Tim Buckley – Starsailor

Starsailor is the sixth studio album by Tim Buckley, released on Herb Cohen’s Straight Records label in November 1970. Starsailor marks the moment Buckley’s folk rock origins became invisible as he fully incorporated jazz rock and avant-garde styles into his music. Although it alienated elements of his fanbase upon release, it also contains his best known song, “Song to the Siren”. This more accessible song was written much earlier than Starsailor’s newer material, originally in a more traditional folk arrangement, as shown on the later released compilation album Morning Glory: The Tim Buckley Anthology. Bunk Gardner, a former member of the Mothers of Invention, joined Buckley’s normal band to record the album. Also, Buckley began working again with lyricist Larry Beckett, after a three-album hiatus.

Leontyne Price attended a concert in New York City during the supporting tour and told Buckley, “Boy, I wish they were writing things like that for us opera singers,” to which Buckley responded, “Well, do what I did; get your own band.”

“Starsailor” is a literal English rendering of the Greek-derived word “astronaut.”