Tim Buckley Day
Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music and style changed considerably through the years; he began his career based in folk music, but his subsequent albums experimented with jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, the avant-garde and an evolving “voice as instrument” sound. Though he did not find commercial success during his lifetime, Buckley is admired by later generations for his innovation as a musician and his vocal ability. He died at the age of 28 from a heroin overdose, leaving behind his sons Taylor and Jeff Buckley, the latter of whom went on to become a musician as well.
Tim Buckley was born in Washington, D.C. on Valentine’s Day, to Elaine (née Scalia), an Italian American, and Timothy Charles Buckley Jr., a highly decorated World War II veteran who was the son of Irish immigrants from Cork. He spent his early childhood in Amsterdam, New York, an industrial city approximately 40 miles northwest of Albany; at five years old he began listening to his mother’s progressive jazz recordings, particularly Miles Davis.