A Mind's Insight Into Jeff Buckley's "Grace"

Words by Abbi Patton

Listening to Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”  for the first time was an extremely special part of my life, as well as countless others’ lives worldwide. It impacted me beyond comprehension; I just couldn’t find the words to describe how beautiful it was. Having listened to it many times since then, I hope I can find words adequate enough to describe it today. For good reason, it has often been named as one of the greatest albums of all time. Its powerful, emotional vocals, beautiful, intricate instrumentals and imaginative, poetic lyrics are what makes this album so special, as well as the uniqueness in sound and the way it crosses the boundary of genre.

Buckley, a young Californian musician, was twenty six years old at the time of its release in 1994. Tragically, his life was taken from him three years later and so he didn’t get to witness how influential his album has become in the world of music today. It was his first and only album to be released while he was alive. The album is an artistic miracle given to the human race and man, are we lucky to receive such a gift.

Grace by Jeff Buckley, photographed by Merri Cyr

The brilliance of Grace was helped to be brought to life by co-writers Gary Lucas, [Mojo Pin, Grace] Michael Tighe, [So Real] Mick Grøndahl and Matt Johnson [Dream Brother]. It also features three covers [Lilac Wine, Hallelujah, Corpus Christi Carol] sung in Jeff’s majestic and distinctive style. This is no ordinary folk album… elements of rock, soul, jazz and even metal are sewn in to the canvas that is this auditorial painting.

The album begins with Mojo Pin, a heartbreaking song about addiction, where Buckley uses various metaphors comparing his love for a beautiful black woman to a drug. Buckley’s haunting vocals fade in while a quiet guitar carries his voice into the song. It gives the illusion of being a soft guitar ballad but grows in intensity when it reaches the first chorus, before the tension breaking suddenly and returning to Jeff’s soft vocals once more. Only two minutes into the album, you can observe how the music varies and transforms dramatically, conveying different emotions with each change in pace.

“Still feel your hair, black ribbons of coal

Touch my skin to keep me whole.”

Here we really get a sense of Buckley’s incredible lyricism, which can be described as poetic and visionary. His lyrics conceptualise images of great beauty and feeling. Jeff uses metaphor a lot in his writing, which contributes to these visuals being created, assisting the human mind greatly. His words are simple but descriptive, using accessible language that anyone can understand and relate to.

“Drop down we two to serve and pray to love.”

It’s likely that Buckley thought of acts of love as a way of worship. Throughout his music it’s abundantly clear that he was a huge romantic – it is a constant and palpable theme of his songs. However, he was a loving person in other ways than romantic. Leah Reid, Product Manager at Columbia Records, once said, “When Jeff loved people, he loved them unconditionally. Whether others thought that someone was a big freak or the best person in the world, it didn’t make any difference to him. He loved people for what they were, unconditionally.”

“I’m blind and tortured

The white horses flow.”

A profound lyric in the chorus, this circles back to the title of the song. “Mojo pin” is a slang term for a heroin needle, so “the white horses” flowing can be interpreted as the drug going into his system. 

There is an immense amount of power in Buckley’s voice when singing, “Black beauty, I love you so…” and the intensity once again grows before crashing down into the soft guitar playing. However, the intervals between these high pressure points of the song are getting shorter, signalling more highs from the drug, but unsatisfactory conclusions, leading to an abrupt halt and reverting back to the calmness of the instrumental and Jeff’s voice.

Finally, to end the song, we are pulled into the climactic madness that has been teased to us throughout the track, with heavy drums, loud guitar and soulful sounds from Jeff. Just like the other times though, it doesn’t last long, perhaps communicating that there is no possible satisfactory high to come from the intensity of the drug, or a love that is clearly unbalanced.

