best but it doesn't get better
@FilippoBombonato
Absolutely true
@bartonim
People didn't really listen to him until after his premature death. The This Mortal Coil projects introduced, through covers of his songs, his music to a whole new generation.
@andrewolivera579
Both him and his kid Jeff, just different breeds