Adore Nick Drake. He made three albums and all of them are among the greatest folk albums ever written. One could argue he originated the whole melancholic singer/songwriter folk style. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful melodies, stark but always effective accompaniment. There may not be much to say in terms of critical analysis, but Nick Drake is proof of the power of simplicity done well in music. One thing I don't know if you got was how old this is: this was his last album from '72, while his first was from '69, yet it sounds like it could've been made yesterday. Truly timeless.
This is fascinating. I heard a LOT of Nick Drake in the 70's and 80's in my childhood thanks to my mother's boyfriend at the time continuously playing his albums. They're etched into my brain. I don't know anything about music theory or compostion, but I know musical genius. Hearing your educated analysis of a song I "know" so well is really really interesting. Subbed!
Yes. It is melancholy but oh so beautiful. I love Nick Drake. So fragile but you can hear determination to try at least. Great songs. Wish there were more songs from him but he's gone.
Nick Drake is such a legend, and one who definitely left way too soon. Crazy how mature his song writing and lyrics were considering he never got older than 26. I wanted to add a heavy recommendation for the song River Man, for anyone who want to check out more Nick Drake. Anyway, thanks for another great video, Bryan! You really have a way of finding the words.
Exactly what I thought, Jakob! Though this is undoubtedly a great song from a great album, I feel like Bryan should have listened to River Man as an introduction to Nick's Music. It's essentially a solo singer-songwriter song as well, but with the added pull of the odd time signature and that unforgettable string arrangement. Bryan, please, if you've got to check out one more Nick Drake song, let it be River Man. And, by the way, Nick was quite the exceptional bluesman himself, as we can hear in his pre-albums recordings. He was quite the artist! Unmistaken and certainly missed to this day...
Wow, I loved your interpretation of the music. It’s amazing how much you read in to that. Then when you went into the lyrics. I would say your reading of music goes beyond your education. I would say your interpretation was some what psychic. Beautiful read, I feel your musical explanation helps me understand the technical side of this song and helps me understand the creator better. Is a song I have know for May years and I am a big fan. Have just read his latest biography and from what I understand you read the background to this song very well. A real pleasure to watch this. Thanks ❤
The descriptions of melodic looping stagnation and a statue wanting to break free sounds like insight into where Nicks mind may have been.. such a fascinating analysis- thankyou!
His music feels like waiting for your mum to pick you up from school never knowing when she’ll come while it’s raining relentlessly and your feet get wet.
Fine stuff - I was in a pub in Sheffield and found myself talking to Richard Hawley who,it turns out was also a fan! I was lucky enough to see a very rare live performance where he came on and literally looked at his shoes while he performed. It was enough to send me in search of his music. 5 LEAVES LEFT is a masterpiece album.
I like your musical intellect and your cogent and lucid observations and how you analyze the instrumental then the lyrics which makes for an interesting experience. You are thought and musically provoking, a learning experience for me, a musician and songwriter. Thanks!
Loved it! Haven't listened to him much and not for a good while. Time to repair that damage. Incredible how much you still found to break down with a quite simple 2 min song Bryan! 🤩
I have always thought that this song was influenced by Dylan Thomas masterpiece Fern Hill. "Time held me green and dying, though I sang in my chains like the sea."
❤❤❤😢😢😢NICK DRAKE is a verb and an expression of pure melancholic haunting emotion in human torm. Never acheived any success during his short lifetime prior to suicide. He was such a deeply moving, heartbreaking artist. Interesting, but I wasn't that impressed with such a clinical analysis when emotionally I think it achieved its goal but I do feel he's more dramatically effective when accompanied with strings as in other recordings.
Nick Drake was unusual in the sense that I don't believe that he ever recorded a song in standard tuning. If I'm not mistaken, the tuning on this particular song is DADGDF#, resulting in cluster chords, which allow him to easily shift the emphasis from the sullen low notes to the bright high notes. I forget the finger positions, but both chords played require only one finger to play. Thanks for checking out Nick Drake, he's one of my favorites. I appreciate your ability to articulate your knowledge in an educational and passionate way.
Interestingly that tuning isn't too far off from the traditional Drop D tuning of DADG*BE*, which itself allows rock/metal guitarists to play Power Chords with just one finger. The big difference being the two highest strings are even higher now, allowing him to get some very wide intervals with little finger stretching.
