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Jeff Buckley live @ Arlene's Grocery, New York. 08/02/97


[Jeff, talking to someone] Something they say in public, you know… it also sucks, you've gotta watch it, all right. You just be like the Japanese students and be in the bag (?) the cool stuff underneath the… but not up front.
[Guitar doodling, sound check, etc, drumming]
A pitcher of water for the… drummer.
[More Jeff doodling]
Oh, and another thing, you have to wait 'til after album season, cause then it's cool; and not before.
Oh, is that for Parker? Am I just a complete fucking asshole cause I didn't recognise? Oh, I'm so sorry.
[Jeff notices a bootlegger]
You fuck! Dick! Bootleggin' our show, man! You're going to study it?
Let me tell you, music school friends, deadhead friends, and a miracle.
All right, just roll your tapes.
[More guitar doodling]
Um… that's Parker Kindred on the drums there.

[Song – Nightmares by the Sea]

[Jeff] Thank-you. Hey, Michael would like this guitar in his monitor. [Listens to Michael] Less guitar.
[Listens to Michael and gets it right] Less of my guitar in his monitor. [Neurotic Bobcat Golthwaite voice] And more of my nicotine patch. Those fuckers work man… I should be Jonesin' right now, I should hate you all but I love you so much. It's cause of the nicotine patch. [Normal Jeffy voice] When I see you on the street and I feel friendly to you, even though you've got a smoke in your mouth, like in between your workday and your lunch hour and I can't have one… Well, I do, but I cheat. Then I see you, you're having so much fun, you're talking with your girlfriend, you're walking your dog, or you're like checking out somebody, or trying to give money to somebody, or having to give money to somebody, and a cigarette looks so good. John Cougar Mellencamp is very pissed at this point, cause he'll have a heart attack. This… is called Witches' Rave. About a spell that was cast over me one day. I loved it as much as I hated it. But I couldn't make it go away. And I probably never will. So maybe this will help things along, shall we? One, two, three, four…

[Song – Witches' Rave]

[Jeff] Thank you so much. [Semi-So Real guitar doodling] Oh lord… Thanks so much. [Deep throaty growl] It's time for more music.

[Song – So Real]

[Guitar tuning]
[Crowd] [Laughter] No! No! [Applause] [Jeff takes a cigarette?]
[Jeff] Lord, please keep me from chasing that dragon again. It's so fucking…
We killed them off, we raped their land, then we put 'em on the packet of the best cigarette brand that ever hit Manhattan. American Sp… [Weird microphone blurting noise] [Jeff coughing up stuff]
Hey, can I have one of those? [Funny voice] Sure, have four. [Puts them in his ears?] [Crowd laughter] [Normal voice] What… are you from London? [Funnier voice] It's a menthol! [Normal voice] No, it's a Salem! [More crowd laughter] [Deep American voice] Here, good old American Spirit here boy. [Normal voice] Pretty soon they'll have the dollar sign here. They should just cut right to the chase. Salem was a very sexy one… Remember Eve? Eve cigarettes? [Camp voice] "It all begins with you" [Coughing up more stuff] [Crowd laughter] [Normal voice] It's not going to happen any other way, cause these drugs (?) are killing me.
[Woman in crowd] Put it in the nose! [Cigarette?]
[Jeff] Not in the nose, cause that has to do with air.
[Guitar tuning]
One time I saw this awesome performance artist, I think his name was Scott. He came out on toe shoes and like this huge Sufi skirt. With this amazing headdress, he had this horrible look of pain on his face. Like… like… like… he had a safety pin under his toenail or something. It was like… uh… like the toe dance, like amazing. Then he did a handstand, and the skirt fell down. And just… pop! This carrot came out.
[Woman in crowd] Of where? [Laughter]
[Jeff] No time to tune baby! Can't hold these things in my ears forever. [Guitar tuning/doodling]
Okay, um… that's the end of that one. So's that. Thank-you so much.
This is called (about?) Paranoia in the City

[Song – Paranoia in the City?]

