Rating: 
Summary: yea
Review: An excellent book, it will make you understand so much about Buckley's inner calling and his music. This book is recommended to anyone who loves music-jazz,rock,funk,avant garde, classical, reggea
Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Tribute
Review: As a biographer, I read countless books centered on people of fame."Blue Melody" stands as one of the most fascinating,beautifully written, honest portrayals of friendship I have ever read. Tim Buckley was a very special person. "Blue Melody" is a very special book. You might only be familiar with Tim's unique and wonderful music. By the end of this excellent book readers will have great insight into the man,his complicated mind, and the love, confusion and self-abuse that alternately drove him to create haunting music that will never be equalled or forgotten. "Blue Melody" is a book unlike any other. Read it. You'll likely never forget it.
Marley Brant
Rating: 
Summary: Has a few interesting stories, but unprofessionally written
Review: BLUE MELODY is a biography of musician Tim Buckley by his long-time lead guitarist Lee Underwood, who worked with Buckley from before this recording of his first album in 1966 to his tragic death in 1975. Underwood not only knew Buckley intimately and can share many stories of his life, but he also appreciated him selflessly and at times the book approaches hagiography.
While the strongest part of Underwood's biography is Buckley's folk period, up until around 1969, I was happy to see him dedicate a great deal of space to the era of STARSAILOR, which Buckley--as well as many fans--considered his masterpiece. Underwood discusses the impact of the album on the music world and concert-goers, and speaks about the musical innovations of that superlative album. The work is divided into two sections, in which the first--the bulk of the book--charts Buckley's life, and the second recounts the circumstances of his death and lasting impact.
This book has a lot of problems. For one, it appears to be a vanity-press offering with little professional editing. Underwood's writing is cliched and repetitious, with the same handful of positive adjectives ("beautiful", "sensitive", "immaculate") used to describe every person he liked. His biggest failing, however, is that he often gets so lost in his memories that Tim Buckley is left beside and the reader wades through Underwood's fond recollections of his own personal life, with all its drug use and illicit road sex.
The last chapter of the book concerns Jeff Buckley, and Underwood swings between lightly praising him and harshly criticizing him as an unappreciative son and a man of limited talent and even more limited acheivement. I found this last section incoherent and quite unfair, for there are many people who are fans of both Tim and Jeff without feeling that the father's career was betrayed by the son's.
BLUE MELODY is a poorly-written and edited recollection that is only for diehard fans of Tim Buckley. I would encourage those looking to know something about the all-too-brief life of this great artist to turn to David Browne's biography of Tim and Jeff DREAM BROTHER.
Rating:
Summary: a Blue Treasury
Review: For those of you who love the work of Tim Buckley, Blue Melody is the final song written on the most important album of all, and the essential companion to your treasured collection of Buckley's music.
In this book, Tim is remembered with love, honesty and respect for his short, but creatively magnificent life. Author Lee Underwood, Tim's lead guitarist and obviously the closest of friends, was a huge part of that life with his own place amongst the shadows and light surrounding Tim. As both a friend and a conceptual helper, Underwood's knowledge and support played an important role in Tim's extraordinary creative evolution.
Blue Melody pulls no punches about the often destructive and hedonistic lifestyle Tim and others led, but that is part of its addictive charm. It is truly the evocation of an age now sadly past, which many of us tragically missed out on.
This is no conventional biography by any means. Most biographies are read from beginning to end and put to one side, sometimes forever. Blue Melody will be dipped into again and again, for a Buckley fact, for the emotions behind a song, for insights regarding the creative process, or the desire to open one's imagination and relive the sights, the sounds, and the lifestyles of the musical age surrounding Tim and his fellow artists.
In Blue Melody, Underwood has created a tapestry of colours for us to enjoy whenever we need to. It is a book that is written with music infusing every word, and packed with the sort of aesthetic and psychological insights this reader wanted to know. He is remembering Buckley not only as a witness of events in Buckley's life, but as a close friend writing with the wisdom of age and the passage of time. He now has the ability to view Tim as a subtle influence on generations of musician since, like a stone cast in the water, whose circles ripple ever outward getting larger as they travel. Buckley was a true original, and a musician well ahead of his time creatively.
One would hope that some time in the future, a similar close and loving friend will write a Blue Melody for Jeff Buckley, a young man who had only just begun to travel in his father's footsteps. Underwood's chapter about Jeff was far more real, fair, balanced, and true than anything else I have heard, read or seen about this man.
This book will always live with my music collection, and there will never come a time when I will not want to dip into it for something to think about. It's that sort of treasure!
Rating:
Summary: Tim's side of Life through Lee
Review: I can't praise this book enough. It's a gift to any Tim Buckley fan from Tim's personal and professional friend, Lee Underwood. It's poignant, honest, revealing, and answered many of my questions regarding Tim. This is Tim's story. This is Lee's story. For Mr. Underwood, I'm sure this work was cathartic on so many levels. Nothing is sugar-coated, nothing is romanticized regarding him or Tim. It's so real, so real. He has poured out personal memories, both dark and light, and has served them to his readers, one moment in a beautiful jeweled goblet, and in the next-- a blood and tear stained napkin. Lee didn't dictate this story to a ghost writer, he wrote this himself. The delivery is brilliant. Underwood has a gift of words and a succinct way to deliver them. I laughed. I cried. I thank Lee for the personal and candid moments he shared, and I love Tim even more.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't get better than this!
