Most people here know this album, but a lot of day-to-day types don’t. I have very little of consequence to say about it, but am compelled nonetheless to let you in for tonight as I revisit an old and cathartic friend.
I don’t like to talk much about Nick Drake. What can you really say? I don’t listen to Nick Drake all that much anymore. What’s to hear? The music is carnal; it’s always exactly what it’s meant to be. There is no better example of this then
Pink Moon. Pink Moon is one man with one guitar and (this is pure speculation) the knowledge of just how frail and fickle life really can be.
When you listen to Nick Drake you see rolling hills and endless seas with suns setting over them. You feel love, lose, pain, sadness, remorse, happiness, relief. You hear guitar, sometimes bass, drums and the like, but you always hear more then sounds, more then instruments, more then music. Pink Moon is so effortless and enchanting; every song is an expression of faith, hope and forgiving. This is the greatest man and guitar album I’ve ever heard.
“Pink Moon” sells Volkswagen’s, it also set tones. Specifically the one for this album. It’s not a commercial song; it’s a song you heard in a commercial. “Place to Be” is poignant and patterned. To call this music simple would be both accurate and completely off base. There is much more there then six stings and vocal chords. “Road” is smooth, it transports the listener to “Which Will” as it rains down it’s dulcet country tones. The questions is honest enough and laid out well, “Horn” allows us time to ponder while gripping to soul of the music. “Things behind the Sun” is a more ominous delivery drawing the envy of any modern singer\songwriter with it’s complex perfection of simplification. “Know” lets the Blues into the room through a cleansing interlude into “Parasite” and it’s wrenching rhythm. The blighting melancholy throughout deluges you. Overcome with anguish Drake perseveres, and the “Free Ride” sweeps all away, “Harvest Breed” is subtle but the most urgent moments of the album and the penultimate track propels the narrative on. “From the Morning” is a perfect ending. How better to say good-bye then by saying hello. Promenading down the avenue of dreams sweet departure is rebirth among the shroud of reality that prevails. Fade out…
Music is an opiate, it soothes it quells anxiety, fear, sorrow, shame. Nick Drake is Morphine; it’s legal, it’s there, but you need someone to make you take it. Snatch your 3x5 Rx and find a copy of Pink Moon or any of the three for that matter and discover the music you missed.