Another surprise was discovering the many sessions that Buckley had recorded for Sony and left in the can. Apter spoke to producer Steve Addabbo who spent time in the studio with Jeff before Buckley hooked up with Andy Wallace. Addabbo recorded some seven and half hours of Jeff doing some covers of The Smiths, Bob Dylan and early versions of songs that would end up on Grace. As I read this I literally screamed out, release these sacred tapes already will you Sony?
Steve Addabbo, studio engineer and producer of You & I
In February 1993, I got a call from my friend and Columbia A&R man Steve Berkowitz. He thought it would be great if Jeff came to my studio and just play for a couple of days, with no production, no preconceived notion of making a record. That’s where the You & I tracks come from. We tried to make it very low key, very informal. We didn’t have to mix any of it – what you hear now is what Jeff and I heard.
He didn’t have much new material when he was in the studio, so he showed his range of material to me through covers. He really understood them, too. To go from a Sly and the Family Stone song to a Smiths song to "Calling You" from the film Bagdad Cafe: that’s a lot of different styles, and each one of them was spot-on. He had done his homework. The Sly one still kills me, his rhythm guitar and the way he sings it; one of his gifts was that he’d take a song and make it his own.
At the time we recorded these songs, there was a lot going on his life, he was being pulled into the spotlight and he took it very seriously and wanted to do everything as well as he could. Jeff never spoke too much about his ambitions. He was very self-effacing and would often screw up and forget the words while recording, but then would recover it and play something incredible. He also had a good way with people. He was always right there with you when you had a conversation with him; he wasn’t distracted or thinking about something else. He was very humble, not cocky at all. And he was funny and outgoing, but very thoughtful. There was a feeling that you had a very serious young man in front of you who was also incredibly talented and could go in many different directions. There was a lot going on behind those eyes.
In 2016, the Buckley estate released You & I, a collection of songs from the singer's previously unheard 1993 sessions. A second release featuring more unearthed recordings from those sessions is also planned.
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