With a song that’s ever-changing, perhaps even more than the previous song, we have the famous Grace, which of course is the title track – soft, yet potent. As one of Buckley’s most well-known tracks, its idiosyncratic nature exhibits the eccentric sound that he’s so recognised for. Of course, it includes the melodic instrumentals that we are so accustomed to with Jeff’s music, but it also includes prominent lyrics. One of my personal favourites is “wait in the fire,” which could possibly be considered graphic, but unlike most graphic depictions, there is a beauty to it. Fire is one of Earth’s natural elements, known for being dangerous, but also so striking in its looks. This lyric could be attributed to pain often times being beautiful, such as suffering through heartbreak after a passionate encounter with love.

So many of the most famous pieces of art – whether it be a painting, music, poetry or film – come from the most painful of experiences. Grace captures this hurt beautifully with the echoes of emotion in Jeff’s voice and beautiful layered sounds. However, even through the woeful parts of the song, a cheery guitar occasionally comes into play, perhaps exhibiting the happiness in romance. As Jeff said himself, “It’s about not feeling so bad about your own mortality when you have true love.”

The song concludes with a powerful and passionate instrumental, Jeff’s voice flowing alongside it. It’s full of emotion; full of sadness. It’s so easy to connect with, whatever pain we may be going through, because it captures the pain of the human experience so perfectly.

One of the things I love most about this album is the way each song encapsulates heartbreak in a different way. Last Goodbye is a song about realising a relationship isn’t meant to be. However, the song is a little more upbeat, conveying the hopeful longing in this relationship, even though it’s clear that it won’t work out. It still has a sorrowful nature because it’s clear that he doesn’t want it to end.

“Kiss me, please kiss me

Kiss me out of desire, baby

Not consolation.”

While he knows that he won’t last much longer with this person, he desires that their last kiss be full of passion, just like it was their first. He wants the ending of the relationship to be mutual and peaceful, sharing one more act of love before going their separate ways. The strings section of this song conveys this despair in breaking away from each other so wonderfully, along with the moving way that Jeff sings.

“Thinking so hard on her soft eyes

And the memory offers signs that it’s over.”

This lyric might suggest that he doesn’t view her the same way as he once did, nor as the person he’s meant to be with for the rest of his life. Perhaps he sees in her eyes that she knows it’s over too. Maybe the feeling isn’t in her eyes anymore, because she doesn’t look at him the same. Like so many of Jeff’s lyrics, it can be interpreted in many ways, but one commonality can be found in all of these interpretations – it’s over between the two of them.

“I lost myself on a cool, damp night

I gave myself in that misty light

Was hypnotized by a strange delight

Under a lilac tree.”

These are the beautiful and unmistakable lyrics of Lilac Wine, originally written by James Shelton in 1950. The song has been covered many times, one notable cover being Nina Simone’s version of the song. Jeff has covered many of Nina’s songs, such as The Other Woman, That’s All I Ask, If You Knew… the list goes on. It features only the sound of Jeff’s voice and his guitar in the beginning. The instruments pick up, adding a soft layer to the song, keeping it subdued in sound. He sings in a soulful, emotive tone, with as much passion as if it were his own song. It is such a lovely addition to the album and fits perfectly with the rest of the songs on it.

“Oh, that was so real.”

This is probably the best way to describe my reaction to my discovery of the next song on this album, the one which introduced me to the incredible Jeff Buckley and in turn, the album Grace. This song, of course, is So Real. I remember listening for the first time and it taking my breath away. It was nothing like I’d ever heard before – a folk rock song with unbelievably stunning instrumentals and a falsetto voice singing in the style of soul music. This was one of those times were I truly felt the music. I could feel the heartbreak, the melancholy, the passion, the love and the anger. Every turn of a corner, there was an unpredictable and dramatic change – going from a soft ballad to a thunderous chorus in the blink of an eye. The drums in the beginning indicate that we are awaiting an explosion of feeling – the beat almost “ticking,” counting down, giving us a simple clue that this song is growing in intensity as it plays on further.

“Love, let me sleep tonight on your couch

And remember the smell of the fabric

Of your simple city dress.”