[Jeff] Oh shit… [Guitar doodling] It still takes a long time to get to… Oh come on, give me the fucking cigarette. Disco (?) town. Bingo!
[Laughter and cheers from audience, presumably as Jeff lights up]
[Man in crowd] Quitter!
[Jeff] No, I'm an ex-quitter! I'm not a quitter man! I'm a pleasure seeker, man, I got the fucking patch! This thing's going to kick in, and I'm going to feel… like…pffffft…. You don't know what nicotine does! I don't care if people say it's good.
Tastes good, tastes like… burned peanut butter toast. Just the way he likes it. Or the burnt stuff… the burnt stuff on the lasagne.

[Song – Lover, you should've come over]

[Song – Morning Theft]

[Jeff] [To the band] No, you stay that way. You stay that way, and you change, and we'll do it together. [Guitar tuning] Have you ever had to be in the retarded class, even though you weren't? They put the so-called learning disabilities or whatever. It was that… it was that moment… those moments, those two moments. It was sort of a weird conglomeration of detention, learning disability. I guess, I suppose if violence is a learning disability, I've always thought so.
[Woman in crowd] So what are you trying to say?
[Jeff] I'm trying to say that… uh… I don't know, I'm just asking, I wondered if anybody knew what it was like. Yeah, I think, I think, I think the theme in my feelings was incarceration, or some kind of institutionalisation that wasn't college or, uh… bartending.
Yeah, right. Me and my friend Inger got popped. Put that on the Internet. Yeah, and the time I got fired… I always rue this day, and I've told this story a billion fucking times, but… I used to work at the Banana Republic on 87th and Br…Broadway.
[Jeff to Michael] Can you give me a D? [More tuning]
[Jeff] So one day, uh… the store detective comes, and I'd met him a few times, his name was Joe DiMariano.
[Man in crowd] Joe!
[Jeff] Yo Joe! Hey yo! Let me tell you something about cops, man. [Laughter] Some fucking good old boy, jock heavy, neo-Nazi, donut stuffing, substitute teacher for the President of the United States. I remember from meeting a guy named Gabriel who said there were some good cops and they were in his family. I said 'you lucky man. But they'll still take your ass away if they find some drugs on you.'
But unfortunately we were dumb enough to open up a beer in front of the courthouse… in Jersey. But we were creative.
[Man in crowd] What about Joe?
[Jeff] Oh yeah, Joe. Joe sat there for like… I was new in town, and I was like… kinda… stupid and naïve, and so he said 'you stole a ladies' shirt'. I bought a ladies' shirt, I bought it, but he said I stole it, I was like 'it's on the record' and he goes [In twisted Sylvester Stallone type cop voice] 'no, no, you stole another shirt, now don't be a pussy man, be a man, 'fess up' [Normal voice] Now they always use that word, I want you to, I want you to… I want to arm you against these people, and their intimidation schemes. If you're a guy and you're with a girl, he's going to go…'oh, so, ah…' you know, he's going to like, go on the, like, 'you don't have it together, you don't have your shit, where's your, you know… thing.' And he's going to go on you like the pussy trip. Like… 'yeah, just give me the drugs, and I'll throw them out the window, and we can forget this whole thing.' And I'm like… 'yeah, right…' So you don't trust them, then he like… you know, has some cool green trousers, and he's like 'I saw you smoking, haaa!' He'd like my ass when we get to jail. And they're all like… [Laughter]
He fingerprinted me, and he says 'one zero zero zero three, right, that's your zip code, right? I got that right, I got a pretty good memory.' I said 'yeah, that's a lot of zeroes…' I'm just a dick. I'm from LA, what can I tell you…
I'm wearing this cause I'm in mourning.
I hope this goes off, it's a nice song.

