Jeff Buckley - Mystery White Boy: Live '95-'96

Mystery White Boy, culled from Jeff Buckley's eight-month world tour of the same name, is not just another live album blighted by whoops and catcalls. Such was the reverence granted the ill-starred singer-songwriter's electrifying confessionals that hardly a whimper issues from the audience in 78 minutes--not, at least, until each gargantuan heart-and-soul epic ends. Buckley treated music like it was Shakespearean tragedy, and that grandiosity makes the live "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" at least the equal of their recorded counterparts. The gems, though, are the cover versions found here--especially a closing nine-minute rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" that lurches into a whispered chorus of the Smiths' "I Know It's Over." Ultimately, this posthumous collection is utterly captivating. --Louis Pattison Amazon.com

Good energy, only 1 standout track

This is the only stuff I've ever heard by Buckley. I bought this CD after hearing "I Woke Up in a Strange Place (Live)" on Pandora. Definitely a great track. Other reviewers were right, the sound quality on this CD is good and most of the tunes are intriguing. Still, nothing really grabbed me. I'm gonna try the "Olympia" recordings and hope they deliver as promised by other reviewers. September 15, 2008

A Review from a Serious Buckley Collector

To start with, I am a huge Jeff Buckley collector, and pride myself on the various rare bootlegs and vintage recordings that I have (including ones from the late 1980s that I suspect ANYONE else could possibly have - yes, I could myself very lucky).

That said, I am always critical when they release a Jeff Buckley record, and this one was no exception. Don't get me wrong, when they do it right, they REALLY do it right. The collector in me was ecstatic when they released the 3 Disc 'Live in Sin E' a few years ago - that remains perhaps the best document of Jeff as a live performer.

Needless to say, I was not at all happy with this recording. The only saving grace is that they stuffed as much music as possible onto this, thus giving us our moneys' worth. But the recordings themselves are very sub-standard. If you're new to Jeff, this would be a horrible place to start. If you're a casual fan, I can't imagine you being inspired by anything here.

Primary culprit is the very cheap material they have used for actually recording the session. Hisses are present throughout, and very often the boisterous crowd sounds louder than Jeff. Know some of those old Pearl Jam bootlegs where the crowd sounds louder than the group? Well, thats how bad it sounds here. Not a good thing.

I'm sorry, but I cannot recommend this. There are FAR TOO MANY good bootlegs out there that make this redundant. I recently put together my own Jeff Buckley's Rarities 7-CD compilation (for my personal listening pleasure) and did not choose to include one track from here. As it stands, both his bootlegs from Glastonbury and Rotterdam rate higher than this - so do try to get those instead.

Two Stars. And both of those generous stars are for the memory of Jeff. October 19, 2007

Outstanding

Your first mistake is turning to Amazon reviews to decide whether or not you should buy one of Jeff Buckleys LIVE CDs!! I had to share this CD with my sister, who happened to introduce me to Jeff Buckley and we both agree that there are no complaints on this compilation. If you've never heard Jeff Buckley...you will only appreciate this CD if you absolutely love music, seeing as its live and its only perfect in the sense that it was performed for a live audience. Hopefully, youll share the experience. January 5, 2007

Better than the reviewers would have you believe....

I'll be my ususal caustic self: They dont know what their talking about. This was the first JB disc I ever bot and remains my favorite.
Dream Brother
Woke up in a Strange Place
Mojo Pin
What Will You Say?...and on & on the list goes. There's a couple of, dare I say, Dogs, but not many. If your new to Jeff's music &/or world, this is a good starting point. Looser but less encumbered (ie-overthought) than his two studio releases. What could have been?-Who knows. The giant money bag has been thrown at "his estate" so a movie is fourthcoming. Enjoy this disc now while he still remains "a mystery white boy".
December 13, 2006

Mystery White Boy

I was really excited when i bought this as I have both grace and live at sin-é but this was very dissapointing. 'Dream Brother' and 'Mojo Pin' are good but i found 'Hallelujah' pretty poor. He sings in this wierd tone like he's had anaesthetic injected into his mouth. Don't get me wrong, I'm as big a Buckley fan as anyone but steer clear of this, by far not his best live performances. June 27, 2006

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