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1[[quoteright:284:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/buckley_9238.jpg]]
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3Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American folk, jazz and avant-garde singer-songwriter born in UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC. Aside from his music, he is perhaps best known as the father of Music/JeffBuckley -- [[GenerationXerox who, like his father, was a very talented singer who died prematurely.]]
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5As a child in California, Buckley was steeped in classic jazz such as Music/FrankSinatra and Music/BillieHoliday as well as country like Music/JohnnyCash and Music/HankWilliams. In high school, he was [[TheAce popular and athletic]] before he started to cut class and became a RebelliousSpirit, focused on music.
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7In 1965, [[ShotgunWedding he got married to Mary Guilbert]], dropped out of Fullerton College after two weeks and pursued a music career in LA. He was signed to Creator/ElektraRecords, the label that would later sign Music/TheDoors, and recorded a folk-rock album, [[SelfTitledAlbum ''Tim Buckley'']], in August 1966. A few months later, he divorced his wife, who was pregnant at the time with their son, Jeff.
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9In 1967, at just 20 years old, he released an album that was judged to be very ambitious, ''Goodbye and Hello,'' which featured both introspective, personal folk songs and anti-war material. Subsequently, he signed with Music/FrankZappa's Straight Records, and later with another Zappa label, Disc Reet. Buckley's 1968 ''Happy Sad'', which was his greatest commercial success, was similarly eclectic. Buckley evolved constantly over the course of his career, starting from the more heavily orchestrated folk-jazz sound of his first few albums and moving towards a more minimalist sound.
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11His subsequent three albums, ''Lorca'', ''Blue Afternoon'', and ''Starsailor'', were a departure from folk rock and alienated his fans, especially the lattermost album, which featured free-jazz influences and his most extreme vocal performances yet. Then Buckley fired his band and cut three albums in a completely different genre which he called [[IntercourseWithYou "sex-funk"]]: ''Greetings from L.A.'', ''Sefronia'', and ''Look at the Fool''.
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13In 1975, Buckley got clean and began touring again, [[ShootTheShaggyDog only to die of a drug overdose after a concert in Santa Monica]] at age 28.
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15Do not confuse him with the Tim Buckley who draws ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel''.
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17!!Tim Buckley provides examples of the following tropes:
18* TheCameo: He makes a guest appearance at the end of ''Series/TheMonkees''' final episode, "The Frodis Caper[=/=]Mijacogeo", playing "Song of the Siren" to fill out the episode.
19* CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: Buckley was this in high school.
20* CoverVersion: The most accessible song off of ''Starsailor'', "Song to the Siren", has been covered by Music/ThisMortalCoil (who were the first to cover it back in 1983), [[Music/LedZeppelin Robert Plant]], [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers John Frusciante]], Charlotte Martin, and [[Music/RoxyMusic Bryan Ferry]]. It's quite a popular cover.
21* DisappearedDad: To Jeff Buckley, who was raised by his mother and stepfather. The song "I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain" is addressed to his estranged ex-wife and son. His son's cover is in on the meta level.
22* DownerEnding: His life had one; he had only just cleaned himself up after years of drug usage and had just sold out several shows in [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]]. To celebrate the latter, he went out drinking with friends, and one such friend produced a bag of heroin, which Buckley ingested and overdosed on.
23* GenerationXerox: His music and his voice are surprisingly similar to his son's considering that he didn't raise him and only met him once.
24* GenreBusting: His music became gradually more ambitious, and ''Starsailor'' was the LogicalExtreme of his jazz-folk brand, with full use of his six-octave range, free jazz, and chanson elements added. In general, his musical style evolved a great deal over the course of his career.
25* ManOfAThousandVoices: Just listen to ''Starsailor.'' The fact that he has a voice spanning almost ''six octaves'' certainly supported this ability.
26* OvershadowedByAwesome: By his son, despite Jeff's [[ShortLivedBigImpact even shorter recording career,]] although he made some genuinely awesome music himself.[[note]]Bear in mind that "overshadowed by" means "less famous than", not "not as good as".[[/note]] He was a cult figure by the 80s, and if Jeff hadn't himself become very famous (and subsequently, after dying so young, more famous still), there would probably have been periodic revivals of interest in his work.
27* ProtestSong: A lot of his work from TheSixties is this.
28* SelfBackingVocalist: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] at times, "Peanut Man" practically has him use his voice as an instrument.
29* SingerSongwriter: Initially. He would branch out to other genres later in his career.
30* ShellShockedVeteran: Tim Buckley's father was a mentally unstable UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran.
31* UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar: His early work includes many songs protesting this war.

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