Pink Moon
Nick Drake
Score:96
Reviewer: Ed Butler
Label: Island (UK & USA)
Reviewed: Nov 26th '07, Released:1972
Mythology is important in music. Whispered stories about bands and artists have the ability to slowly become accepted fact, and can elevate bad musicians above their station, good musicians to international fame, and occasionally, a truly great artist can achieve long-deserved success and recognition.
Sadly, the best way to fuel one’s own personal mythology is to die early. It is the ultimate embodiment of the adage ‘always leave the audience wanting more’. When a musician dies early, we are allowed to imagine the lofty heights they were destined to reach, all the while avoiding the inevitability of age catching up with. They stay young, vibrant, and essential.
However, the mythology can have a tendency to overstate greatness. Sure, Hendrix, the Doors and Nirvana made some great tunes, but lest we forget that Jeff Buckley only made one record. Was Gram Parsons really the 87th greatest artist of all time, as Rolling Stone have solemnly decreed? Or does death become them? We all have a tendency to eulogise people in the warmest possible light.
In the case of Nick Drake, the mythology writes itself. Reclusive, shy to a fault, an unknown in life his lack of commercial success led to rumours of drug addiction and depression and eventual death at the hands of an overdose of sleeping pills in circumstances that are still debated as possible suicide. And in the midst of all this, he made three magnificent records, the third, and final, and possibly greatest of these was Pink Moon.
In 1972, he was a disillusioned man. After releasing two records to critical acclaim, he had failed to achieve any sort of commercial recognition and flailing behind his Fairport Convention friends only fuelled his disappointment and angst. So, over two midnight recording sessions early that year, in the space of eight hours, he put it all to vinyl.
Never before, or since, has the sound of one man and a guitar been so intoxicating, or hauntingly beautiful. Only one overdub exists over 11 tracks; a couple of tinkling piano keys on opener 'Pink Moon'. With the exception of those few notes, the entire record is Drake and his guitar in stunning, technicolour close-up. Even his breathing is in tune.
The record closes on a rare note of optimism with 'From the Morning', a touching tale of the beauty of a simple life. Odd, then, that the lyric from it; 'And now we rise/For we are everywhere' adorns the tombstone of this most talented musician, who provided us with something truly beautiful before he departed all too early.
