Nick Drake Appreciation - Album By Album & All Things Nick Drake*

Thanks, Parachute Woman.

I have enjoyed creating and continuing along with this thread more than any other in the past (except maybe my Gene Clark thread...in many ways I view Nick and Gene to be twin sons of different mothers, separated only by the "pond"). So alike in many ways -- their poetry, and song, so deep and beautiful. I think of both when I hear Don McClean's Vincent: "This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you".

The posts by yourself and every one who has contributed here is very gratifying...a tribute to our love of Nick Drake and his music.

 

Picked up a copy of Hannibal's 1987 issue of Time of No Reply yesterday for $1.39 at a thrift store.

Adds texture to the original canon.

 

Ha! Glad you are back. I try not to let individual song by song posts get too far behind, otherwise I lose the thread! So every couple of days. it's on the the next.

But you, or anyone, who wishes to talk about ANY song, back to day one of this thread, feel free to post! We never tire of hearing praise for any of Nick's songs.

 

I'm joining the party very late in the day, I think it's still allowed to gatecrash, isn't it?
I just wanted to thank @Williamson for his heads up on Belle and Sebastian and I thought he and others might be interested in another Scottish band; Mogwai. The song they named 'Nick Drake' is heavily inspired by 'Horn' IMO or perhaps an earlier version of 'Horn' which appears to have been played to Scott Appell by the family and is a lead in to the instrumental 'Far Leys' or 'Sketch 1'. 'Far Leys' was one stop on the road to 'Road' with Nick adding more strongly accented bended notes for the album's performance.
Here's the Mogwai song with its Horn / Far Leys influence:

And here Scott Appel's extemporisation on 'Far Leys' which is brilliant:
Scott Appel - Far Leys (Nick Drake cover)

Scott Appel began a correspondence with the late artist's parents, Rodney and Molly Drake. Their faith in Appel's discreetness and their awareness of his empathy with Drake's music paid off handsomely for the New Jersey-based guitarist, as he was one of the few musicians given access to Drake's mythical and fiercely protected private recordings."

 

Isobel Campbell's solo albums also sounds very much like Nick. It's almost like she's using Bryter Layter as a template with the same kind of instrumental interludes. Magical

 

Thanks. You are most welcome, here! Love Scott Appel's LPs.

 

Worth putting Pink Moon into contex.
Albums released in 72:
Ziggy Stardust
Stones Exile
Talking Book
Harvest
Lou Reed Transformer
Jethro Tull
Genesis
A year packed with releases that would go on to gain Classic Album status and sell millions.

Nick had ceased touring. He did one monosylibic interview.
Turned down or failed to turn up for TV and radio.
Little wonder that Pink Moon would remain undiscovered for decades.
Until...

Promo CD given to Volkswagon Golf drivers

 

Proof print of album sleeve with change to typeface

 

Any larger pix of this out there? I'd like a closer look. Thanks.

 

today we have one of my all time favorite Drake songs:

2. Place To Be
Nick Drake - Place to Be (Lyrics) - YouTube


When I was younger, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now I'm older see it face to face
And now I'm older gotta get up clean the place.

And I was green, greener than the hill
Where the flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now I'm darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be.

And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I'd see when day is done
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you.
Songwriters: Nick Drake
Place to Be lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Not a hopeful song in context with where Nick was (literally and figuratively) when recording this beautiful song, but it is a gorgeous one. Though I find it comforting and hopeful.
Sometimes it's not about finding that "place to be"...it's about the journey, one's hejira, full of hope and anticipation for a new life or outlook. It's often the going, not the getting there that's good.

In the lyrics, "day Is done" seems to make a reference to his wonderful song from Five Leaves Left, when he was young and full of hope, hope of finding the answers, for a fulfilling and happy life. Now, with Pink Moon, the sun has faded, to the palest blue, weakened and saddened by life, and his need for "you" (success, acceptance, happiness?).

"And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I'd see when day is done.
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you."
.................................................................................................

Nick Drake: vocal and guitar



An amazing account of Robin's friendship with Nick while he was in France. Read it all here:
Nick Drake: Explore his songwriting innovations and an early friendship
by Robin Frederick

At 18 years old, when I knew him, Nick Drake had not written a single song; he played blues guitar with exceptional fluidity but there was nothing to indicate that he had unusually great ability or talent.

Yet within two years, he had created a highly original guitar technique for which he is justifiably respected; he had honed the ability to write songs of lasting power and beauty, developed a unique artistic persona and vocal style. Oh, and one more thing – he had quietly invented a new way to staple melodies to chord progressions – the kind of innovation that opens vast new territory for songwriters, as Brian Wilson did when he showed us how to twist key changes like pretzels...

...Nick would appear at odd hours of the night at the door of my flat. I’d let him in and we’d pass the time playing songs for each other. He stared at the wall or the floor or into the fire. So did I. It was always nighttime, always twilight in the room with the gas fire. These are my memories.

