Nick Drake - Pariah or On Fire?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

As wary as I am of starting another thread, I feel I need to. In light of the upsurge in interest in Drake's work over the last five years, does anyone think this is wholly unjustified? That Nick Drake is greatest case of Emperor's etc to ever have walked the music-literary earth?

― David, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

bollox, he be great

― naz, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes I wonder if Nick Drake is the music world's answer to the Blair Witch Project (no content beside faux-fansite style marketing). But I may not be hearing what others are.

― Johan, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick Drake's music is just lovely. And when it was first released, I don't think it was marketed heavily at all. If there is "faux- fansite style marketing" happening now, I'm not aware of it.

― Sean, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Anyone who makes a record like 'Five Leaves Left' at the age of 21 deserves mad props. Genius.

― Alacran, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nothing but great, inventive & interesting & unpretentious guitarist, lovely voice, genius ear for how records should sound. There wasn't anybody like him then and those who sound like him later on are just aping his moves. Even his demos are great.

― John Darnielle, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My various AMG wibblings. Yes, fantastic, oh yes.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Its easy to see where Belle and Sebastian got their ideas

― mike hanle y, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They have ideas???

― Andrew L, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

NR on AMG: "Pink Moon is the bleakest of them all."

I never quite understood how Pink Moon acceded to its byline of Bleakest Album of All Time. Taken in context (the way it was made, the impending doom) the album comes across as a brief statement of intent before the discontent. But taken as a document in itself, the lyrics (unless you fully analyse and extrapolate them) are not overly foreboding ("Pink Moon 'a gonna get you all" OK I'll give you that) and music is not bleak by any stretch of the word. Sparse. Prima facie, its not an upbeat album but it is no bleaker than Five Leaves Left or Bryter Layter (where enhanced arrangements, electric guitars, and other musicians might give off a hollow feeling of upbeatness).

― David, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

David you make an interesting point -- a similar one could be made about Joy Division's "Closer" -- but I think it's fair to call Pink Moon extremely bleak. "Parasite": dark, "Free Ride": almost painfully dark, "Know:" really terrifying. So much contributes to its bleakness: its short running time, the lack of accompaniment (which was highly unusual for singer-songwriters at the time and remains so today), the gnomic, cryptic way that the lyrics plea for help but don't specify what the problem is. Taken together, the songs on Pink Moon sketch a narrator whose personality is in disintegration and who therefore clings to his frustration and anger over what's happening with/to him. "From the Morning" is so hopeful and lush that it almost undoes what's gone before it, which is strange, but it would take a long time to discuss why such a dark album ends on such a bright note.

― John Darnielle, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seeing as plenty foax left cinema frightened out their wits, blair witch "has content"

drake? meh

― mark s, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Pink Moon is spoken of as bleak, sparse, ghoulish, a suicidal plea for help. I wouldn’t subscribe to this myth-crowning perception of the album, a perception attempting to cement Drake’s status as a troubadour of tragedy. This magical (and that is the word) album is a stark, beautiful essay on “redemption through spiritual trial”. An album about resurrection, not death. There is no contending that Pink Moon isn’t a sombre record (because it is) but it is also irrefutable redemptive and uplifting.

― David., Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

In reading my review again, I think I was trying, perhaps not successfully, to note that while bleak Pink Moon is still astoundingly attractive and engaging. But the two impulses work side by side, in ways. The focus and beauty of the delivery makes the harrowing nature of the songs that much more gripping (and like John noted, the uniqueness of staying away from extra instrumentation is very much an aesthetic statement of intent, a strong one, emphasizing solitude). Interesting point about the final song John makes, I have to say.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Nick Drake just ripped off Belle and Sebastian. What a dork.

― adam, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's all so clear to me now!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Adam is just hiding his fear behind a wall of irony.

― JM, Saturday, 2 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

The sad truth is that a talent like Drake is no where to be found in contemporary music today.Nick opened his soul to the world with three wonderful record's.You would be hard pressed to find another artist, who if only released three record's would have this much to offer.For me I would have to take "Bryter Layter" with me to that deserted island(along with Marc Bolans' "Electric Warrior").You owe it to yourself to go out and pick up a Nick Drake disc.

― James Hargraves, Sunday, 10 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Or just pick up the fruit tree box set, well worth the $65. My fiances father introduced me to Nick about three years ago and in those three years I have been obsessing about nick. I've read the books about him and heard everything he has. I tell you this, his work is amazing. So I'm going with Pariah.

― Poops McGee, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have been trying to duplicate Nick's picking style and tunings and I am finding it incredibly difficult. What strikes me is this is music that was created almost 30 years ago and yet people are still not coming up to his techniques, especially when combining the lyrics and the music. Just amazing. I cannot fathom how anyone can compare him to the Emperor's Clothes?

― Alvin, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

fourteen years pass...

http://fuckyouneilkulkarni.blogspot.nl/2013/05/nick-drake-bryter-layter-commercial.html

― Kibbutzki (Jaap Schip), Monday, 20 June 2016 16:11 (eight years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.