Nick did write songs in standard tuning, e.g. Things Behind the Sun, Time Has Told Me etc. (often using a capo) but yes most were in non-standard tunings. He music is ridiculously beautiful, there are no words...
Thanks for this detailed analysis with attention to his musical qualities. I think your reading of the flowing, high and low sound in the guitar work is very interesting. However, I think your reading of the lyrics misses the mark. The song is usually seen as a despairing expression consistent with most of the songs on his final recorded album, Pink Moon. The move into adulthood has been a descent into depression and alienation, so the singer is expressing two things in hopefulness despite his dark mood: the desire to find a place to feel at home and happy again, and a specific desire for a love partner he thinks will make him feel joy and contentment. Like much of Nick Drake's music, the melancholy or depressive elements are countered somewhat by a beautiful melodic quality and upbeat tone within the music itself. There's an interesting analysis of his guitar playing and singing style by musician/singer Robin Frederick, originally published in MOJO Magazine. Frederick knew Nick Drake and was close to him for a period of time. I thought this excerpt might make sense to you in its discussion of the musical uniqueness in Nick's guitar playing and vocal styling: "Nick combined the guitar fingerpicking style, drones, and de-tuning of the British folk music scene with the use of “cluster chords.” These are chords that have more than the standard 3 notes of a major or minor chord and whose notes tend to be clustered very close together, creating a rich, complex sound. They’re used extensively in Jazz but not so much in Pop music and hardly at all in Folk. Although cluster chords are easy to play on a piano keyboard, they’re a pain in the neck (literally) to play on guitar. Since most Rock and Pop songs were written on guitar in the ’50s and ’60s, you rarely heard them. Nick got around the problem of playing them by de-tuning his guitar-an idea he probably got from Bert Jansch (as did Jimmy Page), but his tunings were highly unusual, to say the least. And I do not know of a single guitar player in that time period (including Jansch) who was using cluster chords as extensively or fluidly as Nick was. Even when playing a simple major or minor chord on guitar, he was often singing the extension of the chord. It’s one of the things that gives his work its highly identifiable sound.... " The world Nick describes in his songs is lonely and tormented, but at the same time comforting and almost seductively beautiful. Dissonance and warmth. Cluster chords. Prosody. He used them to create something we hadn’t heard before in Pop, Rock, or Folk music…. Just as guitarists learn licks by copying them from recordings, I learn melodic phrasing by singing along with good songwriters. But when I tried to sing Nick’s song “Place To Be” I couldn’t do it. It seemed like such a simple song and yet, no matter what I did, I couldn’t anticipate where he was going to start singing the next phrase. Finally, I resorted to counting beats and suddenly everything opened up. Most songwriters begin a melodic phrase near the first beat of a measure or as a pickup to the first beat. In blues songs, it’s often laid back onto Beat 2. But Nick usually starts on Beat 3, and often ends on Beat 3 as well. So, what you get is the sense of a melody connected to the chords in an unusual, floating way. It helps give his songs their ethereal, fluid quality. (You can also hear this on “Which Will,” “Pink Moon,” “Fruit Tree,” “Poor Boy,” “‘Cello Song,” and more.) He gets the same effect in another way: he’ll often play chords in two-bar patterns then he’ll start singing a melodic phrase at the beginning of the second bar. This is the trick of “Place To Be.” Count this song in 3/4 time and notice how he changes chords every two bars but starts singing half way through those bars. While we’re on the subject, I’d like to go on record as saying that “Place To Be” is, without question, the most complicated “simple” song I have ever heard. It seems so natural, direct, plain and unadorned, but don’t be fooled; it contains one of the most sophisticated examples of prosody to be found anywhere. You will need just a bit more songwriting background to understand what Nick was doing. All chord progressions revolve around a ‘home base’ called the tonic chord. If the song is in the key of C, for instance, that would be a C chord. In the most basic song, the melody would begin on a C chord, progress through a couple other chords and end with a chord called a turnaround that leads straight back home to the C chord. But “Place To Be” was written by someone who wants to tell us how lost he feels, how much he yearns to go home, to find a place to be. Before he has even finished the musical introduction, we are as lost as he is. He starts on the tonic (home chord), plays just those couple of chords that assure us we know where we are, then starts singing-actually begins the song-in the middle of the progression, in the middle of a two-bar phrase, in the middle of Nowhere. Suddenly you have that sensation of floating, of falling, and now he will take you home over and over, return to the tonic over and over, just to show you how good it feels, how much you want to go there, too."