With the first lyric of the song immediately engulfing our senses, this kind of illustrative use of words is an example of the vivid imagery used in Buckley’s music. It’s so detailed that it is tangible; we can nearly feel the material of the fabric from just a description. The song then bursts into the chorus, with Jeff’s heartfelt vocals filled with melancholy, reminiscing on a love he once had but has now lost. The bewitching guitar riff and thumping drums are entrancing and further elevate the emotion of the song. It slows down again, giving us dreamy guitar and mellow vocals. Its sombre quality gives a feeling of hopelessness.

“And I couldn’t awake from the nightmare

That sucked me in and pulled me under.”

This lyric in particular was shocking to me when I learned of how Buckley died, drowning in the Mississippi River due to a strong, overbearing current caused by a boat passing by. It is also the line sung most expressively in any verse of the song. It reminded me of a similar case with the lyric, “and I swear that I don’t have a gun,” in Nirvana’s hit, Come As You Are, from the album Nevermind, released in 1991. Seeing as Kurt Cobain died of a gunshot wound three years after the album release, this line being sung over and over again in the song was rather eerie.

After the second chorus, a there’s a loud explosion of guitars and pounding drums. I’d like to think this represents a few things – the anger stage of grief when losing someone, the feeling of not being in control of your feelings, perhaps a decent into madness. This, though, is short-lived and comes to a sudden stop. Jeff speaks under his breath with a sort of longing.

“I love you

But I’m afraid to love you.”

I love that this part is spoken because it reveals a feeling of desperation, almost as if he has no energy to sing these words, so he speaks them instead. He repeats them and then says in a soft whisper, “I’m afraid,” before the chorus starts again. The song ends with soulful screams, followed by a final, “oh, that was so real,” sung in vibrato to conclude the song.

Listening to this song will always feel like the first time for me. It is truly one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard and I will feel forever fortunate that I came across it, introducing me to such a significant figure in music and the art he created in the form of an album.

The next song begins. A familiar riff is played, but it sounds more haunting, more dissonant. It then blends into the classic sound of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. This is a very different take on the song we know, making it sound like another song entirely. Jeff once again makes the song his own, like his renditions of other classic songs. While retaining the energy that his predecessors created, he simply converts it into a slightly different emotion to be felt.

Buckley’s voice is soft but he sings the words meaningfully. The fingerpicking style of guitar is played in a heavenly tone; it’s otherworldly. The way it’s sung makes it sound like a lullaby. It’s a piece that would be heard only in dreams; it’s so hard to fathom that it’s real. Jeff sings the final two “Hallelujahs” effortlessly, holding the notes for longer than is thought to be humanly possible, but he makes it sound easy. It’s no question why this cover is so appreciated worldwide.

Track seven: Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. Have you ever been so in love that it hurts? Stuck on just one of seven billion people that reside on Planet Earth? In love, but in a tragic sense – maybe it’s unrequited; perhaps it’s a toxic pairing. It could be that someone in the relationship was unfaithful. Either way, it all comes back to one feeling: heartbreak. There simply is no heartbreak album like Grace, that manages to describe one feeling in so many ways.

“Broken down and hungry for your love

With no way to feed it.”

Heartbreak is starving him; it’s picking him apart from the inside and destroying his happiness. Often, there is no cure for heartbreak other than receiving the love you so desire. This use of metaphor is so comprehensible and straight away, you know exactly what he is saying.

“Too young to hold on

And too old to just break free and run”

He is trapped in his feelings. He knows he doesn’t want them – he wants to run away, but they’re too developed for him to just shake them off and move on. He’s not a young boy that will find it simple to pick himself up and carry on, even though he wishes he could do so.

“Much too blind to see the damage he’s done

Sometimes a man must awake to find that really he has no one.”

He was so blinded by love that he didn’t realise it was inevitably going to end in hurt and sorrow. Only now does he realise that he doesn’t have anyone anymore and it’s too late.

“So I’ll wait for you, love

And I’ll burn

Will I ever see your sweet return?

