goodbye and hello

Tim Buckley made an ambitious leap forward with the  political poetry of his psychedelic sophomore phantasmagoria.  'Goodbye and Hello' was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Jerry Yester and Jac Holzman with Buckley on guitar and vocals; Lee Underwood on guitar and keyboards; John Farsha and Brian Hartzler on guitar; Jim Fielder and  Jimmy Bond on bass guitar; Don Randi and Jerry Yester on keyboards; Henry Diltz on harmonica; Carter Collins on congas and percussion; and Dave Guard and Eddie Hoh on percussion.

Buckley said that the socially conscious lyrics were a result of the spirit of the late sixties:  "In those days, that worked, because there was a street and the word of the street was the best publicity you could have. Now, when a record company tells you that, it’s a joke. But before each of my first three albums, I didn’t have a guitar until a week before the sessions because I had had to sell them to live. It wasn’t until after Happy/Sad that I was making enough bread to pay a band. I had Carter Collins on congas and Lee Underwood on guitar; we did that for years until it was getting pretty ridiculous to go on after the people that plugged in the Grand Coulee Dam, the mind-wipe music. It was like a fart after a hail storm to go on after Pink Floyd or Blue Cheer."

Buckley's songwriting partner Larry Beckett remembers: "On both 'Tim Buckley' and 'Goodbye and Hello', I was able to make musical suggestions on every track. On the second album, this included ideas for orchestration...We had no theme, only worked on individual songs, but soaked up all the themes and divisions of the sixties, and they found their way into the album...I didn’t take songwriting seriously, I used songs as quickly written experiments; if the experiment worked, I’d use the technique in poetry...Drug allusions were just taken out of the air; my couple of grass experiences inspired nothing by me. The word 'hallucinations' was a metaphor of a love breaking down, and the idea of hallucinations was a pretext for experimental music."

'Goodbye and Hello' peaked at one hundred and seventy-one on the US album chart; but it remains a stunning document of the singer / songwriter's amazing depth and development.  







http://www.timbuckley.net/

http://www.timbuckley.com/

"No Man Can Find the War"  

Photographs of guns and flame 
Scarlet skull and distant game
Bayonet and jungle grin
Nightmares dreamed by bleeding men
Lookouts tremble on the shore 
But no man can find the war 
Tape recorders echo scream 
Orders fly like bullet stream
Drums and cannons laugh aloud
Whistles come from ashen shroud
Leaders damn the world and roar
But no man can find the war 
Is the war across the sea?
Is the war behind the sky?
Have you each and all gone blind:
Is the war inside your mind? 
Humans weep at human death
All the talkers lose their breath
Movies paint a chaos tale
Singers see and poets wail
All the world kows the score
But no man can find the war

Of "Morning Glory" Beckett recalls:  "Tim said, 'Can you write a song about a hobo?' I don’t think it’s my place to interpret my lyrics, but the more poetry and criticism you read, the easier it is. Because images in poetry can have more than one meaning, “fleeting house” means all the things it can reasonably be taken to mean in the context. For me, the real meaning is more in the feeling it gives you."

I lit my purest candle close to my 

Window, hoping it would catch the eye 

Of any vagabond who passed it by 

And I waited in my fleeting house 

Before he came, I felt him drawing near 

And as he neared, I felt the ancient fear 

That he had come to wound my door and jeer 

But I waited in my fleeting house 

"Oh, tell me stories", I called to the Hobo 

"Stories of old", I smiled at the Hobo 

"Stories of cold", I wept to the Hobo 

And I waited in my fleeting house 

"No" said the Hobo, "No more tales of time 

Don't ask me now to wash away the grime 

I can't come in, it's just too high a climb" 

And he stood before my fleeting house 

"Then you be damned", I screamed to the Hobo 

"Turn into stone", I wept to the Hobo 

"Leave me alone", I knelt to the Hobo 

But he walked away from my fleeting house 

Beckett says:  "Tim was nowhere near heavy drugs when he wrote 'Pleasant Street'. It is what it sounds like, any surrender to any seduction, even if degrading."

You don't remember what to say

You don't remember what to do 

You don't remember where to go

You don't remember what to choose

You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down 

All the stony people

Walking 'round in Christian licorice clothes

I can't hesitate

And I can't wait

For Pleasant Street 

"I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" was written for his son Jeff, who later covered the song himself.  