Review: I picked this book up as soon as it was released, and read it completely soon after, I couldn't put it down. Mr. Underwood writes beautifully crafted prose, which is articulate, stimulating and even stirring. Whether you are a Tim Buckley fanatic or just starting to discover their wonderful music, this book will help you appreciate, and treasure their music that much more. The info gained is stuff you *won't read anywhere else, and his poem to Tim is moving (yes this guy can write some beautiful poetry too) BUY IT!
Thanks so much for writing the book Mr.Underwood!!Daniel
Rating:
Summary: As only a true friend and sympathetic writer can do it
Review: Lee Underwood's "Blue Melody" is an inspired, revealing memoir that could only have been written by someone in close proximity to a beautiful and tragic human life - the artist as fragile human being and as historical event. A unique artist and deeply sensitive witness to life, person, music and culture, Underwood digs deep into memory, impression, music and detail to construct a book on the iconic Tim Buckley, a singer and musical explorer who, the tastes of the listener aside, dug deeper into the human soul and the possibilities of musical expression than most of the more famous legends of "pop" culture.
For a brief overview of Buckley the artist, try reading my review of his Goodbye and Hello; otherwise, Blue Melody is the perfect portrait of the man, his music and his legacy. It is not quite a biography, though it tells a great deal about his early life, his relationships and the arc of his career; it also offers some deeply insightful speculations into the psychological forces that shaped a life of extraordinary openness, love and beauty, and simultaneous self-destruction, interpersonal excess, instability and alienation. From his unique perspective as Tim's best friend and faithful musical colorist (he is a fine and unusual guitarist/pianist himself), Underwood illuminates the often inscrutable paths that Buckley took from one musical inspiration to another. He charts the transformations and distortions in Buckley's personal life that must be seen as the tragic price of living as an acutely sensitive and powerful antenna to the world and to the soul - he comes across as a man barely able to hang onto his relentless need to explore and transform, his desperation to summon and then cast off skins and shells as though ghosts of an untenable life. He felt too much, perceived and responded from within with too much intensity for a sustainable life; as Underwood suggests, through all the pain, it was as though Buckley knew he needed to write and record as much as possible before his time ran out.
Underwood was there with Buckley through most of his albums, through the richness of the New York and California music scenes of the late sixties, and was party and partner in the most wildly creative and diverse period of Buckley's career, as well as co-traveler along the real and figurative roads that took them around the world, between gigs and albums. His writing style is romantic and evocative, but he displays an unstinting clarity and willingness to analyze. A mature writer unafraid of ambiguity and emotional overflow, he offers the rhapsodic sense of a time and a place alongside the irony born of reflection upon blunt facts and an acute awareness of the dark side - a darkness he experienced first hand, both with Buckley, and, revealingly, in painful separation from his friend.
This is a memoir, first and foremost, but it will please lovers of the biographical form, fans of Tim Buckley and students of the American history of the sixties and seventies. It will surely appeal to students of the creative personality who will appreciate a portrait of the quintessential tortured genius whose flame burned out at an age when most flames are still rising.
Recommended without reservation. Now go buy some Tim Buckley CD's, and certainly buy the book.
Rating:
Summary: LIFE'S SHINING MYSTERY
Review: Lee Underwood's memoir of his years with the amazing Tim Buckley is one of the most heartfelt paeans to friendship and creativity I've ever read - and one of the most honest. Underwood tackles his subject with eyes - and heart - wide open, and the result not only clears up a lot of the mystery that still surrounds Tim's life, but also celebrates the wonderful legacy that remains. As Underwood states in the final chapter, Tim's life can teach us some valuable lessons. `Our span is but a fleeting moment. Death is arbitrary and absolutely democratic. Young or old, the QUANTITY of time doesn't matter...Only quality matters...Let us transform the shining mystery of our lives into art...He did. So can we.' Buckley was an astonishingly gifted artist - his music always challenged his listeners, dared them to follow him in his dance, celebrating life itself - with all of its joys and sorrows, highs and lows, darkness and light. Those who took that challenge have been rewarded with the shining light that was Tim Buckley - those who abandoned him whenever he took a direction that was too demanding or too painful for them to follow turned their attentions to `easier' music. What a shame. Underwood was Buckley's lead guitar player on most of his recordings - and above all, he was Tim's friend. He was along for the ride - he was the eyewitness to so many of the singer's peaks and valleys. He opened Tim's eyes and mind to new, stimulating influences - and he watched Tim take them into his mind, heart and hand and run like the wind with them, transforming things he learned and assimilated into new ideas, new tools for his own artistic vision. Along the way, various painful elements from Tim's life reared their heads - as they do for all of us - and Lee was there to witness that as well, trying his best to help his friend through them. Those pains are laid bare in this book - and it's not an easy read, but it's comforting in its truthfulness. Lee has had his share of pains as well - and the hard road he walked working through them is detailed here as well. As dark as some parts of Buckley's life were, in the end I think they were overwhelmed by the brilliance that shone from him. Anyone who has ever been blessed to hear him - either in person or on his recordings - knows what I mean. It's a brilliance that can be heard and felt - and it can illuminate the life of anyone who will simply let it in. One of the most fascinating aspects - for me - of this document is the psychological path. The author relates events from time to time that literally jumped off the page at me. I just read Arthur Janov's THE NEW PRIMAL SCREAM for the first time a few months ago - and several things in Lee's account resonated within me. Sure enough, he mentions Janov in more than one place - and refers to psychotherapy on multiple occasions as one of the practices that helped him through some tough times, dealing with issues that won't simply `go away'. I can't help but wonder how Tim's story would have turned out differently if he had been able to avail himself of some of the same assistance - Underwood recommended it to him, but it sometimes takes an individual a while to make the decision to take a trip down that street. Tim Buckley had the courage and vision to live his life, his art to the fullest - and Lee Underwood has shown the courage to write about Tim's life in a way that shines with the same honesty with which Tim pursued his music (or perhaps surrendered to it). This book is an amazing experience - any fan of Tim Buckley's music should be grateful to Lee Underwood for sharing it with us.