Oh, will I ever learn?”

The sole action he can think to take is to wait for his love to come back, which is painful, but it’s the only option he has. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever learn from his mistakes he’s made in love. This is the story of Lover, You Should’ve Come Over – it’s heartbreaking but so relevant to nearly everyone in the entire world. It tells a story that is specific enough to relate to himself as an individual, but familiar enough so that almost anyone else can insert themselves into the song. It also connects back to the “wait in the fire” lyric from Grace.

“My body turns and yearns for a sleep that won’t ever come

It’s never over

My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder.”

Jeff Buckley was a poet in my eyes, being able to express his longing for affection and showing that he would give up virtually anything to receive it. He uses similar metaphors throughout the song to describe just how desperate he is to be romantic with this person again. This is a folk song but with so much soul; it simply can’t be compartmentalised. The images he creates through his words are so picturesque, so dreamlike. It’s almost like being shown a film of a tragic love story, but the visuals are created by the listener. This song is unlike any other love song; so touching and truly special in how his pain is expressed in such an individual way.

Something that I, personally, have never heard on any albums I’ve listened to is a hymn. Jeff includes a rendition of Corpus Christi Carol, a song first recorded in writing in the 1500s by a man named Richard Hill. However, the writer of the carol is anonymous.

This song is, of course, religious. However, I don’t see it as religious in the traditional sense; I believe that rather it being traditionally holy, it is holy in the sense that its sacredness comes from the way it was performed. Rather than it being spiritual in a Christian sense, it is spiritual in sound and in feeling. It is angelic, it is heavenly, but it doesn’t feel religious. Of course, one may interpret it however they wish to, but that is how it feels to me. Buckley once stated, “All music is a religion. It’s the best one.” I agree with him completely. I think this is a great example, because while historically, it was written to spread the word of God, it feels as though God is found in music… that music is God.

Following on from this theme of faith, the second last song on the album is Eternal Life. However, this is not a religious song (although the name does follow up the previous song perfectly). This is the heaviest song on the album, one that I’d describe as “folk metal.” The song is comprised of loud guitars and crashing drums. It has a rebellious nature to it, standing up to everything that is wrong with the world – events like World War II, the Manson Murders and the assassination of Martin Luther King are what inspired the song’s creation. “It’s an angry song,” as Jeff said himself. Life’s too short and too complicated for people behind desks and people behind masks to be ruining other people’s lives, initiating force against other people’s lives on the basis of their income, their color, their class, their religious beliefs, their whatever…”

“Racist everyman, what have you done?

Man, you’ve made a killer of your unborn son”

Hateful ideas can lead to acts of violence, with this rhetoric being passed down from generation to generation. This means that even though the baby isn’t born yet, he’s prone to violence and committing homicide because of his father’s hateful ideologies. Black people have been oppressed for centuries, all too often being murdered for the colour of their skin. Jeff’s tone is angry while questioning these hateful people, knowing the horrific consequences it can cause from the major historical events he’s learned about.

“Crown my fear your king at the point of a gun

All I wanna do is love everyone.”

Fear of those who spread hate fuels their power. Buckley expresses that he’s one for peace, something he made clear throughout his life. After this show of anger, the song quietens down at the bridge to state what he feels is important in life, before firing up again.

“There’s no time for hatred, only questions

What is love?

Where is happiness?

What is life?

Where is peace?”

Buckley questions the world and its rhetoric, asking people to think about what truly matters in society. The anger and passion is felt so strongly. The violin coming in at the end adds a beautiful depth to this song that is loud and aggravated. Jeff has actually sung several hard rock songs like this and most certainly has the voice for it, but his slower, softer songs are usually the ones that are brought up alongside his name. Before establishing himself as a musical artist, Buckley used to play in multiple different bands, experimenting with genres like jazz, reggae and heavy metal, which explains why he was so versatile in his creation of music later on. Eternal Life is a song that allows this experimentation to shine through. It’s definitely an underrated song on Grace.

