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Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis is a song some of you have probably never heard\u2026most of you,\u201d Jeff Buckley told his audience during a July 1995 performance in France, introducing \u201cWhat Will You Say\u201d\u2014a haunting midtempo song that became one of his most frequently performed unreleased pieces. The performance was later included on the 2000 live album Mystery White Boy<\/em>. Having released only one studio album in his lifetime (Grace<\/em> in 1994), Buckley regularly supplemented his lengthy tour sets with covers and new material, with \u201cWhat Will You Say\u201d becoming a particular favorite that typically ran 7 minutes or longer.<\/p>\n More from Spin:<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Will You Say\u201d was primarily written by one of Buckley\u2019s closest friends, Fishbone keyboardist Chris Dowd, with Buckley and drummer Carla Azar (Wendy and Lisa, the Waterboys) also receiving songwriting credits. Another recording from a 1994 performance at Wetlands in New York, released on a 2019 live album, features Buckley and Dowd singing the song together.<\/p>\n Despite Buckley performing \u201cWhat Will You Say\u201d roughly 100 times between 1994 and 1996, a studio recording of the song has never surfaced in decades of posthumous releases. It evidently wasn\u2019t among the many tracks he worked on for his unfinished second album before dying in 1997, which were compiled on 1998\u2019s Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk<\/em>. Dowd and Buckley worked together extensively in a band called the Seedy Arkhestra, but there\u2019s no indication that \u201cWhat Will You Say\u201d was part of that project\u2014a different song they co-wrote, \u201cDespite the Tears,\u201d appeared on the only Seedy Arkhestra album, 1997\u2019s Puzzle<\/em>.<\/p>\n In a 2011 solo performance at Arlene\u2019s Grocery in New York, which has been archived on YouTube, Dowd performed \u201cWhat Will You Say.\u201d He also talked about how Buckley wrote Grace<\/em>\u2019s closing track \u201cDream Brother\u201d about him, and reciprocated that gesture with a song he\u2019d written about Buckley called \u201cLong Live the Chief.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe Is Free\u201d with Gary Lucas<\/strong><\/p>\n Buckley wrote two of his greatest songs, \u201cMojo Pin\u201d and \u201cGrace,\u201d with Captain Beefheart sideman Gary Lucas. A collection of Buckley and Lucas\u2019s collaborations called Songs To No One 1991-1992<\/em> was released in 2002, with legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell recording additional overdubs on the standout \u201cShe Is Free.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jevetta Steele song \u201cCalling You\u201d was nominated for an Academy Award after appearing in the 1987 film Bagdad Caf\u00e9<\/em>. The expanded 2003 edition of Buckley\u2019s debut release, the Live at Sin-e<\/em> EP, featured a gorgeous rendition of Bob Telson-penned ballad.<\/p>\n Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk<\/em> is largely comprised of polished studio recordings that Buckley made with his backing band. The set\u2019s second disc, however, features a few 4-track recordings Buckley made alone in his rental house in Memphis that are truly more like sketches than songs. The most striking of those lo-fi recordings is \u201cI Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be),\u201d which feels remarkably fully realized despite a scratchy rhythm track that sounds like it may have been Buckley just tapping his fingers on a microphone.<\/p>\nThree more essential Jeff Buckley deep album cuts:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cCalling You\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cI Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be)\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n