O I never asked to be your mountain
I never asked to fly
Remember when you came to me
And told me of his lies
You didn't understand my love
You don't know why I try
And the rain was falling on that day
And damn the reason why 
The Flying Pisces sails for time
And tells me of my child
Wrapped in bitter tales and heartache
He begs for just a smile
O he never asked to be her mountain
He never asked to fly
And through his eye he comes his love
And tells her not to cry 
She says, "Your scoundrel father flies
With a dancer called a queen
And with her stolen cards he plays
And laughs, but never wins"
O the child dreams to be his hands
In the counting of the rain
But only barren breasts he feels
For her milk will never drain 
As I die I can't remember
Where I saw the rain:
Could it be that her laughter
Drove me down again?
Charming dancer will you stop,
Stop and talk to me?
Is there someone else you feel
In your dreams? you will, you see:
In midnight gazes
I've found you far from me:
If you lead me on 
Please leave me down 
O Flying Flying Fish
Please flutter by my door:
Yes you can drink my lies 
If first you read my eyes:
Each one is titled
"I'm drowning back to you":
I can't swim your waters
And you can't walk my lands:
I'm sailing all my sins 
And I'm climbing all my fears
And soon now I'll fly 
My love is the flower that lies amoung the grains
My love is the thousands souls that it sings
And all the insane madmen tell me im not as well behaved
Maybe not a lands in bloom to spead my ash along the way
O I never asked to be your mountain
I never asked to fly
Remember when you came to me
And told me of his lies
You didn't understand my love
You don't know why I try
And the rain was falling on that day
And that's the reason why 
Sweet lover, will you come back
And love me for a while?
Please take my hand
Leave all your fears behind 
I've been gone too long
Now I'm home to stay 
Please don't leave me
Again this way 
Please come home





Beckett says:  "I was proud of 'Goodbye and Hello' for its musical ambition, Lee Underwood’s inspired twelve-string lead guitar, and Jerry Yester’s fresh orchestration based on it. The chorus lyrics, whose form was indirectly suggested by James Joyce’s musical experiments in the Sirens episode of Ulysses, were meant to be sung on top of each other, contrapuntally, not side by side, antiphonally."

The antique people are down in the dungeons
Run by machines and afraid of the tax
Their heads in the grave and their hands on their eyes
Hauling their hearts around circular tracks
Pretending forever their masquerade towers
Are not really riddled with widening cracks
And I wave goodbye to iron
And smile hello to the air 
O the new children dance -- I am young
All around the balloons -- I will live
Swaying by chance -- I am strong
To the breeze from the moon -- I can give
Painting the sky -- You the strange
With the colors of sun -- Seed of day
Freely they fly -- Feel the change
As all become one -- Know the Way 
The velocity addicts explode on the highways
Ignoring the journey and moving so fast
Their nerves fall apart and they gasp but can't breathe
They run from the cops of the skeleton past
Petrified by tradition in a nightmare they stagger 
Into nowhere at all and they look up aghast
And I wave goodbye to speed
And smile hello to a rose 
O the new children play -- I am young
Under the juniper trees -- I will live
Sky blue or gray -- I am strong
They continue at ease -- I can give
Moving so slow -- You the strange
That serenely they can -- Seed of day
Gracefully grow -- Feel the change
And yes still understand -- Know the Way 
The king and the queen in their castle of billboards
Sleepwalk down the hallways dragging behind
All their possessions and transient treasures
As they go to worship the electronic shrine
On which is playing the late late commercial
In that hollowest house of the opulent blind
And I wave goodbye to Mammon
And smile hello to a stream 
O the new children buy -- I am young
All the world for a song -- I will live
Without a dime -- I am strong
To which they belong -- I can give
Nobody owns -- You the strange
Anything anywhere -- Seed of day
Everyone's grown -- Feel the change
Up so big they can share -- Know the Way 
The vaudeville generals cavort on the stage
And shatter their audience with submachine guns
And Freedom and Violence the acrobat clowns
Do a balancing act on the graves of our sons
While the tapdancing Emperor sings "War is peace"
And Love the Magician disappears in the fun
And I wave goodbye to murder
And smile hello to the rain 
O the new children can't -- I am young
Tell a foe from a friend -- I will live
Quick to enchant -- I am strong
And so glad to extend -- I can give
Handfuls of dawn -- You the strange
To kaleidoscope men -- Seed of day
Come from beyond -- Feel the change
The Great Wall of Skin -- Know the Way 
The bloodless husbands are jesters who listen
Like sheep to the shrieks and commands of their wives
And the men who aren't men leave the women alone
See them all faking love on a bed made of knives
Afraid to discover or trust in their bodies
And in secret divorce they will never survive
And I wave goodbye to ashes
And smile hello to a girl 
O the new children kiss -- I am young
They are so proud to learn -- I will live
Womanwood bliss -- I am strong
And the manfire that burns -- I can give
Knowing no fear -- You the strange
They take off their clothes -- Seed of day
Honest and clear - Feel the change
As a river that flows - Know the Way 
The antique people are fading out slowly
Like newspapers flaming in mind suicide
Godless and sexless directionless loons
Their sham sandcastles dissolve in the tide
They put on their deathmasks and compromise daily
The new children will live for the elders have died
And I wave goodbye to America
And smile hello to the world








'Goodbye and Hello' 
full album:


All songs written by Tim Buckley, except where noted.

"No Man Can Find the War" (Larry Beckett, Buckley) – 2:58
"Carnival Song" – 3:10
"Pleasant Street" – 5:15
"Hallucinations" (Beckett, Buckley) – 4:55
"I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" – 6:02
"Once I Was" – 3:22
"Phantasmagoria in Two" – 3:29
"Knight-Errant" (Beckett, Buckley) – 2:00
"Goodbye and Hello" (Beckett, Buckley) – 8:38
"Morning Glory" (Beckett, Buckley) – 2:52