Another song that I believe to be incredibly underrated is the final song on Grace, Dream Brother. I’ve had this song in particular playing on repeat for the past few weeks. There’s something about it that’s so uniquely beautiful. The guitar riff at the beginning always draws me in; it’s heavenly but there’s a great sadness to it. This makes sense when you know that the song was written for a good friend of Buckley’s, Chris Dowd, begging him not to walk out on his pregnant girlfriend, similarly to how Jeff’s father walked out on him. Jeff’s voice in the opening verse is so hauntingly breathtaking. It, along with the soft guitar and the unusual rhythm from the drums, comes together in harmony for this track.

“Her green eyes blew goodbyes

With her head in her hands

And your kiss on the lips of another.”

This is another very poetic line from Jeff. Clearly, his friend’s partner is overcome with sadness at the fact that her boyfriend is leaving her. She is heartbroken by the thought of him being with another woman. I also like that the word “blew” used in this context has a double meaning, being a homophone for “blue,” another word to describe sadness.

“Don’t be like the one who left behind his name

‘Cause they’re waiting for you like I waited for mine

And nobody ever came.”

The drums are building here, before descending into a transcending, psychedelic sequence. Jeff’s voice echoes through layers of a hypnotising instrumental. It’s so unique, so angelic, so eccentric… nothing like you’ve ever heard before. Then, the song rises into a heavier, but still dreamy, instrumental. The drums are heavy. This part emits a lot of pain, sounding angry at times. This pain is from thinking about how he was left alone by his father and the fact that his friend is now going to do the same to his unborn child. The guitar and drums are working together to emulate a wide range of negative emotions. It then fades back into Jeff’s voice and the haunting musical sequence from before.

“I hear your words and I know your pain.”

This could be him speaking to either the mother or the child, having experienced both heartbreak and loss when his father and previous lovers left him.

“With your head in your hands

And her kiss on the lips of another.”

Now we get the perspective of Buckley’s friend feeling regret for leaving his girlfriend and her finding someone else after moving on from him. I love how he shows the perspective of multiple people throughout this song – himself, his friend, the mother and the child.

“Asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over.”

This is another unbelievable foreshadowing of Buckley’s own death. It’s also incredible that this is the last line of the album, when only three years later he would pass away, not having released any others. Luckily, there are several compilation albums and bonus tracks from the deluxe version of Grace containing previously unreleased songs, live performances and covers from Jeff.

While I’ve tried my absolute best, there simply are no words to describe the genius of this album, but I do hope I’ve done it some justice. I know I will carry this album with me for the rest of my life. It is one of a kind, so incredibly beautiful… I could praise it forever, but I think you can comprehend how in love I am with it at this point. If you haven’t listened to it, I implore you to. It’ll be like nothing you’ve ever heard before. With the amount of music in the world today, it’s difficult not to sound similar to other artists, but there is simply no one like Jeff Buckley. I will be forever grateful to him for making this album and I thank him for being so emotionally vulnerable, to allow his audience to connect with his feelings and empathise with him in such an artistic way. 

So, thank you Jeff. Your work will be kept safe in the archives of all the souls who connected with it. It will be passed down through generations. Your art will have eternal life.

“Music belongs in a place with hearts beating and brains dreaming and people falling in love.”

- Jeff Buckley

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Abbi is one of our closest friends that we knew through gigs, a talented photographer based in Dublin (@abbi.lens), and a accredited Jeff Buckley girlie. It makes perfect sense that she's the one offered us a very special article: ALD's first ever album review! It's so beautifully written and we all love it a lot. We' can't wait to have Abbi again for future reviews and photos!

If writing about an album sounds like something you would like to do one day, please do not hesitate to reach out to us through instagram dm (@notaluciddream) or email (notaluciddream@gmail.com). There's no limit on literally anything - any album, any kind of writing style (no pressure on the length). Send us your writing and we'll work together to make it into our 2nd album review :)

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Love,

ALD