Jeff Buckley: “in transition”
DAVID TONGE/GETTY IMAGES; DARREN EAGLES/GETTY IMAGES; BOB BERG/GETTY IMAGES
AFTER meeting Verlaine during the recording of Patti Smith’s Gone Again in 1996, Jeff Buckley invited him to produce the follow-up to Grace. But initial sessions in New York left Buckley unsatisfied, operations shifting to Memphis in early 1997. That didn’t work either. Verlaine returned to New York, while Buckley stayed on to write and record demos. Verlaine’s work was partly salvaged for Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, issued in May ’98, a year after Buckley’s death .