Sometimes I struggle with Jeff Buckley and Grace. The histrionics, the kitchen sink production approach. Too much Led. Too Rock. But I'm starting the weekend with Side 2 of that record. Hallelujah, Lover You Should've Come Over, Corpus Christi Carol, Eternal Life (which I'm struggling my way through now) and this and some of it is just remarkable. This is the one song in his canon that's quite explicitly about his father, and one that cuts through a lot of the crap to talk about the things that matter. Perhaps cynics might disagree but for me it really taps a vein. Appallingly sad and quiet eerily prescient of what was coming for him.
'There is a child sleeping near his twin
The pictures go wild in a rush of wind
That dark angel he is shuffling in
Watching over them with his black feather wings unfurled
The love you lost with her skin so fair
Is free with the wind in her butterscotch hair
Her green eyes blew goodbyes
With her head in her hands
and your kiss on the lips of another
Dream Brother with your tears scattered round the world.
Don't be like the one who made me so old
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...
Don't be like the one who made me so old
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...
Don't be like the one who made me so old
Don't be like the one who left behind his name
'Cause they're waiting for you like I waited for mine
Nobody ever came
Nobody ever...
I feel afraid and I call your name
I love your voice and your dance insane
I hear your words and I know your pain
With your head in your hands and her kiss on the lips of another
Your eyes to the ground and the world spinning round forever
Asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over
Ah do you meet the one I love
and smell the one who loves you
Dream brother, dream brother, dream, dream
dream asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over.'
The pictures go wild in a rush of wind
That dark angel he is shuffling in
Watching over them with his black feather wings unfurled
The love you lost with her skin so fair
Is free with the wind in her butterscotch hair
Her green eyes blew goodbyes
With her head in her hands
and your kiss on the lips of another
Dream Brother with your tears scattered round the world.
Don't be like the one who made me so old
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...
Don't be like the one who made me so old
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...
Don't be like the one who made me so old
Don't be like the one who left behind his name
'Cause they're waiting for you like I waited for mine
Nobody ever came
Nobody ever...
I feel afraid and I call your name
I love your voice and your dance insane
I hear your words and I know your pain
With your head in your hands and her kiss on the lips of another
Your eyes to the ground and the world spinning round forever
Asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over
Ah do you meet the one I love
and smell the one who loves you
Dream brother, dream brother, dream, dream
dream asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over.'
Jeff Buckley
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