Greetings From L.A.

Tim Buckley

Greetings From L.A.

1. Move With Me

2. Get On Top

3. Sweet Surrender

4. Nighthawkin'

5. Devil Eyes

6. Hong Kong Bar

7. Make It Right

Greetings From L.A. is Tim Buckley's 7th album, and in fairly typical unfortunate Buckley style didn't set commercial fires alight when it was released in 1972. It's a million miles from his early romantic folk albums, and doesn't exactly lead on from the experimental jazz sounds of previous album Starsailor either, so many previously established and recently acquired fans were left a bit baffled......

It is, however an epic, sensual masterpiece of an album, with a confident, strutting Buckley proving his mastery of yet another musical style. Wikipedia calls this his 'Sex Funk' era, which is pretty accurate actually, as you can gather from some of the titles.

The album actually begins with the lyric 'I went down to the meat rack tavern, and I found myself a big ol' healthy girl'. In 'Devil Eyes' he sings about wanting to 'lick all around those stretch marks, lay the tongue between the toes'. In 'Get On Top' he sings that 'When I love you mama I talk in tongues'. 

Glorious.

This is pretty brash stuff, but he pulls it off. In the same sense as 'Foxy Lady'; it's an overtly confident display of male sexuality that just manages to come across as cheeky and playful, not sleazy (which, with lyrics like that, it probably should).

 It feels like a celebration, and Buckley sounds like he's having the time of his life, indulging in random bursts of explosive scatting. The soundtrack is mostly classic piano-based funk with lots of horns and brassy backing vocals, but there's variety too, and gentler tracks 'Sweet Surrender' and 'Hong Kong Bar' offer some time out. 

This is probably a bit of a marmite album. I love it, but I'm sure there are many who find it abrasive and cheesy and all a little bit much.
There's only one way to find out how YOU feel about it.....

'Nighthawkin'' (Wonderful lyrics) and 'Devil Eyes'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Lvlpk6hMU

'Move With Me'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR2bBnraTj4

'Sweet Surrender'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-qNBxXjbI4


For more information go to http://www.timbuckley.com/