Choosing between Tim Buckley and his son Jeff is kind of like choosing between owning a Rolls Royce and owning a Bentley—you’re not going to go wrong either way. That being said, I’d guess I’m probably in the minority of people in my generation in that I have a greater affinity for Tim’s work, although Jeff’s catalog does contain some incredible songs. However, as transcendent as Jeff’s music (“Mojo Pin,” “So Real”) can be, nothing he has recorded can match his father’s masterpiece, “Song to the Siren,” one of my favorite songs of all time.

Buckley, for whatever reason, chose to debut this song on the Monkees’ prime-time TV show in 1968 (think of that!), and the version he plays is, while not quite finished and somewhat tentative, beautiful all the same. Armed only with a single guitar, Buckley sings those three metaphorically rich verses, his marvelous voice twining with the strummed chords, completely in control of his vocal talents. It must’ve been out there to watch back then, and even today you can hear the roots of the brilliant track that appears on Starsailor.

What takes the studio version to its incredible heights, of course, is Buckley’s frighteningly captivating vocal performance. For whatever reason, on Starsailor Buckley chose to abandon his more mannered singing style of his early albums, choosing to let loose and find out just how far he could push that godlike voice of his. Throughout the song, Buckley stretches phrases, theatrically croons on certain words (“broken lovelooooooooooorn on your rocks”), and grips the listener’s attention for three and a half glorious minutes.

It helps that his lyrics are incredible—a lost love transformed into the Sirens of old, captivating and mystifying the song’s narrator—and the backing equally haunting, heavily reverbed guitar notes and ghostly vocals swirling around Buckley’s vocals. And ultimately, it is those vocals that draw me to the song again and again—that haunting baritone, weary and pained, crying out to be released from a spell that is dragging him into the depths.

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