Several emotions can be read into Norman Seeff’s grainy, black and white photograph of Tim Buckley for the back cover of the 1974 album, ‘Look at the Fool’: melancholy, brooding, bored. Perhaps a combination of all three would be most accurate. Certainly happiness is absent. Even knowing the low ebb where Buckley’s career was at this time, and hearing the musical straitjacket he submitted to on this record in a bid to rescue it, it still seems startling that either the record company or Buckley himself should countenance using a picture that has none of the pin-up appeal of the teenage troubadour of 1967, indeed barely any appeal at all except to the committed fan. This is a man, who in the few years since then, has clearly seen and experienced much, reflected at its best in beautiful forays into folk, rock, jazz and funk. The shadows encroaching upon him, so pronounced that Buckley seems to be merging with them, are with hindsight tempting to read as some sort of prophecy of the death, at 28, which he was to meet the next year. Yet in truth, he still had musical ambitions, and the drug overdose which killed him was not the culmination of an addiction but attributed precisely to the fact that his body had been clean for some time. It would still be naïve to deny the fact that the singer of such impassioned ballads as ‘Song to the Siren’ and ‘Blue Melody’ was, at least some of the time, prey to the depths of sadness Seeff’s picture suggests. Even if the mood it captures was fleeting, the engulfing shadows still reveal a man now all too familiar with those depths.
Also In The Image That Made Me Weep
Billie Holiday (2020)
Black Sabbath (2020)
Clash (2020)
Dave Grohl (2021)
David Bowie (2020)
Deep Purple (2022)
Band Links:-
http://www.timbuckley.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Buckley
Picture Gallery:-

Visitor Comments:- |
2910 Posted By: Veit Stauffer, Zürich, Swiss on 07 Aug 2022 |
Imagine Discreet would have used this photo from same session with Norman Seef, and calling the album "Tijuana Moon" instead of "Look At The Fool"? This cd-sleeve is fiction, found it 2 years ago somewhere in internet, but was very happy to see his smile again 🎩🌹
thanks ADRIAN for your beautiful text. if you answer i can send you the alternative photo
|
intro
In 'The Image That Made Me Weep' Adrian Janes examines the melancholic back cover photograph of Tim Buckley's 1974 last studio album, ‘Look at the Fool’.
profiles |
My Fleeting House (2007) |
![]() |
'My Fleeting House' compiles together on DVD |all the performances 70's icon and singer-songwriter Tim Buckley made for television. Chris O' Toole finds it both limiting and fascinating at the same time |
favourite album |
Happy Sad (2011) |
![]() |
In our 'Re: View' series, in which our writers look back at albums from the past, Jon Rogers reflects upon the making of troubled Californian singer-songwriter Tim Buckley's 1969 third album, 'Happy Sad' |
features |
Ten Songs That Made Me Love... (2014) |
![]() |
In our series, in which our writers write about ten songs that made them love a favourite band or artist, Adrian Janes reflects on some of his favourite songs by Tim Buckley |
Profile (2005) |
most viewed articles
current edition
Pennyblackmusic - Writers and Photographers' Albums of the Year 2024Man From Delmonte - Interview
Pennyblackmusic - Book of the Year Award 2024
Clive Langer - Interview
Johnnie Johnstone - Interview
Marianne Faithfull - Reflections
Laura Nyro - Profile
Vinyl Stories - Vinyl 2024
Bob Dylan - A Complete Unknown
Cher - The Memoir
previous editions
Marianne Faithfull - InterviewHeavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl EP
Michael Stuart Ware - Pegasus Epitaph: The Story of the Legendary Rock Group Love
Trudie Myerscough-Harris - Interview
Marianne Faithfull - Interview
Jimmy Nail - Interview
Beautiful South - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Dwina Gibb - Interview
Allan Clarke - Interview
Sound - Interview with Bi Marshall Part 1
most viewed reviews
current edition
Ringo Starr - Look UpDusty Springfield - The BBC Sessions
Pixie Lott - Encino
Emily Burns - Die Happy
Oïmiakon - Comptoir Des Vanites
Rosie Lowe - Lover, Other
Dorie Jackson - Stupid Says Run
Joan Armatrading - How Did This Happen and What Does It Mean?
Unthanks - In Winter
Beabadoobee - This is How The World Moves
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart