(Backbeat Books)

www.backbeatbooks.com

Rock and roll has had its share of tragedies, and pretty much all of them deal with the untimely deaths of musicians at their prime: Buddy Holly's plane crash, Marvin Gaye's death at the hands of his father, Elliott Smith's suicide. And Jeff Buckley's swimming death in 1997 was no different: The man who was once known as Scotty Moorehead, already a critical darling, would develop infamous status not only for his passing but for the now heart-wrenching quality of first and only studio album, 1994's Grace (honestly, is it even necessary to mention his masterful cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah?").

In the 12 years since his death in the Wolf River Harbor in Memphis, Tenn., Buckley has become the iconic sensitive guy, the James Dean of the music set (stat check: the 24-year-old actor left three films, Rebel Without a Cause, Giant and East of Eden; the 30-year-old Buckley left Grace, the four-song Live at Sin-é EP and the posthumously released Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk), and for those yearning to know everything possible about the man, A Wished-For Song (named after a line from a poem by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi) is probably your best bet. A combination of interviews and photographs by freelance photographer Merri Cyr, a close friend of Buckley's, the book is an unparalleled look into the singer's life, with comments from friends and members of Buckley's band and dozens of pictures of Buckley performing, lounging, perusing record stores and mugging for the camera, among other things.

And pretty pictures withstanding, it's Cyr's interviews that make the book worth reading, not just flipping through to glance at the photos: The descriptions of Buckley's life, including tales of his contradictory personality (such as one instance in which Buckley spotted Radiohead's Thom Yorke in the crowd at a show, became excessively flattered and then turned obsessively worried that Yorke didn't like him because he slipped out before the end of Buckley's set, according to Jeff Apter, author of A Pure Drop: The Life of Jeff Buckley), create a complete portrait of the man, one that is more than straight praise - and seems more honest and intimate because of it. As a result, A Wished-For Song isn't just art - it's Buckley personally, and is definitely worth a look by any Buckley fan; novices and diehards alike will find something new within Cyr's pages. ROXANA HADADI