Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXC--Nick Drake: Pink Moon

 Alas, I'm not one of the cool people who discovered this week's artist before the Volkswagen Cabrio commercial in 1999 that features this week's tune (apparently to his fans this is an egregious transgression).  No matter--my citizenship in Coolsville was revoked many, many years ago....

Nick Drake was born in Rangoon, Burma (his father was an engineer, and eventually his family returned to their native U.K.) in 1948 and spent the first twenty years of his life bouncing around public and private schools.  He bought his first guitar in 1965, began practicing regularly in 1966, and by 1969 had a record contract.  Drake would release three studio albums over the course of his career, none of which sold very well, partly because of his aversion to interviews and performing live.  Sadly, Drake suffered from acute depression and at the very young age of 26 died from either suicide or an accidental overdose of anti-depressants.  Like Vincent Van Gogh (though obviously not nearly as successfully), Drake's legacy would grow greatly after his death, both commercially (all of his albums eventually went gold in the U.K) and critically.  Artists as varied as Kate Bush, REM, the Cure, Iron and Wine, Radiohead, and Paul Weller have cited him as an influence.  Drake has been inducted into the Folk Hall of Fame, and all three of his albums have been included on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

Fun Fact #1:  Way back in Friday Night Jukebox #247 I noted that the Dream Academy had written, and dedicated to him, that week's post ("Life in a Northern Town"), and that eventually Nick Drake would be featured in his own post--and voila! here it is....

"Pink Moon" was not released as a single but was the lead song on his ever so inventively named third album Pink Moon, which came out in 1972.  The album did not chart in its initial release, nor after the success of the Volkswagen commercial (though sales did increase substantially).

Fun Fact #2:  A pink moon occurs every April and is not named for a reddish tint (though it can occur on occasion) but for the floral growth that is beginning in the Northern Hemisphere in the spring.  Contrary to some Drake fan posts, a pink moon is not foreboding, but rather is considered a sign of rebirth after the long cold winter.

"Pink Moon" lasts just a hair over two minutes.  Lyrically, Drake uses less than twenty-five words, with two repeated stanzas and a simple "chorus."  Instrumentally, it features Drake on acoustic guitar (Drake used numerous different tunings with his music), and about halfway through Drake adds in a stark piano (which he plays).  Vocally, Drake's baritone is nothing short of haunting. Yet despite its brevity and simplicity, the song speaks volumes. What it says, exactly, I have no idea, but every time I hear it "Pink Moon" sounds better and more consequential that it did the time before.  And while we rightfully mourn his all too early death, we can also give thanks that in his time here he shared such a wondrous and intoxicating song with us.

Lyric Sheet:  "I saw it written and I saw it say/Pink moon is on its way/And none of you stand so tall/Pink moon gonna get you all..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXLVII--The Dream Academy: Life in a Northern Town

It was a little funny as I did my half-assed research for this week's tune, as it turned out to be a much bigger hit single here in America than I remembered from my managing of a music store at the time--though in retrospect, living in the classic rock bubble that was (is?) St. Louis, it probably wasn't so surprising that a pop single wasn't as big of a hit as it may have been elsewhere in the country.  And I'm sure we still sold a copy or two....

The Dream Academy formed kinda sorta in the late 70's (1983 would be the year they officially became the Dream Academy) in London, England when Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel went looking for a different sound than the power pop that ruled the day at the time in the U.K.  Multi-instrumentalist Kate St. John would join a little while later and the trio was set.  They released their first single and album in 1985, immediately had a hit single and album...and then pretty much faded into oblivion.  The band would go on to release two more albums (neither of which had any commercial success), and a total of 12 singles, only three of which would chart either here in America or in their native U.K.  The band parted in 1991, and did not reunite until 2014 (and again in 2016) for the obligatory Let's Make a Little Cash From Our One Hit Single Tour (nothing wrong with that--beats hell out of slinging groceries).  They've only released two Hits packages, which is somewhat surprising considering the number of bands that can get eight to ten out of their one hit.  All three members continue to play music for a living, and as far as I'm concerned, that's as good of a coda as any pop star can have.

Fun Fact:  One of the instruments Kate St. John plays is the cor anglais, which until doing my half-assed research I had never heard of.  It's also known as an English horn, and is somewhat akin to the oboe (which St. John, multi-instrumentalist that she is, also plays).

"Life in a Northern Town" was the first single the Dream Academy ever released on their quite appropriately named debut LP, The Dream Academy.  It would go on to reach #7 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and #15 on their British charts.  The album hit #20 here in the U.S. but only #58 in their native U.K.  Somewhat of an oddity for an English band to have more success here in the U.S. of A. than in their home country.

"Life in a Northern Town" is a tribute to English folk artist Nick Drake, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 1974 (I'm not terribly familiar with his work, other than his song "Pink Moon" which will be featured on FNJ sometime in the future).  Gabriel said the song was based on an event that occurred while he was in college (seems to me from the lyrics that Drake may have had a gig at said college and Gabriel wrote about what occurred), though the song has become somewhat of an anthem for, surprisingly enough, people who live in northern towns.  The song is actually quite a tour de force, featuring elements of pop, rock, classical, and African tribal chants (the utterly delightful, if completely nonsensical, chorus).  It has a definite anthemic quality to it (and not just for folks in northern towns)--you could definitely see this one as being one the audience sways to as they thrust their lit lighters into the air at a Dream Academy concert.  The song has a couple of nice moments I'd never noticed until listening to it again over the past few days--at one point they mention the world freezing and as they do you can hear a chill wind blowing, and at another point as they're singing about the artist's appearance you can hear a crowd cheering.  Anyhoo, it's another in a long line of wonderful reminders of how groups of people can come together and for a moment in time reach as close to perfection as most of us can get...at least in the realms of pop music.

Lyric Sheet:  "He said in winter 1963/It felt like the world would freeze/With John F. Kennedy/And The Beatles..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee