Jeff Buckley - Live at Sin-A©

A Different View

This CD set, probably more than any other product released, reveals more of the personality and charm of Jeff while interacting with the audience, and more importantly, shows his passion and emotion for the music he plays. Listeners familiar with the songs released on the Grace album will find them re-presented in a new, but certainly not diminished, light. Some songs in particular that show their more sentimental sides are "Eternal Life", "Grace", and "Lover, You Should've Come Over".

This is an exquisite representation of Jeff's talent and charisma. A must have. June 9, 2007

Back to the beginning...

I had the EP when it came out. I was floored when I heard it... "one guy"???

He's another "sing the telephone book and it would sound awesome".

My opinion is this: he wasn't intending to release the whole thing when he had the tapes rolling, but was capturing his cafe days "in the moment" before he started playing larger venues (although theaters were the norm for him and a few festivals). This was a place he served coffee at AND played his heart out.

It is funny to hear his swipes at the then current "grunge scene" and then going into all these different styles that cover the spectrum of the 20th century, not just in America but internationally. You could tell he was already fighting being pigeonholed, not just in with Nirvana and Pearl Jam but his own father. If you see the music videos it just seemed like one of those mandatory things that he would rather not have done. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant among others became huge fans. One would've hoped he would've done his father's "Song to the Siren" when he recorded this.

I can't believe how much material was recorded, and this is probably 1% of the songs he knew.

I think Mary's (his mom) paced the releases out nicely. This year the limited release movie about Jeff is supposed to be on home video.
April 30, 2007

This blows

I am a fan of him and Grace is still one of the best cds of the 90s but this sure does blow. His voice is mostly awful on this. I especially dont like those very long covers he does on here. The way young lovers do does not need to be 10 minutes with a bunch of annoying sounds. The listable songs on here are the short ones . The reason Grace was good is becasue it was well produced and his voice was more polish. It surprised me that this thing averages 5 stars on amazon. If he did not die young this cd would not even seen the light of day. I am so glad i did not buy this i found it at the libary. This show's you how awful this cd is this thing retails for 30.00 yet i found it at a libary. June 29, 2006

Indescribable.

I got this 2-disc set for Christmas. Having been only a mediocre fan of Jeff Buckley before, I was unsure what to expect, but even before the first CD had ended, I was in pure awe.

Jeff Buckley weilds his guitar with a loving ferocity that most guitarists can only dream of. His unique and tantalizing voice flows through the music he plays. It says in his book that Jeff's renditions of cover songs (and indeed, some of his original creations as well) were never the same, and that each performance was vastly different from all the others.

But the renditions he does in this recording are virtually flawless and even turned me on to artists I hadn't previously given a chance. Even Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on his "Grace" release pales in comparison to the live recording of it on this set.

Many reviewers are labeling this a great "historical document," but I must protest. This is not an historical document that captures an intimate performance of a short-live, underrated artist. This is an indescribable record evidencing the beauty and unsurpassed talent of a man who died before his time, but certainly not before he came into his own as a guitarist, singer, performer, and even songwriter.

Beautiful in every way! May 3, 2006

soul boy

I could write something similar to this about any Jeff Buckley album, but instead of going through them all and repeating myself, I'll just say a lot here.

Jeff Buckley, for me, has always been one of those draw-a-line-in-the-sand artists. A sort of test, like; love Buckley (and we can be friends) or hate him (and you will be buried in the back garden with the others).

I first saw him when I was 15, at Glastonbury festival. At the time, all I can remember thinking was "wow, he can sing high". Since then, of course, JB has gone on to be one of the biggest and most sorely missed 'cult' artists of our time.

I was faintly worried about this whole 'Legacy Edition' thing, it seemed at first another way of wringing some more $$$ out of the tiny body of Buckley's work.

Do I really need another SLIGHTLY different version of Hallelujah? I asked myself.

The answer is, of course, yes, yes, yes, buy it, for God's sake. There are 21 tracks here, as well as between-song chatter (although these are called 'monologues' on the CD track listing- one 'monologue' entitled Good Night Bill goes like this-

JB- "Good night, Bill"
... and then the next song starts.)

However, most of them are often really funny- a sufi interpretation of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and a one man impression of Miles Davis'[...]Brew being particular highlights.

And, of course, THAT voice, THAT electric guitar, THOSE songs.
This is the man on his own, browsing through his own tunes and covers he loves, twisting, bending and whipping them into a frenzy. Strange Fruit as hard, stabbing blues. Just Like A Woman becomes a whispered lament over soft slide guitar. Calling You, from the film Baghdad Cafe, is as powerful and otherworldly as what has almost become his signature piece, Hallelujah (also featured here; a majestic, rage-against-the-dying-of-the-light version).

SO! The point is, there are SO FEW truly original, talented and affecting artists available in the mainstream... and Jeff Buckley is one of them. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your children, and your children's children's children to have something like this in the house. Buy his album. Buy all his albums.

...Actually, I'm definitely not sure whether to get the Grace Legacy Edition. But thats more because I already own Forget Her- The Song Jeff Didn't Want You To Hear.... April 27, 2006

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