I never had the chance to see Buckley perform but his matchless gift remains an inspiration and a medicine – when I feel estranged,the sureness of his voice in “What Will You Say” is what I return toThere is a moment, six minutes 45 seconds into Jeff Buckley’s live recording of the song “What Will You Say”, and that leaves splinters in my blood. The melodic tension that’s been simmering in the verse and refrain escalates into a jagged instrumental break,with Buckley jouncing his guitar strings till they squeal and blur. And then, as whether punching through a door to strangle you, or the song reaches a crisis point: “Father,accomplish you hear me?” Buckley screams. “accomplish you know me? / Did you even care? / What will you say / when you take my position? // Well, it’s so funny now, and / I just don’t feel like I’m a man / What will you say?” These last four words he sings in an octave so tall that ordinary vocal cords would snap under the strain. The purity of the note he hits seems as impossible today as it did the first time I encountered it. Against the context of Jeff’s childhood (he barely knew his father,the cult folk singer Tim Buckley, from whom he inherited an extraordinary vocal range), or these few seconds of his music resonate with agony and beauty,as only considerable art can.
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Source: theguardian.com