After seeing Bob Dylan perform at the Supper Club in New York in November 1993, Jeff Buckley went backstage to meet one of his idols. Shortly after the concert, Buckley shared some choice words about Dylan’s show with an audience in New York City. During one of his gigs, Buckley mimicked Dylan singing his song “Grace,” then imitated him on the 1966 Blonde on Blonde track “I Want You.” Buckley also told the crowd that Dylan was no longer at his Blonde on Blonde peak, adding, “You guys are living in the past.”
That fateful night, several people from Dylan’s team were in attendance at Buckley’s show, and when word got back, Dylan was reportedly offended by the young artist’s assessment of his show.
“I was at A Hole In the Wall in New York, and I’d seen Dylan the night before,” Buckley told Dave Simpson, in a story published by The Guardian in 1998, a year after Buckley’s death. “So I did an impression of him singing ‘I Want You.’ I did an impression of him singing ‘Grace.’ I talked about how he sailed through some songs and was really brilliant on others. People were shouting, ‘But he’s still got it, right?’ And I’m going: ‘No. This is not ‘Blonde On Blonde.’ This is him now. You guys are living in the past.’”
Buckley continued, “In the audience were Bob Dylan’s manager, his assistant manager, and his best friend. “Man, the next day I was in Tompkins Square Park, staring at the ground with the snow falling, wishing I was never born. My A&R man saying, ‘Well, Bob feels dissed.’ But I really didn’t… I just loved him so much I sent him up.”
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Despite Buckley’s review of Dylan live, he still had great admiration for him. From 1992 through 1993, Buckley even covered several of Dylan’s songs live, including “Just Like a Woman,” “I Shall Be Released,” “If You See Her, Say Hello,” and “Mama, You’ve Been on My Mind.”
A Letter to Dylan
Mortified that he had possibly insulted one of his idols, Buckley sent Dylan a handwritten note to apologize.
Dear Bob,
I don’t know how to start. Last Saturday, my man Steve Berkowitz broke it to me that you were told of something I’d said from the stage and that you’d felt insulted.
I need for you to listen to me.
I have no way of knowing how my words were translated to you, if their whole meaning and context were intact, but the truth is, is that I was off on a tangent, on a stage, my mind going where it goes, trying to be funny, it wasn’t funny at all, and I f–ked up. I really f–ked up.
And the worst of it isn’t that your boys were at the gig to hear it — it doesn’t really bother me. It just kills me to know that whatever they told you is what you think I think of you. Not that I love you. Not that I’ve always listened to you, and carry the music with me everywhere I go. Not that I believe in you. And also that your show was great.
It was only the Supper Club crowd that I was cynical about, and that’s what I was trying to get at when I said what I said, and I’m sorry that I’ll never get to make another first impression.
You were really gracious to me, to even allow me backstage to meet you. I’ll never forget you, what you told me, as long as you live. You said, “Make a good record, man.” And I’m very honored to have met you at all. I’m only sad that I didn’t get a chance to tell you before all this intrigue. The intrigue is not the truth. Lots of eyes will read this letter before it gets to you, Bob, which I accept. Some day you’ll know exactly what I mean, man to man.
Always be well,
Jeff Buckley
This is my personal plea of love to Bob Dylan.
Jeff Buckley
A recording of Buckley reading his letter to Dylan during a concert later surfaced.
“And you know who’s going to read this?” said Buckley when he finished reading the letter. “The President of Sony Records, my A&R man, my manager, his two managers, his friend Ratso [Larry “Ratso” Sloman].”
Buckley added, “This is my personal plea of love to Bob Dylan. And this is what happens when you’re not nobody anymore.”
Photo: Paul Natkin/WireImage
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