Tim Buckley video: Song To The Siren, Monkees TV Show 1968
“One fall morning over breakfast, [poet friend Larry] Beckett came over [to Tim Buckley's apartment] with his latest well-honed, slaved-over lyric . . . Guitar in-hand at the dining table, Tim looked at Beckett’s lyrics and pushed them away ‘like unwanted mail,’ Beckett remembers. After eating, Tim took his guitar, pulled Beckett’s poem back over, and out of nowhere began playing a melody that complemented the words.
The song, which owed a debt to Homer’s The Odyssey as well, was ‘Song To The Siren,’ a forlorn ode to unattainable love that used the call of a mythic siren as a chilling metaphor. Both its music and lyric captured the fatalistic Irish part of Tim’s soul.
Long afloat on shipless oceans,
I did all my best to smile
‘Til your singing eyes and fingers
Drew me loving to your isle
And you sang, ‘Sail to me, sail to me
Let me enfold you
Here I am, here I am
Waiting to hold you.
In late November, not long after it was written, Tim premiered the song at a taping of the final episode of the Monkee’s television series . . . Tim had befriended wool-hatted Monkee Michael Nesmith at the Troubadour’s hoot nights. ‘This is Tim Buckley,’ announced Monkee Micky Dolenz. With Beckett standing offstage, holding the lyrics in case his friend forgot them, Tim walked onto the set – an old car with a smashed windshield – and slumped atop the hood. Accompanied only by his crystalline twelve-string, he caressed the melody, his large brown afro slowly bobbing back and forth as he sang.”
Name: Heather Browne
that was beautiful. i’ve never listened to tim before but im gonna go look him up now.
Don't Need Anything — March 31, 2006 @ 1:14 pm
Heather,
Thanks for posting that! I had never seen that clip before. But I certainly am familiar with the song, from Tim’s album Starsailor…where by this time he is in experimental mode, wailing and emoting this song as lyric tragedy. A beautiful song about helpless and hopeless love.
Marc Morrison — April 1, 2006 @ 9:42 pm
Hi Heather..
I must say that I think Tim and Jeff’s voices were quite alike.
Listen to some of Tim’s more experimental stuff, and I think you will agree. His voice had just about the same range as Jeff’s and the same vibrato.
Great blog, by the way.
Thomas Baz — April 2, 2006 @ 5:00 pm
Hi again!..
‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Down By The Borderline’ are excellent songs, though i don’t know if one can categorize them under his experimental stuff. I’m really not an expert in terms of Tim, though i do own a few albums.
No problem
Thomas Baz — April 3, 2006 @ 8:31 am
One of the most gorgeous songs ever written.
I have to admit, my favorite version is by This Mortal Coil on their first CD.
Cocteau Twins’ Liz Frazier sings it.
Oh – my – god…it will move you to tears. It’s the song I want played at my funeral
Anonymous — April 5, 2006 @ 4:43 am
I’m gonna stop flicking through your blog now, skimming cool sounding MP3s. You gotta hear more Tim Buckley tho – as he is a god; 9 albums in less than 9 years, and each one different and intresting. I’m gonna join that International Mix Tape project and if i get you first you’ll get my XDR of Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin and Tim Rose – three Tims, all interesting (tho don;t waste money on anything but the first Tim Rose album, unless you have a load of it!)
Jon — April 22, 2006 @ 1:15 pm
Native? are you Indian?
Yuhas — July 2, 2006 @ 12:53 pm
I loved seeing that video clip. I’m in my 50′s and saw Tim Buckley many times. I think the biography you reference, “Dream Brothers”, unduly slanders Tim Buckley and his musical abilities. He was an utterly disarming performer.
My friend Betty and I, who was also a fan and witness of Tim as a stage presence, went to see Jeff Buckley perform here in Seattle. During one number we looked at each other and we both had tears in our eyes. Jeff sounded (and looked, for that matter) exactly like his father. It was absolutely uncanny.
They both shared the ability to defy musical genre. Blues, rock, pop, folk, jazz: no problem. That was a problem for Tim, I think. He was such an innovator, no one could peg him down. As soon as someone identified with his sound, he would change it. Personally, I love musicians who are on a journey.
John — March 9, 2007 @ 12:36 am