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

Nick Drake & The Luminaries / Chapter 2 . Sundown [1 of 2]

It is not quite in my nature to analyze the lyrics of an artist I am enamored by, for I come to the understanding that it is feeling of the experience through the multiple listings, often at daybreak; a listening of Drake’s music which so entrammels us. From this application we feel it best to continue with the chapters I have set forth, with this intuition being foremost of my waking days. Today is the day to share with you, at some length as I presume this chapter shall preordained to be, so please set down your cup of tea-coffee-alcoholic beverage, or all three in manageable quaffs, and enjoy traversing this rabbit hole so becoming of us, or perhaps merely my own wandering mind.





It is beyond reasonable doubt to me, that Nick Drake read the book I shall mostly be quoting from, ‘The Asto-theological sermons by Rev. Robert Taylor, B, A. Originally published 1832, Mundum, B, Massachusetts, and subsequently he was incarcerated numerous times . His sermons which went strictly against organized religion!
Howewver, the book is now available under the ominous title ‘The Devils Pulpit’ vol.1 & 2 . In my minde's eye tins book appropriates and unlocks may of Nick Drakes's lyrics.

If indeed Nick did not land his hands on the book, he must have had a thorough understanding of the luminaries and their part thoughouth history…

I have taken the liberty in my solitude to have scanned various of the most important and enlightening for your convenience, with a summary behind each walk through of one of Nick Drake’s most prevalent chanteuse/mantra Three Hours or ‘Sundown’ – the title used throughout the recording process. Lest we forget it was insurmountably lengthy recording process for a debut album. And may I interject that the names and the running order and the LP title of the album of songs was entirely changed as the album was ready to press… Almost in haste and with a degree of panic…

‘Saturday Sun’ was the prevalent working title for Fife Leave Left’s near entirety! However, I had touched upon this at some length in my previous chapter. So, without further ado, let’s as explore this new interpretation together.

Three hours from sundown
Jeremy flies
Hoping to keep
The sun from his eyes
East from the city
And down to the cave
In search of a master
In search of a slave

This passage has three references to the Sun; however it is multiplied by way of Virtue and Nick’s clever word play and metaphysical symbolism.

Three hours from sundown
Jeremy flies..







Jeremy flies, but whom and from where?
On the highest spot of groun, in thich city, those ancientPheonician shelters in Britainfounded a magnificent
cathedral to the honour of their god, EL-ON-DON, from whom our city, to this day, retains its name of
London. That the God London, to whose honor this grear edifice was erected, was none other thatan the SUN itself, is discovered to us, not merely in the meaning of the THREE radical Phoenicianparticles...

Why is he flying/fleeing?

Hoping to keep
The sun from his eyes
East from the city
And down to the cave
In search of a master
In search of a slave

 

Nick Drake and the Luminaries Chapter 2.2 (Sundown)

A depiction of the celestial map I feel Nick Drake would have considered during the writing of Three Hours. Not only is there a trinity of the constellations designated repeatedly Barr one; Mutable, Fixed and the supreme Cardinal cross. Therefor it would not be unthinkable that Nick was referring to the celestial cycles by the way of ‘Horus’, the master of time along with Saturn. This as many will know is where we have derived the word ‘Hours’ from in our own timekeeping. It is however the mystical aspect of Horus having the Egyptian name ‘Her’, a god in the form of a Falcon whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing supremacy and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representative of healing.

Anyway, The Sun will fall in three hours towards the west from the east in Nick Drakes beautiful Mantra, and one’s onerous must be acquainted if one’s understanding of the importance betwixt the sun is not exhumed by entire darkness as that of the inevitable cave from thence it will sojourn opposed to its Slave and in time - it’s Master! That is of course from the morning’s beauty which inaugurates from the frightful chill of twilight.

One thing which had not quite sat well with me is the name giacomo: In outwardly Italian lower case. Now his name is a very clever use of the Italian name of Jack. In turn another rabbit hole appears before us, as if ironically on the part of the genius which was our Master Drake.

For some time, I thought that Nick was referring to the two pillars of Jachim & Boaz, however my research was thwarted (yet I feel it best to persist somewhat). Thus I leave you for now with a strange depiction of Jachim & Boaz;

 

Nice Narcissus. A great read.

In times like these, for those who need more introspective music from like minded, though not necessarily similar sounding artists, here are a couple...

Bob Carpenter Silent Passage



And a live cover by the brilliant NZ artist Marlon Williams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whup1L3g6a4&feature=emb_logo


Enjoy.

