If You See Her Say Hello

Jeff Buckley emerged in New York City's ultramodern music scene in the 1990's as one of the most extraordinary musical performers of his generation.

Listen to the track ‘If you see her say hello’ — and my heart just stopped, typing that — long after music is delivered directly via the boom box into a candy-colored chip in my brain, the haunting song will endure.

Originally sung by Bob Dylan, Jeff performed this live at Sin- é.

His music is obsession, and obsession is music. As long as he is there to seduce and ravage, I will listen to be seduced and ravaged. As long as his music plays, there will be rock-star fantasies; as long as he morphs into something god-like, there will be secret languages to learn and guilty pleasures to defend. This song is about relationship with music, and relationships' relationship to music. And because I couldn't resist, I’ve written it here.

This song, slightly differing in lyrics from the original is just as striking - I have to say that under better recording conditions, Jeff Buckley's version would've probably drowned out Bob Dylan's completely. Jeff Buckley certainly couldn't create a more impressive avant-rock resume. Strange things happen when Jeff Buckley opens his mouth to sing. One moment he's like a white blues singer with a sound straight out of the Mississippi; the next, a jazz singer whose flexible voice dives and soars through pained memories. The last thing he sounds like is his age. The buzz is pretty immediate after you’ve listened to his stuff and it makes him all the more enigmatic and mysterious and I guess it’s what adds to my fascination with Buckley and his music.