Dream Letters and Other Communications:
Tim Buckley Live In Europe 1968 - Part Three

TV appearances and more Top Gear

The QEH concert was the only 'live' work undertaken by Buckley in the UK on the October visit. However, Buckley and the band did undertake further TV and radio work. They certainly did the Julie Felix show for BBC 1, but sadly it no longer exists.

Clive Selwood (now of Strange Fruit Records, then Elektra label manager in the UK) clearly remembers Buckley and Danny Thompson turning up in the morning for a run-through and performing one off-the-cuff number for about 50 minutes -- after which Buckley turned to Thompson and said, Sound OK to you, Danny? Thompson nodded his assent and the two promptly turned around and left the studio. Julie Felix, Stanley Dorfman (the producer) and Selwood were left open-mouthed.

The band may also have performed on BBC2's How (Late) It Is, but I've been unable to confirm this. They did however do another Top Gear session, broadcast on the 13th of October. Unfortunately the master tape of this session no longer seems to exist and I only know of three tracks definitely cut at this session. Whether any more were recorded, I'm not sure.

The three tracks in question are Love From Room 109 and Buzzin' Fly (both later on Happy Sad) and an early version of The Train (much more frantic and with different lyrics -- it was probably called I Wanna Go Home at this stage) which appeared on Blue Afternoon.

Confusion surrounded the Buckley Top Gear sessions for many years. This has been due to the fact that the tape commonly in circulation features the above-mentioned October '68 tracks, plus Happy Time, Morning Glory, Sing A Song For You and The Troubadour section of the Hallucination/Troubadour segue from April of the same year.

As it was simply labeled Top Gear '68, most people assumed it was one session, especially since it appeared as such on the Happy Mad bootleg (listed on there as 1970, just to confuse things even further). Why the tape was put together in this form, I have no idea. Verification of the respective dates is actually quite easy; the April songs have the conga but no vibes, the October ones have vibes but no conga.

Copenhagen

  Following the QEH concert the band undertook a short European tour of uncertain duration. They are listed as having played the Fillmore East, in New York, on the 18th/19th of October, so it may have been a fairly quick visit. The only date I'm aware of on the tour is Copenhagen, where they played on the 12th.

Part of the set was broadcast in stereo on Danish radio and an excellent quality tape survives. Thompson obviously didn't go to Europe and was replaced -- for this gig at least -- by on Nils Henning. In fact Buckley introduces the band and rather than give his own name says, 'And I'm the Queen of the Hop' which at least the scattered Americans in the audience thought was funny.

Overall it's a much jazzier set than the QEH, no folk-rock at all, but since the broadcast (about fifty minutes) may only be half of the actual show, that may be an unsound observation. The set starts with another improvised/work-in-progress number with no obvious title, although some of the lyrics are the same as those on the erroneously titled Strange Feelin' from the QEH.

This is followed by a good version of Buzzin' Fly, not that different from the QEH. The third track is actually Strange Feelin' except that it had yet to acquire the distinctive Miles Davis' derived riff and the 'final' set of lyrics, but it's undoubtedly an early version of the song that appeared on the Happy Sad album.

Lastly the band do another Fred Neil inspired piece (Just a country boy, got sand in my shoes, met a big city woman, got the big city blues) which segues into a lengthy version of Gypsy Woman. Gypsy Woman, also released on Happy Sad, became a Buckley staple over the years and was the first real indication of the complexities (vocal and musical) of his later work. Although the two styles were always able to coexist, it's a long way from Morning Glory.

And that's it in terms of the extant live material from '68, at least as far as I'm aware. Obviously, if anybody knows of anything else (indeed any other sixties material) please get in touch via the Bucketfull address.

Although I like almost all of Buckley's material, I think that '68 was his best year and even if nothing else surfaces, I for one am grateful for what we've got.