Search - Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House on DVD

Anticipation

Paul Costigan | Sonoma, CA | 04/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having been a Tim Buckley fan for a long time, it is satisfying to know this DVD will soon be available. Here is a list of the full song performances:

1. Inside Pop - "No Man Can Find the War"
2. Late Night Line Up - "Happy Time"
3. Late Night Line Up - "Morning Glory"
4. Old Grey Whistle Test - "Dolphins"
5. The Monkees Show - "Song to the Siren"
6. Greenwich Village - "Who Do You Love"
7. Dutch TV - "Happy Time"
8. Dutch TV - "Sing a Song for You"
9. Music Video Live - "Sally Go Round the Roses"
10. Boboquivari - "Blue Melody"
11. Boboquivari - "Venice Beach (Music Boats by the Bay)"
12. The Show - "I Woke Up"
13. The Show - "Come Here Woman"
14. The Christian Licorice Store - "Pleasant Street""

Superb compilation of a unique talent whose memory lives on

Siriam | London United Kingdom | 07/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Collecting together all known film recordings of Tim Buckley over the 7 years from 1967 on the Monkees show (an excellent acoustic version of "Song to the Siren") through to 1974 on the Old Grey Whistle Test (backed by members of Family, performing a very heartfelt version of Fred Neil's "The Dolphins") just before his death the following year, this is a compilation which was clearly put together with a lot of love and devotion to the man's memory.

Choose to either just listen to the amazing variety of video performances alone or instead add the three interview commentaries before each song performance of his long serving guitarist (Lee Underwood); his lyricist (Larry Beckett)and his biographer(David Browne) and you get everything put beautifully into historical context.

The man may have been dead for over 30 years before this compilation was put together but this DVD shows very well what a unique but undervalued talent he was - the US answer to Nick Drake.

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Much much more than nostalgia

W. Schmidt | Beaverton, Oregon USA | 06/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was just beginning my life long passion with music in '67 when I ran across Buckley. His early albums mesmerized me and I've never been without some incarnation of the first three since, either LP or CD. When LORCA came out I went with it up to a point, but admit I totally lost the thread of where Buckley was going by STARSAILOR. This DVD, which presents a very nice span of clips from throughout his career gives a new appreciation to all phases of an artist who pushed the creative envelope hard (achieving damn near commercial suicide in the attempt). When I watched the later era performances I felt guilty for abandoning Buckley in his later phases, but it takes a maturity to appreciate this material I didn't have at the time. Now I find it inspiring, magical, transcendent.

The DVD is a "must have" for anyone with an interest in this amazing talent, and it's great to finally see these performances in high quality."

Outstanding...

D. Junius | Seattle, WA United States | 05/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been into Tim Buckley since the summer of 1985, and it's nice that this DVD may be the first in a series of new things (e.g., the TB estate is working on a "rare and unreleased" CD collection). I have a VHS copy of many of these performances, so the video quality is a big improvement.

After reading the David Browne double-bio of Tim and Jeff Buckley, and Lee Underwood's memoir of his time working with TB, it was interesting to see them both "host" this DVD with Larry Beckett, TB's writing partner.

A few constructive comments:

1.) It would have been preferable to have other performances in the DVD instead of the "Rock Revolution" segment, since it's not the entire run-through of "No Man...", even though the context is important, since it was a prestigious program. "Happy Time" is a great tune, but the Dutch performance alone would have been fine. The 1980s MTV-style "Who Do You Love" that tries to synch unrelated film to the audio is pretty bad in comparison to the rest of the performances (think the "Gloria" video from the Doors). The unrelated film looks great, so let's hear the audio to that! Also, we see TB interact post-performance with Steve Allen and his wife...can we see his performance? If you can license the Monkees clip, Steve-a-reeno's estate will probably make it happen. My VHS has more of the Boboquivari show, and a performance of "Honey Man" (a tune which Underwood discusses) from the Whistle Test, either of which would have been welcome on this DVD.

An interesting story in TB's career is his run-in on the Tonight Show with Alan King mocking his appearance. The way TB handled the incident versus how he later said he did is an insight to his personality, and this would have been a good change from the relatively similar takes from Underwood, Beckett and Browne. Carson's estate is putting out retrospective DVDs...can this clip be found?

2.) As good as it was to watch Browne, Underwood and Beckett, it would have been nice to have included Judy Buckley, Taylor Buckley, Herb Cohen, Carter Collins, or others from TB's life and career. This is a legit DVD release from the TB estate and Third Story Music, so involvement from a more diverse set of people would have been possible and made it more interesting.

3.) A little editorial control would have been helpful. A few times Beckett says the same thing two or three times in the course of an answer, and Underwood gives five or six examples of how one person can like some kinds of music and not others. Also, after the Monkees performance, Browne describes in detail what we just watched. Browne also describes TB's sex appeal three different ways in succession. These aren't the worst things in the world, but since we have only three people on screen, it's a noticeable meandering.

4.) There are a few talking portions of TB on TV shows with Joseph Heller, the Allens (mentioned above), and people in his audience. Browne mentions TB's film acting in "Why?", and a clip would have been a good illustration. TB was a very naturalistic actor (you can find his scenes from "Why?" on the Internet), and watching him discuss issues of the day from 1970 you get a sense of his manner and style.

Great work otherwise, and I look forward to future releases.
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