Light On Dark Water

Nick Drake: From the Morning

Weekend Music

Just finished watching a documentary on the master, Nick Drake: Under Review. Anyone at all interested in Nick Drake will find it worthwhile. I think it calls for a song, and let's make it one that doesn't encourage the depressed martyr-poet image. Personally I will always doubt the verdict of suicide. 


 

I just learned, from this interesting site, that toward the end of his life, very disappointed by the commercial failure of his music, he had begun work as a computer programmer. Funny to think of how that might have turned out. He could have been 62 years old and an obscure IT manager at some little college somewhere. Well, of course, he really couldn't have, because his music was already beginning to make its way in the world very soon after his death in 1974. I believe it wasn't later than 1975 that I first heard him. 

I also learned, from the documentary, a slightly distressing fact: Pink Moon is his biggest-selling album–because of that Volkswagen commercial. 

Maclin Horton

8 responses to “Nick Drake: From the Morning”

  1. Daniel Nichols

    Very nice. When was the documentary made? I haven’t heard of it, though I did watch one on youtube that was pretty good, a few years ago.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    Thinking about it now, I think maybe it’s not as good as I felt last night. Probably not that much there that a long-time fan like you doesn’t already know. It has interviews with a lot of people, some of whom knew him, but not very well. One would really like to hear from Joe Boyd, for instance, and John Wood. Still, it’s worth watching. You can hear Robin Williamson’s tarot reading of ND. [rolling of eyes] There’s another one called A Skin Too Few that I haven’t been able to get on dvd. Maybe that’s the one on YT?

    Reply
  3. Janet

    I like that song.
    AMDG

    Reply
  4. Mac

    The album it’s taken from is a strange affair–less than 30 minutes long, some of the songs seeming incomplete, generally bleak, but it does end on this positive note.

    Reply
  5. Daniel Nichols

    Yes, that is the one I saw; it had interviews with ND’s sister….

    Reply
  6. francesca

    I think this DVD sounds like the one that came with the box set of Nick Drake that I have. I imagine it is quite a grey area with the ‘suicide’ of someone in very deep depression. Whether or not they ‘deliberately’ took too many pills is a moot point.

    Reply
  7. Ryan C

    Yes, A Skin Too Few is the one with the box set. I’ll have to see this one too.

    Reply
  8. Ryan C

    And Francesca makes a good point.
    I love how Pink Moon comes full circle with this song. The first song on the album (in that incongruous Volkswagen commercial) is darkly apocalyptic, this one is happily so.

    Reply

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