2002-06-19 - 7:51 p.m.
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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: look with the imagination
I received a wonderful email today from Marianne who is a fan of Nick Drake's music. Like many others who love Nick's songs, she was looking at his lyrics, trying to determine what it was he wanted to say. I have never gotten very far with this myself. I've read quite a few lengthy postings about it but have not come across anything convincing. Ian MacDonald wrote a brilliant article for MOJO Magazine called Exiled From Heaven: The Unheard Message of Nick Drake but even that left me unconvinced. (Ian's article is posted on the web: Exiled From Heaven.) I recommended the article to Marianne when she first contacted me. She went off and read it twice, then sent me the following. I think it is the clearest and best interpretation of Nick's lyrics I have come across. And I thought it was especially moving to receive it on what would have been his birthday, June 19.
From Marianne: "I don't believe Nick had any 'message' at all. It wasn't until I looked at what was missing from the lyrics (in total) that I realized what was there. They are a basic means of communication & connection, resulting in a feeling of comfort, or being comforted, which is how I feel Nick intended to help people with his music. He wants to communicate with as many people as possible. He wants his listeners to, in turn, communicate with each other through shared thoughts & emotions. What's missing are his specific circumstances. Because we will all have different circumstances that lead us to the same basic thoughts & emotions. What's missing are the 'big words' ('recompense' being a rare exception). We know from his education & his letters home that he was quite capable of using 'big words' & complex sentence structure. But the lyrics aren't about showing off. They aren't intended for intellectuals only. He wanted to connect with as many people as possible. So he uses the basic language of our planet & nature. Doesn't matter where you live, we all know what the sun is, what rain is, what stars are. In Western civilization (& perhaps the world) there are basic symbols & emotions connected to the things of nature: sun is happy, rain is sad, stars are successful, & so on. The same with other common words like fence (barrier) & road (from one place to another). He even uses common (Western civilization) phrases such as 'palm of my hand', 'jump the gun', 'say a prayer', & so on. To give one example: In "Joey" he is basically saying that he especially likes her company. Haven't we all had someone whose company we especially like? Therefore, there's no point in singing that Joey has blond hair, blue eyes, & shapely legs, because the person whose company we like will look different than that. The very simplicity of the lyrics are their cleverness. If you are speaking in very basic language & emotion to everyone about basic life experiences, how could you fail to connect? How devastatingly rejected would you feel if you failed?"
Related entries:
Nick Drake & The Confessional Poets: Part I
