French documentary: "Music Planet: Jeff Buckley"

[gay...@my-deja.com]

This weekend, I watched this documentary for a
second time, and I thought that many aspects of it
were remiss and misrepresentative of Jeff's
musical history.

[I guess it's easier to see things such as this
misrepresentation, omission of facts) when you
know the subject matter pretty well.]

Most obviously missing was any reference to Jeff's
work with Gary Lucas in Gods & Monsters. The
narrative went straight from California to the Tim
Buckley tribute to Jeff playing Sin-e solo. The
first time, I thought that neither "Grace" nor
"Mojo Pin" were featured in the documentary, but I
was mistaken. The music was featured, but there
was no interview with Gary, no mention of his
name.

It's pretty obvious that Gary Lucas influenced
Jeff's musical style greatly. You can hear it in
Jeff's guitarwork post-Gods & Monsters. Lucas
also greatly influenced Jeff's career; Rolling
Stone's first mention of Jeff was in reference to
Gods & Monsters, and Gary was, in all actuality,
the first person who brought Jeff to Columbia
Records' offices (although not to A & R man Steve
Berkowitz).

Why is he not mentioned at all in this
documentary?

Other things I wanted to mention briefly (but
thoroughly nonetheless):

*I'm not sure I dig the scans of urban landscape
after urban landscape (Memphis, New York, Anaheim,
etc.).

*Mary's insistence that Jeff never lived in a
trailer (as he used to frequently state that he
was "California trailer trash") seems a bit odd;
do we not know that trailer trash is a
socioeconomic
generalization? I remember this was posted to the
list shortly after his death as well.

*Michael Clouse states that Jeff said
(paraphrasing) of his musical desires: "I want to
make an album that makes people forget Led
Zeppelin II."

*I liked the Jeff excerpt in which he talks about
how he personally finds his answers in music (and
that others might find their answers in painting,
teaching, or murder).

*The segue between Tim Buckley's performance and
the Jeff "Dream Brother" sequence was a little bit
corny, no?

*I was so happy to see an excerpt from a 1992
Performance Fluxus (Text written by Yoko Ono).
However, I think it's safe to say that not many of
Jeff's fans are aware of the Fluxus movement, and
it's too bad there isn't one sentence to at least
say that this was a very "arty" "experimental"
piece. Context-wise, it's also noteworthy to
mention (even if you don't have any interest in
Jeff's romantic life, it's a valid point
artistically) that Rebecca Moore's father was a
pioneer of the Fluxus movement and this could've
greatly influenced his appearance at such a
function.

*Michael Tighe saying that Jeff was "the best
white singer since John Lennon & Richard Manuel".
?

*Merri Cyr commenting on the sense of humor in the
cover photo from the Live at Sin-e release. This
was a nice and valid commentary.

*Nathan Larson saying that he met Jeff in 1992,
when he was mastering the album "Grace". (I guess
that means he met Jeff in 1993, no?)

*It's really cool to imagine Janine Nichols and
Jeff singing Joni Mitchell's "Coyote" while
driving around in her car.

*video footage available (this was already pointed
out): of the instore at Tower Records in the
Village, NYC 12/94, Jeff at the Austin radio
station (featured in one of the pre-death
postcards), Jeff & band performing at "The Art
Bar".

*previously mentioned -- There is no talk about
the making of Jeff's only full-length pre-death
record, "Grace". There are many shots shown of
Jeff mixing, however, the road version of "Eternal
Life" (What is the fascination with this version?
Also, ironically enough, I have it on the record
that the band & Jeff thought the road version was
awful by the end of their touring season.)

*him performing "Hallelujah" in one of the longest
musical segments. Nice. :) It would have been
nice if the "documentarians" had credited any of
the non-Jeff authored songs.

*Michael Tighe talking about how things had
returned to "the way it used to be with us" -- is
there an inherent knowledge that it was ever NOT
that way? "He had found that again, inside
himself" going into "Your Flesh is So
Nice"...smooth....not.

*Nathan Larson talking about how it wasn't a
suicide.

*Michael Tighe saying, "I didn't expect it to be
that, but now I realize that he had to die."
(taken a bit out of context) Just morbid to those
of us who don't understand exactly what that
means.

*Showing the river with Mary talking about how
Jeff's remains is his body of work going into him
singing "Satisfied Mind". Corny. Also, it's
interesting how they put the words up for
"Satisfied Mind", but did this for no other song.

As a documentary, I thought this was superficial
at best. The exclusion of Gary Lucas -- mention
or interview -- was enough to discredit it, butso
much was kitsch.

I know that there's a Dutch (Norweigan?) film crew
hanging around NY now doing another documentary.
Let's hope this one is more fact-based.

Are these the kind of projects that are getting
approved by the estate? (That's a rhetorical
question. The answer is "obviously".)

harumph.

best,
gayle

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