25: mojo pin-- jeff buckley

i was riding in the car past the cow pasture on hunter hill road and i thought i had heard the voice of god. the voice had depth-- it was sweet, clear, heavenly, unlike anything i had heard before. i was floored. i was enthralled. this song was my introduction to jeff buckley, who at that time i had read about (i knew of his mysterious death in the mississippi river), but had never heard his voice. in this song, while i drove down that rural road, his vocal chords from underneath the murky waves grabbed me by the throat (and didnt let go).

i was so used to listening to garbled yelling voices, gruff masculine huffs muffled under roaring guitars in my version of rocknroll. this was like a slap in the face. his voice kept changing directions, tones- it could be so so soft and also soar over powering guitars. it was more like watching a picture being painted than listening to music. this song, especially, showed off buckley's prowess; it snakes around and slowly steps up steps to a climax that displays the rich span of his voice.

but it wasnt just someone with a great voice. the song had power. i couldnt believe that rock and vocals could fit together so well. this song changed my opinion about how vocals could be incorporated into rock music. i also became obsessed with buckley for a while (i wrote a poem sometime in high school about the album this song is on). but above that, i became more tuned in to beautiful sounds in unexpected places. i learned that you can have interesting music with the vocals as the centerpiece. it was, for me, perfection, and i couldnt imagine those high school years without it.