his own voice (book review!!)

i finished reading His Own Voice today. it is basically a compilation of journals, letters, unreleased songs, poems and everything Jeff Buckley had written down at a point in his life. if you know anything about Jeff, it is that he wrote all his songs in a deep and personal way. all the songs had a personal touch and a meaning behind it no matter how small or big. i remember seeing an interview of him where he said that he wanted to be remembered not for his songs but for writing and i think this book does a great job to convey that wish of his.

in this book, Jeff expresses a lot of frustration in the music industry, with himself and even, surprisingly, cigarettes. i reckon that his frustration (along with the industry's) was because of his father. even though he is rarely mentioned in the journals, which i also found interesting. his father's absence had a huge effect on him, once again that is visible in his lyrics but the few times he does mention his father, it always broke my heart to read it.

"People want bloodlines. They want fate. But I'm not some tragic continuation. I'm just me." He wrote in one of his journals.

one moment Jeff is fueling himself to be on top, and the next moment he is questioning himself deeply. this is once again a time where he criticizes the music industry and i actually found this very valid. his description of the situation (which i will quote later) reminds me of what happened with The Strokes when they were releasing Angles. the pressure and the deadlines of the industry, thinking they were a dead band and it was over for them made the group tense and rough and think they did absolutely abhorrent when the truth was far from that. Jeff went through a similar situation here and at the end he concludes that he is making music for the people and not Sony (his record label).

"Face it. You are heading for the top… this will be the best fucking band in the world… Faking anything in life… kills your soul."

all in all, i really liked this book. i have been listening to Jeff Buckley for a really long time and i liked reading more about him. i like to read journals in general, it is like looking into the head of the person who wrote it; a raw and powerful insight to one's mind. 

but what did ya'll think? lmk :))