Nick never sang any of his own songs. I doubt that he had written any at that time, or if he had, he didn’t feel confident about playing them yet. He was singing songs by Bob Dylan, Bert Jansch, the songs we all covered. There was a Phil Ochs song I used to play that he liked called Changes. It’s a beautiful song with a haunting melody, I think I hear traces of it in Nick’s songs. It wouldn’t surprise me; I got the feeling he was absorbing everything around him – music, lyrics, ideas, emotions – quietly taking it all in...



..........................................................

A wonderful account, and a fine read. For a bit of background about Robin who wrote all those great insights into Nick's music and lyrics in the Fruit Tree liner notes... here is a brief biography of Robin:

Robin Frederick is a professional songwriter, music producer and recording artist. Nick Drake’s recording of her song Been Smoking Too Long appears on the FAMILY TREE album. She is also a contributor to the album notes in the re-release of the FRUIT TREE box set and FAMILY TREE CD, and the book REMEMBERED FOR A WHILE.

Over her 35 years in the music industry, Robin has written more than 500 songs for television, records, theater, and audio products. She is a former Director of A&R for Rhino Records, Executive Producer of 60 albums, and the author of five books on songwriting, including “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting” and “Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV.”

Robin’s books are used to teach songwriting at universities and schools at all grade levels. They’re fun to read and filled with practical, real world information. For more information, visit Robin’s Author Page at Amazon.

 

I was stunned while watching some TV some years ago, this add aired for Big Ten school: Michigan State University:

A Place To Be

 

Place to Be
This is one of my favorite Nick songs, as well, @lemonade kid. It's hard to pick favorites on Pink Moon because they are all so beautiful, so simple and they all add up to this very brief, very powerful statement together... There is a unique magic here, most definitely. The lyrics are a bit heartbreaking, but I can understand them as well. We imagine who we were as children and how we felt then, and then look at who we are as adults and things don't always add up the way we thought they would. Hearing him low saddens my heart though. I wish we could comfort him and he could know how much this music would mean to so many of us. I've been darker than the deepest sea myself and music, including Nick Drake, has helped me come out of that.

 

....suite – to steal your point to make mine.
Place to be is a song with a longer back history than most others on the album, I believe. It's contemporaries are songs written for Bryter Layter like Hazey Jane 1 (and indeed like Parasite it directly refers to his solitary home life in North London). I love the finger-picked version that appears on so many of the bootlegs, but this strummed version is slightly better sung. Although John Wood is a completely competent witness and probably solitary witness to boot, I have always had problems with one particular observation he made about the sessions.
Nick apparently had huge problems silmutaneously singing and keeping time on the guitar when fingerpicking. This might be true of 'Place to be' and the notes played do seem to have been recorded by mics from further away than the other songs. Possibly because Nick was self-conscious about his inability to replicate the song's original guitar part.
Listen carefully though and to Wood's 2013 high resolution vinyl master and there's more to his guitar work than it seemed. I love both 'Place to be's equally now.
Occasionally I use crossfade when listening to Pink Moon and make it into a medley or more accurately a classical song suite. It becomes even more involving this way.

 

Excellent points. Pink Moon sounds definitely like a song suite concept album. Nick knew exactly how he wanted this one to sound. With no doubts about it (which is remarkable considering what his state of mind must have been in at the time), going into this, the simple instrumentation and sound he wanted (just himself on vocals, guitar & piano), even the song order was something he seems to have decided on himself ahead of time.


Seemingly lost in himself...
a haunting yet powerful image of Nick.


With no Joe Boyd to add carefully selected session guys he felt appropriate, and no Kirby to add arrangements and strings; no Joe to decide the song order long after Nick had departed recording sessions...

...remarkably, Nick seems to have gone into this session with the most confidence yet, with a clear idea of exactly what he wanted to achieve with this album. Which may seem strange in that Nick was likely in his most vulnerable and introverted emotional mental state of his short life on this his third and final album. His vocal work was subtle, and nuanced. His guitar work assured and strong, with some of his most deceptively simple yet most effective guitar work so far.

Maybe Nick instinctively knew this might be his last, his lasting musical statement, with every emotion so raw and there for us all to feel...it really is one of those defining moments in music. A simple and perfect master work that clocks in at 29 minutes, and which seems twice as long. Perfect.

Pink Moon is an emotional journey, and though I've heard more than a few fans say they can't listen to Pink Moon very often, too painful from their own personal perspective I guess, for me it is a great comfort on the greyest of days.

We are so fortunate as Nick Drake music lovers, that Nick had the amazing inspiration to go on, that he summoned almost superhuman strength to overcome the depths of emotion he must have been experiencing then, to go into John with an armful of songs, to have the will to sit through a remarkable eight hours of recording sessions, and to walk into the Island Records offices with what must have seemed a great burden of a reel of tape, and leave it there for them to do with it what they will.