 

Podcast interview with Dave Mattacks. Assuming there’s some Nick content, I just started listening.

‎The Trap Set with Joe Wong: 261: Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Brian Eno, XTC, Paul McCartney, etc.) on Apple Podcasts

 

Saturday Sun was about his school friend traveling to be with a girlfriend is all I know. He was interviewed about it, years later of course.

 

Nick content at 41 min

 

Nick Drake & the Luminaries / Short 'Sundown' Summary



In summary regarding the ‘Sundown’ chapters, one thing to take away is the Master Slave lyric which will, in my opinion, open the whole song to the Sun and Moon / House and opposite House of the celestial realm. If I may add a snippet from the pivotal book ‘The Devil’s Pulpit’ [1832], whereby the master and the slave months which are denoted by the sun’s position in the sky, relating to the zodiac of the sin wave provided in the very first picture provided in this section of chapter 1.
Below are the Master and 'slave' months;





I hope this is clear to you, and if it is not so, I can spend more time writing a clearer transcription of what I feel is a very important element to Nick’s language, or rather add more to the luminary whispers as I threaten to proceed further with this line of research in coming chapters….

Also, before I go away, I present what I feel Nick meant when speaking of Jeremy, rather than Jeremy Mason….



Three Hours is about the Sun and its traversing the sky, along with it's celestial follower.



Take care everyone.

 

How I approach any piece of art or music... Picasso said when asked what one of his paintings meant...
his reply was: "Whatever you want it to."

 

This is very true.
Three hours spoke to me in a certain way and felt compelled to share such revelations with you all. Hope it came across okay.

 

I remember this one Stevie Nicks song titled Blue Lamp, and I thought it was really trippy and cosmic... the "blue lamp" was our illuminated blue earth, the life on it being "the only light left on it the house", "upstairs" and "downstairs" being heaven and us down below... anyway, it kind of blew the gaff for me when a real fanatic for her told me how it was about an actual old lamp that had a blue shade and which her grandmother had left her, and it was in the basement. My estimation of her lyrical genius dropped. I hope I haven't done that to anyone for Nick Drake, but they did interview his school friend in one of the documentaries about that song.

Your story is definitely more interesting than the school friend's was Narcissus!

 

“Drink to me, drink to my health ..you know I can’t drink anymore “

Picasso’s last words.

 

What grade of acoustic strings did Nick Drake use, also brand ?

 

Wait a minute...wasn't that what McCartney said on Band On The Run?!

 

He’d have been non the wiser if it hadn’t been for Dustin Hoffman.

 

Nick Drake bio video by VinylRewind

 

I utterly understand, and thank you beccabear67.

 

Blue

Since beccabear67’s touching Blue Lamp post, it occurred to me on a very personal level as to what Nick Drake’s Blue may be.

In his Way To Blue mantra, Nick Drake asks ‘if you know the way to blue’. This had puzzled me since first hearing this beautiful piece.
Chris Healy’s insightful speculation that his search for 'Blue' is being related to that of French symbolist Mallarme’s ‘Azure’ - ‘the impossible ideal of poetic insight’

However, Blue is the colour one often sees when reaching a state of bliss during Transcendental Meditation. As a Transcendental meditator myself, I know this to be true.

During his Cambridge fable, Nick Drake met a soon to be confidant in Peter Russell who was studying Experimental Psychology and was practicing Transcendental Meditation. One can imagine how this altered state would be of interest to Nick, and so it was arranged for Nick to have his first meditation in February 1968. He wrote to his parents the following regarding such;

“It may surprise you to hear that during the last few weeks I’ve been extraordinarily happy with life, and I haven’t a clue why! It seems that Cambridge can in fact do rather nice things to one if one lets it. And I’m not sure that I did let it before. I think I’ve thrown off one or two rather useless and restrictive complexes that I picked up before coming here. By the way, think of me next Saturday, the day of my initiation into transcendental meditation. I went to a talk on it last week, and it seems to be a thing that is impossible to explain. So the only way to discover what it’s all about is to do it oneself. I don’t know what happens at the initiation, but I have to take along some fruit, some flowers, and a clean white handkerchief, which is rather a nice idea.” Pg120 ‘Remembered For A While’

My own initiation was on July 1st, 2019. I find it delightful that I was required to bring the very same items as Nick did all those years ago. It was one of the most magical experiences of my life. A mantra was whispered to me during my initiation which is what one must allow to take precedence over all thought during meditation, twice daily for 20 minutes each time. It is rather effortless and indeed, a fleeting feeling of bliss awaits each successful meditation, and I often see this beautiful blue hue behind my closed eyes, comforting me and banishing all my anxieties for a time.
Thus, to me, a way to blue is a way to find an inner bliss amidst such a horrid sense of daily despair, depression, and anxieties of all kinds which so entrammel us. But please understand this is merely my personal feeling on such a beautiful song.

