• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books; (October 1, 2002)
• ISBN: 0879307188

Uncut music magazine
(England’s answer to Rolling Stone)
hailed Blue Melody: Tim Buckley Remembered
as one of the ten best music books of 2003.
(January 2004 issue, page 93)



BLUE MELODY RESPONSES
As a professional biographer, I read countless books centered on people of fame. Blue Melody stands as one of the most fascinating, beautifully written, honest portrayals of friendship I have ever read. Tim Buckley was a very special person. Blue Melody is a very special book.

You might be familiar only with Tim's unique and wonderful music. By the end of this excellent book readers will have great insight into the man, his complicated mind, and the love, confusion and self-abuse that alternately drove him to create haunting music that will never be equaled or forgotten. Blue Melody is a book unlike any other. Read it. You'll likely never forget it.
Marley Brant
(Author of Tales from the Rock 'N Roll Highway, and Freebirds: The Lynyrd Skynyrd Story)



INDELIBLY CHANGED MY LIFE

I have just finished Blue Melody, weeping at the unspeakably honest story
you have created. Your book is a masterpiece, and an ideal encomium for your dearest friend.

Blue Melody has also blessed me, truly, with so much passionate wisdom
about meaning in an artist's life. I am twenty-one years old, and a burgeoning artist, and your language and craftsmanship, which reached beyond in describing the beautiful (and abysmal) transcendence of your experiences, have given me such an enormous amount of insight and pure emotion.

Put simply, your book has indelibly changed my life, as a person and as
an artist, and I can not begin to thank you (and Tim) for this gift.

I am forever obliged.
Love supreme from this reader,

Jonathan Wilson Luck
March 31, 2004


LIFE'S SHINING MYSTERY

Lee Underwood's memoir of his years with the amazing Tim Buckley is one of the most heartfelt paeans to friendship and creativity I've ever read — and one of the most honest. Underwood tackles his subject with eyes — and heart — wide open, and the result not only clears up a lot of the mystery that still surrounds Tim's life, but also celebrates the wonderful legacy that remains. As Underwood states in the final chapter, Tim's life can teach us some valuable lessons. "Our span is but a fleeting moment. Death is arbitrary and absolutely democratic. Young or old, the quantity of time doesn't matter...Only quality matters...Let us transform the shining mystery of our lives into art...He did. So can we. . ."

. . .One of the most fascinating aspects of this document is the psychological path. The author relates events from time to time that literally jumped off the page at me. I just read Arthur Janov's the New Primal Scream for the first time a few months ago — and several things in Lee's account resonated within me. Sure enough, Lee refers to psychotherapy on multiple occasions as one of the practices that helped him through some tough times, dealing with issues that won't simply "go away." I can't help but wonder how Tim's story would have turned out differently if he had been able to avail himself of some of the same assistance — Underwood recommended it to him, but it sometimes takes an individual a while to make the decision to take a trip down that street.

Tim Buckley had the courage and vision to live his life, his art to the fullest — and Lee Underwood has shown the courage to write about Tim's life in a way that shines with the same honesty with which Tim pursued his music (or perhaps surrendered to it). This book is an amazing experience — any fan of Tim Buckley's music should be grateful to Lee Underwood for sharing it with us.

By Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas)


... Lee Underwood's "Blue Melody" is an inspired, revealing memoir that could have been written only by someone in close proximity to a beautiful and tragic human life — the artist as fragile human being and as historical event. A unique artist and deeply sensitive witness to life, person, music and culture, Underwood digs deep into memory, impression, music, and detail to construct a book on the iconic Tim Buckley, a singer and musical explorer who, the tastes of the listener aside, dug deeper into the human soul and the possibilities of musical expression than most of the more famous legends of "pop" culture.

Underwood's writing style is romantic and evocative, but he displays an unstinting clarity and willingness to analyze. A mature writer unafraid of ambiguity and emotional overflow, he offers the rhapsodic sense of a time and a place alongside the irony born of reflection upon blunt facts and an acute awareness of the dark side — a darkness he experienced first hand, both with Buckley, and, revealingly, in painful separation from his friend.

Reviewer: Daniel Sapen (Huntington Station, NY)


I can't remember the last time I read a book as compulsively as Blue Melody. I've never read, or written, anything that brings Tim to life as fully, three-dimensionally and humanly as what you've done. Your portrait of Jeff is also incisive. And as if that weren't enough, the book strikes me as a true act of courage on your own part. 
Scott Isler, music journalist

It is as if you wrote the very last song on the most important
album of all. Yours are profound words! Not just about your deep love of an amazing man, but about an age that has gone. A glimpse into something that will never be repeated!
Sarah Whitecombe, West Mersea England

Blue Melody is a truly magical read—insightful, intelligent, and beautifully written.
Steve McCormick, England

I can't tell you how much it meant to me to read your heartfelt words. I don't feel as alone in music, because of the music you and Tim played and the book you wrote.
Rick Pfeifer, Chicago

I realized from reading Blue Melody that my personal relationship to yours and Tim’s music involves a lifelong consideration of just what an artist “is” in our culture, and just what is their responsibility to themselves, to community, to family, and ultimately to their art. I was quite moved by how your book examines these lifelong, even eternal questions. They certainly have been central to my life.
Mark Beebe, Bloomington, Indiana

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