"Eternal Life" is a song composed by Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley

Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...

 and is track #9 on his album Grace. It also has a video. It is believed to have been influenced by a long-time love for Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

's music and a wish to emulate them in this song. The track is something of an exception on the album, featuring aggressive, overdriven guitar noises that contrast with the more intimate, low-key format that otherwise characterizes the album. "Eternal Life" can also be found on his 1993 EP Live at Sin-é

Live at Sin-é

Live at Sin-é is a live EP by Jeff Buckley. The four-song EP was Buckley's first commercial recording and was released in December 1993 on Columbia Records. The EP captured Buckley, accompanying himself on a Fender Telecaster, in the Sin-é coffeehouse in New York City's East Village, the...

.

Captured on the Live at Sin-é

Live at Sin-é

Live at Sin-é is a live EP by Jeff Buckley. The four-song EP was Buckley's first commercial recording and was released in December 1993 on Columbia Records. The EP captured Buckley, accompanying himself on a Fender Telecaster, in the Sin-é coffeehouse in New York City's East Village, the...

release, is an explanation as to the meaning of this song:

"This is a song about...it's an angry song. Life's too short and too complicated for people behind desks and people behind masks to be ruining other people's lives, initiating force against other people's lives, on the basis of their income, their color, their class, their religious beliefs, their whatever..."

In Jeff's own words, "Eternal Life" was inspired by anger over "the man that shot Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

, World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, slaughter in Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

 and the Manson murders

Charles Manson

Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

."

Track listing

1. "Eternal Life"
2. "Eternal Life" (road version)
3. "Last Goodbye" (live and acoustic in Japan)
4. "Lover, You Should've Come Over
   Lover, You Should've Come Over
   "Lover, You Should've Come Over" is the seventh track on Jeff Buckley's album Grace. Inspired by the ending of the relationship between Buckley and Rebecca Moore, it concerns the despondency of a young man growing older, finding that his actions represent a perspective he feels that he should have...
   
   " (live and acoustic in Japan)