Saturday, February 16, 2008

Lover, You Should've Come Over


I thought long and hard for quite a while about how best to approach this post for two reasons: one being that I couldn't find an album version mp3 to accompany it, and the other being that no words that I could possibly conjure up would ever do justice to the song. In the end, I decided that it would be better to have said something, regardless of how inadequate, than to have said nothing at all.

The other week I was sending a friend in Chicago some new music and we were chatting about what we've been listening to recently, and he told me that he had been getting into Jeff Buckley pretty heavily lately. For whatever reason, this inspired me to revisit Buckley's only proper full-length release (as he accidentally drown in a Mississippi river tributary while in Memphis working his sophomore effort), the critically acclaimed "Grace."

I listened to track after track, gorgeous unique song after gorgeous unique song, until I landed on "Lover, You Should've Come Over." Gasp. Perhaps it's the patheticness of being alone on Valentine's Day weekend, or perhaps it's still being in the town where you met your first real love, or where you met the one that got away. But my God what a song. Perfect in every single respect. Not a single note or instrument out of place. And sweet Jesus, Buckley's ethereal voice, almost too beautiful for the ears on this planet to process. Then you get to the lyrics. The pitiable desperateness of rejected love made to seem so bittersweet ("my body turns and yearns for a sleep that won't ever come, it's never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder").

Describing this song to someone who hasn't heard it is like trying to describe Van Gogh's "Starry Night" to someone who hasn't seen it. I can't explain why it's beautiful. I can't explain why it's important. But if any of you three blog readers out there read or listen to anything I've ever done on this blog, please let it be this.

Although I despise buying songs from iTunes with all their DRM bullsh*t, if you don't have this album, or at the very least this song, you absolutely must go get it. That is a command. For now, I leave you with Buckley's most recognized song, one which Time Magazine labeled as one of the best songs of all time, a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

edit: I found an mp3 of "Lover, You Should've Come Over" so download it below...now.


DOWNLOAD: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
DOWNLOAD: Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over

for those that don't know how to download
pc users: right click the link, then select "save target as"
old mac users: ctrl click the link, then select "download linked filed"
new mac users: two fingers on the mouse pad click the link, the select "download linked file"

4 comments:

A Kay said...

Chris-- amazing post. It's moments like that when you realize why music is so important and why we do what we do. I loved it.

Anonymous said...

thanks for putting the songs up chris! im obsessed with them but was too cheap to buy them on iTunes.

Psychorella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Thanks for using my Jeff Buckley artwork on your site. As a Psychic, I wound up getting visited by Jeff for months after his death -- he showed me visions of his death, which were emotionally devastating. I finally contacted his mother Mary, and we became friends. She was able to verify all the info Jeff had told me. Long story short, I was able to learn so much about Jeff through my friendship with Mary. As far as music goes, "Lover" is truly an amazingly heartfelt song -- Jeff remains a true original. Keep in touch.

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