Memphis Skyline

This song was written about the late Jeff Buckley. Rufus envied his popularity and was sad because he would never be able to sing with him. Buckley drowned in the Mississippi River near Memphis in 1997. "I met him once and we hung out and he died not long after," Wainwright told Barney Hoskyns. "I hated Jeff Buckley when he first came out. I thought he was riffy and kind of boring and I didn't really get it. I mean, I didn't like Nirvana – I was listening to opera. But there was also a deeper rivalry with Buckley that existed in my mind. I knew that he was this incredible singer. I don't know if we could outsing each other, but it would have been interesting to have had a singing competition with him."

This song gets rather sensual at the end, with Wainwright singing, "So kiss me, my darling stay with me till morning." It can be argued that Rufus and Jeff may have dated (Wainwright is openly gay). The line, "Always hated him for the way he looked in the gaslight of the morning" could imply post-coital glaring and Rufus's envy.

Buckley and Wainwright sang two of the most popular versions of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," with Buckley releasing his in 1994 and Wainwright in 2001, just a year or two before he wrote "Memphis Skyline." Wainwright mentions how Buckley captured the song in the line, "Then came 'Hallelujah' sounding like Ophelia."