I hope you all are fairing better than I, take care.

 

You take care! This, too, shall pass.

 

Nick was picked as the 2nd song on Tracks of my Years by Jacqui Abbott on radio 2 yesterday. It was a great change to hear him on the radio.

 

After a rather rough week, I was very thankful to have spent the past two days outside in a little garden to find some solace. While out resting in the sun and admiring the flora, I was listening to Way To Blue – An Introduction To Nick Drake on cassette.
This was how I was introduced to Nick’s music in 2004 thus I felt a mild nostalgia, and to begin with, a foreboding that the track listing would not flow as I had remembered it; It still flows perfectly.

What was so captivating about such and why I have stopped by to share this with you, was that Nick’s guitar stands out on certain songs more so than on other formats. It was thrilling to hear Nick’s guitar almost overshadow the rest of the instruments on this compilation with few exceptions. On the tracks where one finds just Nick and his guitar, the guitar is enormously powerful and rises to meet Nick’s vocal like a competitive companion with it bellowing forth.

However, I concede that both the guitar and arrangements do not sound as full as on his records by any means, yet the guitar timbre is often clearer than on the records to my ear; rich and raspy, although verging on tinny. Perhaps it is partly luck of the combination of the set up I had been using. Perhaps cassette recordings in general accentuate the mid-range of the compositions on them, and this seems to be where Nick Drake’s guitar is to be found - in the centre of the mix.
I used my old Sanyo personal cassette player and Momentum over-ear headphones.

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience?

Listening to his LPs beat my sojourn with the personal cassette player by far, and his guitar sits perfectly among the arrangements, yet I thought I would share this finding with you while I’m about, so for guitarists who wish to hear what Nick is playing with more clarity, perhaps try what I have mentioned if you feel like it, for you may be blown away!
This also applies to fans who would just love to hear Nick’s guitar work a little more clearly from the surrounding arrangements. It is wonderful to listen to.

All the best.

 

This is what John Pearse says on the matter; Google Groups

However, in Remembered For A While, there is an image of a receipt for Martin Medium gauge strings. Whether he stuck with this brand is not clear. There is little evidence to suggest what he used conclusively, even whether he customized his strings a little to balance the tone.

Also, for his last recordings, John wood has stated that Nick was experimenting with light and heavy gauge strings. This could also be true for the Pink Moon sessions in my opinion.

Hope his helps.

 

Way To Blue is a really fascinating piece. It's mysteries have pulled at me but I've been somehow afraid to really try and unravel anything lest it spoil the magic for me, but it makes sense that meditation is involved. I had some training in connection with martial arts that retrained my breathing (and it has stayed retrained to my benefit for decades since). Nick Drake was a magician... this music is still alive, maybe more alive than ever. I just never get tired of his best works, I wish making them had made him happier or more fulfilled.

Now hearing Three Hours, Day Is Done and Saturday Sun I am feeling planets and stars moving a little. Time Has Told Me Nick Drake is a rare rare find, a troubled cure for a troubled mind.

We are lucky to have found this. Thank you Nick Drake wherever you may have gone!

P.S. I don't have that Introduction To collection but I think I saw magazine ads for it and similar Introduction releases. I started really backwards, somehow coming across Time Of No Reply on CD first and then Five Leaves Left.

 

Thank you for the information, link.
John Pearse( teaching how to play guitar book guy) says Nick used his strings, JP/ Cathedral strings. Nothing definitive mentioned. Mix strings ( light / heavy ) I would have to say would have been rare for a player to experiment with 50 years ago( and costly ). Guess discovering what strings/ brand Nick Drake favoured is a mystery wrapped in a enigma.

Aside, did Nick Drake ever try out a 12 string guitar?

 

Strings?
UK had Rotosound.. fairly inexpensive, common.

Begs the question : what did other acoustic guitar players use for strings / brands mid-sixties Jackson C Frank. Paul Simon, Martin Carthy, Donovan etc ?

 

I’m going to look through my UK sixties Beat Instrumental magazines for string ads.



Later...