Story of the song: Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on Tim Buckley’s ‘Song to the Siren’

Buckley strode on, 12-string in hand, perched on a beat-up car and picked out the notes of an exquisite song, then unrecorded (Getty)

Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren”, written by Buckley and Larry Beckett in 1967, premiered in the most unlikely of places. Buckley, the rising star of the psychedelic folk-rock revolution, appeared on The Monkees as a musical guest. It was the last ever episode of the TV show, recorded in November 1967 and broadcast the following March.

Buckley strode on, 12-string in hand, perched on a beat-up car and picked out the notes of an exquisite song, then unrecorded: “Long afloat on shipless oceans/ I did all my best to smile”. It was an unexpected and moving moment, included now on a new DVD of rare Buckley performances, Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House. Beckett recalls: “I would write lyrics, hand them to him and he’d come back with a fully-fledged piece. There was some kind of uncanny connection between us.”

“Song to the Siren” was the pair’s favourite. “It’s a perfect match of melody and lyrics,” Beckett says. On vinyl, the song had a shaky start. Buckley left it off his studio albums, instead handing it to Pat Boone for Departure. In 1970, Buckley got round to the song again; with a few lyric changes, it made his album Starsailor.