[Song – Vancouver]

[Jeff] Parker's bummed at his high-hats. [Guitar tuning] Allright, a quick three and we're out of here, baby! This is the first time we ever, uh… hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! This is the first time we ever… feedback! This is the first time we're ever playing some of this stuff. So just throw your cigarettes this way if you hate it, and if you don't… What's that joke? If you want to, pull it once, if you don't want to, pull it 172 times. You ever heard that one? [Guitar tuning] It's a cock joke, I think.
It's a triple dropped D explosion! It's triple D. Yeah, you're looking for the professional… Something… I need another hit.. I'm stressed.

[Song – Snail, or something? Just a guess…]

[Woman in crowd] Asshole!
[Jeff flicks the power switch on his guitar on and off] Very scary music.
Everything in moderation, at least I'm not being a… [Prim voice] 'Don't smoke around me, don't put… put that out, don't put… don't do that here…' [Normal voice] Then I'd be a real asshole, then. But I could… [Whispered] I love you.
I don't know exactly what we're going to do, but I think it's called… The sky is a landfill. Okay… It's kind of an up-tempo tune, I've got some lyrics to it, and I hope I remember them! Oh man… here we go… you guys, I love you. I love you a lot.

[Song – The Sky is a Landfill]

[Song – Mojo Pin]

[Song – Grace]

[Jeff] Thank-you, and goodnight everybody. I love you.
That's Michael Tighe on the guitar. [Applause] That's Mick Grondahl on the bass. Naughty boy. [Applause] Parker Kindred on the drums. [Applause]
Ok, we'll do one more if you'll let us go.
But I haven't… I haven't smoked a whole cigarette all day, it's just been little tips. Believe me man, it's better than it was. Every time I like… cause, when your voice is really high and quiet, it's a little pianissimo. [Prim voice] A little pianissimo falsetto, as they say up at NYU.
And when you have tar, guarding that experience from happening, ever, it's really a bitch. [Guitar tuning] Especially when you're me and you're born with a voice like a girl. See I had a perverse double standard on myself, like [Ridiculously high voice] when I'd smoke these It'd be just like Rod Stewart, Tom Waits, you know… the more manly thing.
[Normal voice] But I do, I still sound like a girl, and I just hack up big brown shit and I can't sing. Not even, you know, I can't do the lyrics either.
[Amazing Tom Waits voice] Popcorn on the bottom of your shoe, and the theater has ju-ju-bees all over the floor. And the credits are rollin', and the song's Michael Bolton. And… something… loverboy and devil may care… Singing… [Moan, moan, groan, cough…]
[Normal voice] You know what's really fucked up? And you can tell all your friends what fucking sellouts we are. When we get on tour, [feedback] Hey! Check, check, check. When we get on tour, we have, we have… tunings. Two tunings on different guitars, we have like… two. But actually we still, actually we still kind of like… We still, actually we still waste people's time. But I was seeming to think if it was faster, maybe it was because I was high. [Laughter] I have to stop getting stoned at the gigs. It is so not good. That's why I'm still so touchy about the bootlegs, cause I've said some shit that'd make your… something really vital in your body curdle up and die. Did anybody see that Message To Love movie with Jimi Hendrix? I'm just waking up, you know… [Hendrix voice] 'cause I didn't come here, yeah, yeah, I didn't come here' [Normal voice] That guy's coked up. [Hendrix voice] [Sniff] 'Yeah, right, this is just…. Paint by numbers, Jimi Hendrix, one, two, three…' [Plays a Hendrix riff] Promoters in the background going [Dopey British voice] 'Oh god, I shouldn't have fucking given him a gram, man. It's a total bummer. Hopefully they'll be more wasted out there and they won't know the difference. ELP was way more kinetic than this. Of course they had cannons and leather socks. [Normal voice] Do you think we should get cannons?
[Man in crowd] Just leather socks!
[Jeff] I may have leather socks for all you know…

[Song – Last Goodbye]

[Jeff] Thanks a lot everybody, thanks a lot. [Much applause and cheering].