Pink moon at 50
By Cosi Lovegrove-Leak
Although the initial release of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon fifty years ago saw fewer than five thousand copies sold, this album and the mysterious artist behind it has enjoyed much success and influence since. Unfortunately, this popularity has only been found after his tragic young death in 1974, a probable suicide. He didn’t truly gain notoriety until the 1980s, when he began to be cited as an influence to many, including Kate Bush, Robert Smith of The Cure, and REM.
The album Pink Moon is a beautifully somber, yet hopeful piece of art. Compared to his first two albums, it is extremely minimalistic; just his voice and a guitar back all tracks except the first. This simplicity encourages the listener to engage with him intimately, sensing his voice and each movement of his fingers against the guitar strings. I like to listen to the track ‘Road’ when it rains; the melody of his guitar reminds me of rain drops falling against the window. The title track ‘Pink Moon’ is one I like to play in the morning as I’m waking up. The tracks are all filled with poetry that I can’t help but sing along to. The instrumental asks me to float along with each note. With the mixture of upbeat guitar and more nuanced lyrics portraying struggles with mental health, the album evokes the feeling that Drake is hoping for hope, trying to describe the battle against himself through his music.
The content of the album, alongside the fact that it was released two years before his death, has led to a mythology surrounding it. The album can be seen as a documentation of the decline of his mental health. Many believe Drake has joined other icons like Van Gogh in the ‘hall of fame’ of tragically mentally ill artists. Whether or not this romanticism is appropriate behavior when celebrating an artist’s work is hotly debated, of course. There are those who take this celebration too far. For instance, family members of Drake revealed that his gravestone had to be removed because it was defaced by fans who took pieces off as mementos.
Others also problematise some critics’ attribution of “tortured genius” to Drake: they argue that these critics fetishise his mental illness with this title. These writers and culture critics could possibly be arguing that listeners should be celebrating his artistic genius and the life struggles he faced that ultimately aided his creativity, as it is extremely difficult to separate Drake’s struggles with mental health from Pink Moon. But, where does one cross the line from engaging with his work to romanticizing his illness?
It is possible that engaging with artists who make art directly referring to their mental health issues is harmful to listeners by inadvertently promoting mental illness as a tool to make beautiful art. Because of this blurry line between romanticizing and celebrating art, it would seem to some that the solution is to not engage with the artist at all. In reality, Drake is beloved by many not only because his music is beautiful, but because those who hear his lyrics can connect with his experiences. These critics are, in effect, asking for artists to only be engaged with narrow, politically acceptable ways. The solution of these critics neuters the content of the art and otherwise attempts to police the way Drake’s music is interpreted.
To lose or change the meaning of Drake's art would be a real tragedy. A writer, Demien Dorelli, expressed his own personal connections with Drake’s music: “Sitting at my piano, studying and playing through the Nick Drake pieces, I often have the feeling he’s there close by and that I’m playing for him.” Fans like Dorelli, fans like me, seek to engage with Drake’s music on a deeper level, using the little we know about his personal life to understand his lyrics. Some access to Drake’s inner life, alongside his particular ability to intimately connect with listeners, makes Pink Moon and Drake’s other works are well worth a listen. His influence makes him an important part of musical history, and this influence can be attributed in part to people relating to the struggles he describes.
Sources
Brown, A. (2006). The Review: Haunted by a dark genius. www.thetimes.co.uk. [online] 26 Feb. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-review-haunted-by-a-dark-genius-jcr89nbzfkm [Accessed 6 Oct. 2022].
Dann, T. (2006). Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake. Hachette Books.
Dorelli, D. (2021). 5 things you didn’t know about Nick Drake - Reader’s Digest. [online] www.readersdigest.co.uk. Available at: https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/music/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-nick-drake [Accessed 6 Oct. 2022].
Kemp, S. (2021). Is it time to stop fetishising musicians’ mental illness? [online] faroutmagazine.co.uk. Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stop-fetishising-musicians-mental-illness/?amp [Accessed 6 Oct. 2022].
Thomson, G. (2022). A deep dive into Nick Drake’s legendary final album, Pink Moon. [online] UNCUT. Available at: https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/interviews/deep-dive-nick-drake-magnificent-masterpiece-pink-moon-137235/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2022].