Dude. I wanted to turn you off after the first 13 seconds of your video. The whole “I’m glad this is a short song. I don’t really want to be here. Take what you get.“ But then you went into it. And it was a really fantastic reaction. Why on earth would you do that?
It was more of a warning to set expectations properly given I wasn't feeling well more than a claim that I didn't want to be recording. I do apologize about that intro though since I can see how it could be interpreted negatively.
Adore Nick Drake. He made three albums and all of them are among the greatest folk albums ever written. One could argue he originated the whole melancholic singer/songwriter folk style. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful melodies, stark but always effective accompaniment. There may not be much to say in terms of critical analysis, but Nick Drake is proof of the power of simplicity done well in music. One thing I don't know if you got was how old this is: this was his last album from '72, while his first was from '69, yet it sounds like it could've been made yesterday. Truly timeless.
Yes I wonded if he actually popularised this style.
I wish Nick lived long enough to see how many people love his music.
This is fascinating. I heard a LOT of Nick Drake in the 70's and 80's in my childhood thanks to my mother's boyfriend at the time continuously playing his albums. They're etched into my brain. I don't know anything about music theory or compostion, but I know musical genius. Hearing your educated analysis of a song I "know" so well is really really interesting. Subbed!
Yes. It is melancholy but oh so beautiful. I love Nick Drake. So fragile but you can hear determination to try at least. Great songs. Wish there were more songs from him but he's gone.
Just my favorite song of All time.
❤🇧🇷❤️
Nick Drake is such a legend, and one who definitely left way too soon. Crazy how mature his song writing and lyrics were considering he never got older than 26. I wanted to add a heavy recommendation for the song River Man, for anyone who want to check out more Nick Drake.
Anyway, thanks for another great video, Bryan! You really have a way of finding the words.
Exactly what I thought, Jakob! Though this is undoubtedly a great song from a great album, I feel like Bryan should have listened to River Man as an introduction to Nick's Music. It's essentially a solo singer-songwriter song as well, but with the added pull of the odd time signature and that unforgettable string arrangement.
Bryan, please, if you've got to check out one more Nick Drake song, let it be River Man.
And, by the way, Nick was quite the exceptional bluesman himself, as we can hear in his pre-albums recordings. He was quite the artist! Unmistaken and certainly missed to this day...
I'd support 'River Man', since that haunting string arrangement is divine, and the song stands above, even amongst such an incredible number of songs.
For curiosity, here's a great cover from an artist I'm a big fan of - ruclips.net/video/bDxUwFjux4c/видео.html - Olivia Chaney
@@muskett00 Thanks Mark! That's a great version indeed, had not heard it before. I like how it ended with Major chords. Very beautiful!
Wow, I loved your interpretation of the music. It’s amazing how much you read in to that. Then when you went into the lyrics. I would say your reading of music goes beyond your education. I would say your interpretation was some what psychic. Beautiful read, I feel your musical explanation helps me understand the technical side of this song and helps me understand the creator better. Is a song I have know for May years and I am a big fan. Have just read his latest biography and from what I understand you read the background to this song very well. A real pleasure to watch this. Thanks ❤
the lines "and i was green, greener than the hill" to "now im darker than the deepest sea" is just so heavy
Nick drake was so unique❤❤❤
You chose my favorite Nick Drake song. Riverman and Parasite too 😃👍
Pink Moon is a fantastic album. All similar elements; one guitar, one dull grey voice, dreamy melancholy lyrics. I appreciate the review.
The descriptions of melodic looping stagnation and a statue wanting to break free sounds like insight into where Nicks mind may have been.. such a fascinating analysis- thankyou!
His music feels like waiting for your mum to pick you up from school never knowing when she’ll come while it’s raining relentlessly and your feet get wet.
oof this got a good cry out of me ....
the first song to make me tear up, Nick Drakes story along with his soul and talent its just so powerful
More than any other artist, people describing Nick Drake’s music also almost perfectly describe the man himself. Great video.
