Tim Buckley

When Tim Buckley released his self-titled debut album in 1966, the southern California teenager seemed like little more than a third-string folk-rocker who had lucked into a record deal. But starting with 1967's much improved Goodbye and Hello, Buckley quickly matured into one of the most interesting musicians to emerge from the Los Angeles folk scene, fusing lyrics alternately nakedly confessional and hauntingly enigmatic to music that evolved from standard issue folk-rock into an idiosyncratic blend of blues, Indian, jazz and gutbucket funk influences. By the time of 1970's Lorca and Starsailor, Buckley was making defiantly avant-garde records out of step not only with the singer-songwriter mainstream, but also with the psychedelic underground; it wasn't until years later that a generation of kindred spirits discovered these strangely beautiful albums, many through This Mortal Coil's definitive 1984 cover of Buckley's signature tune "Song to the Siren." Unfortunately, following the commercial failure of those artistic high points, Buckley retreated into increasing drug abuse and a listless trio of bar-band R&B albums with preening, horny lyrics that did little but alienate most of the fans he'd managed to hold onto. Tim Buckley died of a heroin overdose, age 28, on June 29, 1975.