The Sky Is a Landfill

Last updated
"The Sky Is a Landfill"
Song by Jeff Buckley
from the album Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk
ReleasedMay 26th, 1998
Recorded1996, 1997
Genre Alternative rock
Length5:09
Label Sony Music/Columbia
Songwriter(s) Jeff Buckley, Michael Tighe
Producer(s) Tom Verlaine

"The Sky Is a Landfill" is the first track on the posthumous Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk album release by Jeff Buckley. It was written by Buckley together with bandmate Michael Tighe, whom he had worked with on "So Real". Heavy, rocky and discordant, the track has a different tone from many of Buckley's songs from his debut album Grace . [1] Two live recordings, from performances at the New York's The Knitting Factory and Arlene's Grocery in 1997, can be found online and feature different lyrics.

The song is based on journalist Al Giordano's essay "The Medium Is the Middleman", which Buckley, a friend of Giordano's, adapted: [2] "He applied my critique of the media industry to the music industry, and we had the exact same conclusions," says Giordano. "The concept of the song was that the media turned the airwaves into a garbage dump." [3]

Performance artist Penny Arcade, a friend of Buckley's, had called the song his "magnum opus". [3] The A.V. Club says that the song "seethes with his inimitable flair for epic drama." [4] Pitchfork Media says "it's clear that Buckley was beginning to explore a more discordant and subversive approach", [1] and Rolling Stone notes the "explosive garage-rock theater" in the album generally, referencing the "barking vocal rage and twisted-metal guitars" of the song. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 LeMay, Matt (29 May 2007), So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley, Pitchfork Media , retrieved 13 Jan 2012
  2. 1 2 Hot Muckraker: Al Giordano, Rolling Stone, 30 Aug 2001, retrieved 13 Jan 2012
  3. 1 2 Kennedy, Dan (Apr 2001), Don't Quote Me: A conversation with Al Giordano, Boston Phoenix , retrieved 13 Jan 2012
  4. ↑ Thompson, Stephen (19 Apr 2002), Jeff Buckley Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, The A.V. Club , retrieved 13 Jan 2012
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