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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: Stay in motion.

Had a great time last night taking part in a panel discussion after a showing of the Nick Drake documentary "A Skin Too Few" at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Joe Boyd and Gabrielle Drake were both on the panel with me; it was moderated by Martin Lewis, creator and host of the film festival which was hosting the event (and a remarkable person in his own right). The evening started off with the documentary, then the panel. In between questions, I demonstrated some of the song writing techniques Nick used in "River Man" and "Fly."

I spent several hours over the last week preparing for the event. Although I've written a little bit about "River Man" and "Fly" on my web site (An Artist Found and Time of Reply), I wanted to go deeper. I had actually prepared a whole segment on the songs I remembered Nick playing in Aix (which are on the Family Tree CD). Once I had it finished, though, I felt it would be too long for the panel format. Ultimately, I did about 10 minutes on "River Man" and a little less on "Fly". The audience was great - very attentive and easy to communicate with. Afterwards, several people told me how much they had enjoyed it and learned from it which I really appreciated! It's hard to know whether other people will be as interested in 'reverse engineering' a song as I am. There's always the risk they'll just tune out but not this crowd. Nick's fans are really amazing people.

Gabrielle spoke eloquently. Nothing really different from what she has said in other interviews but beautifully put. When taking questions from the audience, someone asked her if she knew of any love relationships Nick had been in. She indicated that Nick was very private and there wasn't anyone she could point to for sure, that there was someone who was also very private so she didn't want to name that person. Then she said something I've also thought about: "If you look at the lyrics of the songs, this is obviously someone who has been in love." I picked up on that because it echoed what I had been thinking about during the week when I was working on "Fly." As it happened, I was demonstrating the song right after that question. "Fly" is, in my opinion, an internal dialogue. The high voice of the 1st and 3rd verses is that of a helpless, needy child asking for forgiveness and love; the low voice in verses 2 and 4, is that of a cautious adult who suggests it's really too hard to fly, suggesting it might be better not to try to continue on. The lyrics are emotionally vulnerable and revealing and very powerful. To me, the song suggests that there has been a serious emotional rift, perhaps an argument, or even a break up of a relationship. For me, that's all I really need to know. It may not tell me who the other person was but it conveys what Nick was feeling and in this way brings us closer to him.

The panel was followed by 4 or 5 short films that were very well done, especially a version of "'Cello Song" by the Books. A couple of these films have been posted on the Bryter Music web site. This is the collection they are calling "Their Place To Be." It's a very nice idea - looking for talented artists and filmmakers to contribute their impressions of Nick's music.

I don't know if the event was taped. There were certainly plenty of photographers there.

For more information, visit:
JoeBoyd.com
MartinLewis.com
A Skin Too Few web site
Bryter Music: The Estate of Nick Drake

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Read Notes On Songwriting by Robin Frederick for more information and insights into writing songs that reach out to listeners.

Copyright 2007 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.