Rating:
Summary: LIFE'S SHINING MYSTERY
Review: Lee Underwood's memoir of his years with the amazing Tim Buckley is one of the most heartfelt paeans to friendship and creativity I've ever read - and one of the most honest. Underwood tackles his subject with eyes - and heart - wide open, and the result not only clears up a lot of the mystery that still surrounds Tim's life, but also celebrates the wonderful legacy that remains. As Underwood states in the final chapter, Tim's life can teach us some valuable lessons. 'Our span is but a fleeting moment. Death is arbitrary and absolutely democratic. Young or old, the QUANTITY of time doesn't matter...Only quality matters...Let us transform the shining mystery of our lives into art...He did. So can we.' Buckley was an astonishingly gifted artist - his music always challenged his listeners, dared them to follow him in his dance, celebrating life itself - with all of its joys and sorrows, highs and lows, darkness and light. Those who took that challenge have been rewarded with the shining light that was Tim Buckley - those who abandoned him whenever he took a direction that was too demanding or too painful for them to follow turned their attentions to 'easier' music. What a shame. Underwood was Buckley's lead guitar player on most of his recordings - and above all, he was Tim's friend. He was along for the ride - he was the eyewitness to so many of the singer's peaks and valleys. He opened Tim's eyes and mind to new, stimulating influences - and he watched Tim take them into his mind, heart and hand and run like the wind with them, transforming things he learned and assimilated into new ideas, new tools for his own artistic vision. Along the way, various painful elements from Tim's life reared their heads - as they do for all of us - and Lee was there to witness that as well, trying his best to help his friend through them. Those pains are laid bare in this book - and it's not an easy read, but it's comforting in its truthfulness. Lee has had his share of pains as well - and the hard road he walked working through them is detailed here as well. As dark as some parts of Buckley's life were, in the end I think they were overwhelmed by the brilliance that shone from him. Anyone who has ever been blessed to hear him - either in person or on his recordings - knows what I mean. It's a brilliance that can be heard and felt - and it can illuminate the life of anyone who will simply let it in. One of the most fascinating aspects - for me - of this document is the psychological path. The author relates events from time to time that literally jumped off the page at me. I just read Arthur Janov's THE NEW PRIMAL SCREAM for the first time a few months ago - and several things in Lee's account resonated within me. Sure enough, he mentions Janov in more than one place - and refers to psychotherapy on multiple occasions as one of the practices that helped him through some tough times, dealing with issues that won't simply 'go away'. I can't help but wonder how Tim's story would have turned out differently if he had been able to avail himself of some of the same assistance - Underwood recommended it to him, but it sometimes takes an individual a while to make the decision to take a trip down that street. Tim Buckley had the courage and vision to live his life, his art to the fullest - and Lee Underwood has shown the courage to write about Tim's life in a way that shines with the same honesty with which Tim pursued his music (or perhaps surrendered to it). This book is an amazing experience - any fan of Tim Buckley's music should be grateful to Lee Underwood for sharing it with us.
Rating:
Summary: The beauty is in the truth
Review: People,wake up!
The truth may hurt sometimes,but,it gives a picture.
Lee has given me what I needed,an insiders view,albeit a bit of a kick to Beckett at times,but,I was never there,was I?
I see music,or hear music,and,Tim Buckley is me seeing,hearing,and knowing my home.
Lee has given me an answer to why my home is thus,and thank the lord I am not alone.
I read Blue melody 3 hours straight,and finished it off this morning,I ate it,rather than read it,and,Lorca and Starsailor demand my attention,these seem to me to be the main message in the book,don't talk,just listen..
As much as David Browne may seem sincere in his writing of "Dream brother",there is no substitute for knowing the man,Tim Buckley,than for reading Blue Melody,by a friend who was there.
Starsailor,you will never dim.
Lee,shine on.
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