May 01, 2022

Jeff Buckley - Mystery White Boy - Live '95-'96 (2000)

posted by record facts

Mystery White Boy is a live album by American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley released in 2000. 
This is a compilation of live recordings that Buckley's mother Mary Guibert compiled from DAT recordings of his supporting tour for Buckley's album Grace. 
Also known as Mystery White Boy: Live '95–'96, the album earned mixed to positive critical views and was also a commercial success in the artist's native U.S., hitting #12 on the Top Internet Albums chart released by Billboard. 
It's hard to judge Jeff Buckley's live collection Mystery White Boy: Live '95-'96 without thinking of what might have been, without realizing that he never fulfilled the extent of his potential. 
If that sounds harsh, it's not meant to be -- it's more of an acknowledgment of the tragedy of his premature death. After all, Mystery White Boy simply wouldn't exist if Buckley was alive when it was released in the spring of 2000. That wasn't the case with Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, the first posthumous release of his unreleased recordings. 
Those tapes were the foundation of what would have become his second album; the tapes that formed Mystery White Boy were DAT recordings of his supporting tour for Grace (which the album was named after), many of which weren't intended for release at any time. 
Once Buckley unexpectedly passed away, they became a core part of his legacy, particularly because his concerts were notoriously unpredictable and thrilling, sometimes transcendent (at least according to partisan fans). 
Mystery White Boy doesn't quite convey that sense of majesty, largely due to the uneven sound quality and the fact that it's a compilation, thereby lacking the ebb and flow of a real live show. Buckley's mother Mary Guibert claims in the liner notes that the compilation worked better than any individual concert, and she may well be right, since the album has a consistency that a full concert may not have. Still, it's hard not to slightly miss the dramatic rhythm of a real show. 
Even so, Mystery White Boy is a valuable document, since it does prove that Buckley could transcend time and place with a live show. 
That might only be of interest to hardcore fans, but they'll still thrill to this, all the same. 


Track listing

1.  Dream Brother  (Club Logo, Hamburg, Germany, on February 22, 1995) - 8:48 
2.  I Woke Up in a Strange Place  (Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, on February 28, 1996) - 5:05 
3.  Mojo Pin  (Theatre de Fourvière, Lyon, France, on July 4, 1995) -  6:06 
4.  Lilac Wine  (Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, on February 28, 1996) - 5:19 
5.  What Will You Say  (Theatre de Fourvière, Lyon, France, on July 4, 1995) - 7:34 
6.  Last Goodbye  (Olympia, Paris, France, on July 7, 1995) - 4:58 
7.  Eternal Life  (Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, on February 28, 1996) - 5:57 
8.  Grace  (Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, on February 28, 1996) - 5:39 
9.  Moodswing Whiskey  (Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, on February 28, 1996) - 5:37 
10.  The Man that Got Away  (Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA on May 4, 1995) - 3:46 
11.  Kanga-Roo  (The Phoenician Theatre, Sydney on September 6, 1995)  - 10:23 
12.  Hallelujah/I Know It's Over (medley)  (King Theatre, Seattle, WA on May 7, 1995) - 9:18 


Companies, etc.

Credits

Notes
Release Date:  May 9, 2000 
Recording Date:  February 22, 1995 - February 28, 1996
Genre:  Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Styles:  Contemporary Singer/Songwriter
Duration:  1:18:36 

Label - Columbia
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