Jeff Buckley: “Last Goodbye”

Much has been said about what the world lost when Jeff Buckley died in 1997 and perhaps none of it will ever effectively capture the magnitude of meaning in the void left by his passing. “Hallelujah,” obviously his most well-known recording, showcased his uncanny ability to draw the blood to your cheeks and the shivers to your spine by simply holding onto a certain note in that Jeff Buckley sorta way. Me? I prefer to remember him most for “Last Goodbye” and “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over.” Jeff Buckley sang about a special brand of desperation, a very distinct sense of helplessness. These aren’t songs about love, they’re about the consequence of love. 

Jeff Buckley wrote the soundtrack to the most fucked up breakup you will ever have. For me, every time I hear his voice, I remember sitting in my car, inhaling cold winter evening air between drags of my Camel Lights, hitting repeat on this song. The end of a horrible relationship was near, and I was preparing myself to move on. And it all just felt bigger than me. The desperation seems trivial in hindsight, but Jeff’s music isn’t meant for retrospect — it’s about giving yourself over completely to a moment, a need. When he sings “kiss me, please kiss me,” it is entirely irrational. It comes not from his head, or his heart, but from the pit of his stomach and that’s what makes it great.