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Right off the bat, we've got to admit this is a fool's game: it's comparing apples and asteroids. That said, as a matter of personal taste, I'd opt for Jeff.
Tim may have had more voice than Jeff--though that's an assertion I'd contest--but Jeff knew better what to do with the voice he had. Tim was a blowhard and a show-off--he'd cram every last note of his vast range into every song, just because he could. One cannot imagine Tim ever recording something as hushed and self-effacing as Jeff's "Corpus Christi Carol."
I mean, just listen to Tim's "Gypsy Woman"--twelve minutes of noxious whoops and groans that make "Whole Lotta Love" sound like a model of taste and restraint--and try not to hate.
I'd disagree with you also about the songwriting. As you mentioned before, they are two completely different artists--Tim much more in a folk/blues/pop style, while Jeff was really writing prog-prock. Tim's stuff has more upfront hooks, more basic pop chops, while Jeff was working with more complex structures.
Is one style "better" than the other? Hard to say: Tim's "Morning Glory," say, is a very pretty little tune, but (for me) it doesn't linger in quite the way that, say, Jeff's more abstract "Mojo Pin" does. And "Mojo Pin" isn't even my favorite Jeff song.
As for lyrics, I would have to say advantage = Jeff. Tim didn't write most of his own lyrics, working instead with an old friend as lyricist. And much of that "cosmic" poetry has aged really, really badly; it was always grandiose, and often fell painfully flat. Jeff's imagery is obscure and allusive, but it's rarely flat-out embarrassing, and Tim's could be.
As for overall sound: again, I'd say advantage = Jeff. While Tim was a pretty basic guitar player, Jeff was a virtuoso--indeed, his first musical ambition was not to sing at all, but to be a fusion guitarist. Because he had such chops, and because he played several instruments, Jeff was less dpendent on others to translate his musical ideas into reality (while much of Tim's jazz-oriented material grew out of group improvisations, which, unfortunately, are only as good as the folks with whom you are improvising...), so what you got on tape was more straight, undiluted Buckley. Which I think is also part of the appeal.
Also, due in large part to the brevity of his recording career, Jeff was able to keep a backing band together. While Tim was backed by a different batch of studio musicians on each record, Jeff stuck with Mick Grondahl and Michael Tighe (although he did switch drummers for his second set of studio sessions, for the never completed My Sweetheart the Drunk). This gave his work a more cohesive sound overall than Tim's, which varied wildly in quality.
I'd recommend the double biography Dream Brother, by the way--it's a fascinating book, alternating chapters on Tim and Jeff. One thing that really comes through is how much Tim craved pop stardom, and how much Jeff shied away from it, and towards experimental music. How ironic, then, that Tim remains so obscure, while Jeff has such a degree of fame. |
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