Description
Label Review.
Dream Letter: Live in London 1968 (on two CDs), Live At The Troubadour 1969 and Honeyman: Recorded Live 1973. All previously available individually.
Our Overview.
Although never released in his lifetime, these three live albums, all originally issued posthumously in the 1990s gave Tim Buckley fans a chance to hear him on stage where he was a consummate performer. he signed to Elektra Records when still in his teens and his first two albums saw him as promising singer songwriter albeit with little commercial potential despite advertising budgets and an appearance on The Monkees TV show.
He was in Britain in October 1968 where his show at Queen Elizabeth Hall was taped. Largely acoustic, he was backed by his regular lead guitarist Lee Underwood, bass player Danny Thompson (borrowed from Pentangle) and vibraphone player David Friedman. Ignoring his first album he played tracks from his second ‘Goodbye And Hello’ and a bunch of new songs, some which would appear on future records and some not released at all.
The next album in this box was recorded in September 1969 in Los Angeles this time with his usual band. By now, he was really stretching out musically and lyrically and beginning to test the patience of his audiences. Creatively, Tim was in a hot streak and he released four studio albums in 1969 & 1970.
The final show in this box is from November 1973 and was taped for radio in New York. He was mainly plugging his most recent two albums ‘Greeting From L.A.’ and ‘Sefronia’ but also included two earlier songs, one a piece from ‘Goodbye & Hello’ and ‘Happy Sad’. After one more album: ‘Look At The Fool’ (1974), he died of an accidental heroin overdose in 1975. His son Jeff would find fame as a singer songwriter in the 1990s but bizarrely also died in his twenties after drowning in the Mississippi river.