1994: Jeff Buckley, Grace

I’m at Borders Books and Music when I learn how Jeff Buckley died. The revolutionary thing about Borders is that it has listening stations for a curated selection of albums. Previously, I had to buy albums without having listened to a single note of them, so the opportunity to preview a CD, even if it’s only the ones the store has selected, never ceases to amaze me. But today my eyes are drawn to the magazine rack, specifically to the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone, which proclaims Puff Daddy as “the new king of hip-hop.” Beside his face is a smaller headline: “The Haunted Life & Death of Jeff Buckley.” I grab the magazine and sit down on the carpet.