Time stands still when Pink Moon is playing. A perfect moment in time.

A place to be.

 

Thanks for the great thread. I have only been listening to Nick Drake for about a year. I knew the song Pink Moon from the Martin Sheen movie, The Way, but didn't know it was a Nick Drake song. I don't remember the old VW commercial. I knew of Nick Drake from John Martyn's Solid Air, but never bought his albums until I played someone's Youtube song list and the song Pink Moon came on. I had a eureka moment and bought all three albums about a year ago. Each album is wonderful. I don't understand some who like the first album but think he went down hill from there, or who don't like the production on Bryter Layter. To me, Bryter Layter is the most accessible of the three albums. The first album took some time for me to warm to all tracks, but now I enjoy all three. I don't post much because my ability to discuss music is limited. I appreciate the insights of all the posters here and look forward to comments on the rest of Pink Moon, and further when you discuss the Made to Love Magic tracks.

 

Thanks for your comments.

You did just fine discussing Nicks' music, and how you discovered his albums. I'm no expert myself, for sure.

At this forum, it's not about technical expertise, or extensive knowledge of music, or artists, or equipment, or instruments. It's about your love of music in any form, any genre, by anyone: it's just a good place to express your love of music..

Not rules. No judgements. Just the music you love, and new discoveries.

The place to be.



And you're from beautiful Bangor...hello from Orr's Island.

 

I thought Nick's problems playing and singing at the same time date from post-Pink Moon recording sessions that gave birth to 'Black Eyed Dog' etc.

 

Me too. John has a good collection of Nick playing and singing fine for Pink Moon. I am thinking it would have taken a lot longer than two four hour sessions if he hadn't been able to.

 

You're both quite right. I got mixed up. Sorry. So what I have to say now is it amazes me how he delivered an intentionally different guitar pattern that was that deceptively simple.

 

Postcard sent to Nick at Far Leys from John and Beverley Martyn.

 

Has anyone else listened to Pink Moon side 2 with 'Plaisir D' Amour' reinserted into the running order? The transition between the Can't Help Falling In Love melody into 'Know' is just devastating. I can see why Nick decided to remove it but it really does work.

 

2. Place To Be

The very incredible tunings and guitar work of Nick deserves attention here...listen and read on...




Robin: Because the "Pink Moon" album does not have the strings, woodwinds and rhythm section that were on the first two albums, it provides a window into the sound Nick was able to achieve with his guitar alone. Detuning the strings of a guitar was common practice by the late 1960's. Open tunings allow a guitarist to easily play chords that would be difficult in standard tuning. A number of open tunings were well known and widely used at the time. Nick took it a step further, creating unusual tunings tailored to the sound he wanted. In these tunings. he was able to play the warm, complex cluster chords that are the foundation of his songs. In "place to be", you hear chords like F#minor add4 ("When I was young...") and A major 9/E ("...clean the place"). These chords would be difficult, if not impossible to play in standard E-A-D-G-A tuning. But by tuning the strings to D-A-D-G-A-F# (low to high strings), playing a chord like A major 9/E requires just one finger on the second fret of the second lowest string. Meanwhile, the open strings resonate longer and add overtones to the chords creating a rich, fatter sound. People often ask what make of guitar Nick played but the secret was as much in his open-tunings as in the guitar.

 

Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter were recorded in a spirit of optimism, but due to average reviews, poor marketing and a lack of live work/promotion, they sold moderately.

This was the time I started going to live gigs. I was a member of numerous Manchester folk clubs, went to college gigs, devoured the music papers and had older friends who were music nuts. We saw singer songwriters like Bridget St John, Ralph McTell, Roy Harper, Al Stewart, Martin Carthy on a regular basis and pretty much stalked Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention.
We even played football with Fairport between their sound check and a TV recording.
Many of these artist would play maybe 200 gigs a year, which brought in an income and crucially, generated album sales.
Albums were very expensive, so you had to see the artist or catch a track on the radio or TOGWT to make the financial investment.
But apart from a couple of tracks on Island sampler albums, Nick Drake remained a complete unknown to me.

It goes a long way to explaining the poor sales.
BUT, I've never bought the theory that this is what caused the depression.
Its an all too familiar story and has echoes of Syd Barrett.
Both geniuses, but both casualties of the drug culture of the times.

I love Pink Moon.
Sad but with some hints of optimism and hope.
When its played, its a vinyl 1st press. 30 minutes are set aside, so no interruptions, and its played from start to finish
But we're hearing a man teetering on the very edge.
Who would surrender his independent life and return, tail between his legs to the family home. A situation he hated but his final option.
In his tortured mind....he was a failure.
Little wonder that John Wood, who knew Nick as well as anyone could, finds it so painful to talk about.... to this day (Mojo March 2018)

A wonderful, special & unique album.
But like his hero Robert Johnson, Nick would also pay the ultimate price to get here.

 

A minor?

 

A major?