Album Reviews

Bongos and an A-bomb sound effect commence “No Man Can Find The War,” the dramatic opening tune on Tim Buckley’s second Elektra LP, recorded in Los Angeles, June of 1967 as the war in Vietnam burned itself into the American psyche. An anti-war song, like so many others of the time, it speaks to the futility of war and look where we are almost forty years hence.

Those of us old enough to have bought this Buckley LP when it was first issued, naively believed in the power of music to do something about war but we’ve long since abandoned any such notions. However, the song’s power and the questions it asks continue to resonate, hopefully with a new, young generation of “war conscious” vinyl buyers, many of whom are probably more familiar with the son, Jeff Buckley, than with the father. Now they’re both gone, while war remains.

Despite the sunny cover, the songs reflect the chaos of the unsettled times in which the album was conceived and created. By today’s standards, the lyrical and melodic high drama, and the effects-laden sonic production might sound pretentious were it not for recent musical trends, still “underground,” but pointing toward a blooming psych/folk movement that helps make this “rear guard” album almost at the vanguard.

Like his son Jeff, Tim Buckley had a quavering, high pitched voice and a grand flair for the dramatic, aided and abetted by his writing partner Larry Beckett, Jerry Yester’s theatrical production and the uncredited arrangements, rich with bongos, drums, multiple guitars, keyboards, vibes and other percussive instruments.

First issued in stereo as Elektra EKS-7318 (and in mono, EKL-318) on the label’s more expensive “7000 series,” it was released shortly thereafter as the 28th title in the “70000” series (the first was Love), priced at a dollar less (EKS-74028) with the paper over cardboard jacket replaced with a “Unipak” direct-printed jacket that eliminated the two component construction and ushered in the age of glue giving way and jackets falling apart.

When Elektra issued EKS-74028 it revamped the original’s “double truck” inside cover, replacing the sepia and white spread and relatively unattractive black and white snapshot of Buckley with a more mysterious, backlit color photo, which is the inner artwork 4 Men With Beards chose for this reissue.

The recording sounds like a 4 track job, with instruments placed mostly hard left and right, leaving plenty of space in the center for Buckley’s magnificent voice. Credit 4 Men With Beards and mastering engineer George Horn at Fantasy for not “modernizing” the sound and accurately reproducing the original’s warm, often murky atmospherics.



Like son Jeff, Tim Buckley was a romantic with a gift for the dramatic much like Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard. This album builds on Buckley’s strengths and gains power as it goes. By the time it gets to “Knight-Errant,” and as it powers through the rambling, ambitious, heavily orchestrated title tune, you can feel the artist realizing his true vision and gathering his full strength. The denouement, an elegant rendering of the familiar “Morning-Glory” (covered by Blood, Sweat and Tears on its debut album), brings the album down easy, leaving the listener grounded and satisfied.

Forty years on, these songs, Buckley’s vocalizing and the production sound both dated (and for many of us nostalgic) and yet strangely resonant with the disorienting times many of us feel America is about to enter and endure for some time to come.