Very interesting take on it. 👍
One of my favorite songs. Beautiful lyrics and music. Would like to see you react to Things Behind the Sun from the same album.
Fine stuff - I was in a pub in Sheffield and found myself talking to Richard Hawley who,it turns out was also a fan! I was lucky enough to see a very rare live performance where he came on and literally looked at his shoes while he performed. It was enough to send me in search of his music. 5 LEAVES LEFT is a masterpiece album.
I like your musical intellect and your cogent and lucid observations and how you analyze the instrumental then the lyrics which makes for an interesting experience. You are thought and musically provoking, a learning experience for me, a musician and songwriter. Thanks!
Acoustic melancholy at its finest.
brilliant break down
Loved it!
Haven't listened to him much and not for a good while. Time to repair that damage.
Incredible how much you still found to break down with a quite simple 2 min song Bryan! 🤩
To paraphrase someone wiser than me, "even the puddle can hide exceptional depth."
I have always thought that this song was influenced by Dylan Thomas masterpiece Fern Hill. "Time held me green and dying, though I sang in my chains like the sea."
❤❤❤😢😢😢NICK DRAKE is a verb and an expression of pure melancholic haunting emotion in human torm. Never acheived any success during his short lifetime prior to suicide. He was such a deeply moving, heartbreaking artist. Interesting, but I wasn't that impressed with such a clinical analysis when emotionally I think it achieved its goal but I do feel he's more dramatically effective when accompanied with strings as in other recordings.
Nick Drake was unusual in the sense that I don't believe that he ever recorded a song in standard tuning. If I'm not mistaken, the tuning on this particular song is DADGDF#, resulting in cluster chords, which allow him to easily shift the emphasis from the sullen low notes to the bright high notes. I forget the finger positions, but both chords played require only one finger to play.
Thanks for checking out Nick Drake, he's one of my favorites. I appreciate your ability to articulate your knowledge in an educational and passionate way.
Interestingly that tuning isn't too far off from the traditional Drop D tuning of DADG*BE*, which itself allows rock/metal guitarists to play Power Chords with just one finger. The big difference being the two highest strings are even higher now, allowing him to get some very wide intervals with little finger stretching.
Nick did write songs in standard tuning, e.g. Things Behind the Sun, Time Has Told Me etc. (often using a capo) but yes most were in non-standard tunings. He music is ridiculously beautiful, there are no words...
😍
Thanks for this detailed analysis with attention to his musical qualities. I think your reading of the flowing, high and low sound in the guitar work is very interesting. However, I think your reading of the lyrics misses the mark. The song is usually seen as a despairing expression consistent with most of the songs on his final recorded album, Pink Moon. The move into adulthood has been a descent into depression and alienation, so the singer is expressing two things in hopefulness despite his dark mood: the desire to find a place to feel at home and happy again, and a specific desire for a love partner he thinks will make him feel joy and contentment. Like much of Nick Drake's music, the melancholy or depressive elements are countered somewhat by a beautiful melodic quality and upbeat tone within the music itself. There's an interesting analysis of his guitar playing and singing style by musician/singer Robin Frederick, originally published in MOJO Magazine. Frederick knew Nick Drake and was close to him for a period of time. I thought this excerpt might make sense to you in its discussion of the musical uniqueness in Nick's guitar playing and vocal styling:
"Nick combined the guitar fingerpicking style, drones, and de-tuning of the British folk music scene with the use of “cluster chords.” These are chords that have more than the standard 3 notes of a major or minor chord and whose notes tend to be clustered very close together, creating a rich, complex sound. They’re used extensively in Jazz but not so much in Pop music and hardly at all in Folk.
Although cluster chords are easy to play on a piano keyboard, they’re a pain in the neck (literally) to play on guitar. Since most Rock and Pop songs were written on guitar in the ’50s and ’60s, you rarely heard them. Nick got around the problem of playing them by de-tuning his guitar-an idea he probably got from Bert Jansch (as did Jimmy Page), but his tunings were highly unusual, to say the least. And I do not know of a single guitar player in that time period (including Jansch) who was using cluster chords as extensively or fluidly as Nick was. Even when playing a simple major or minor chord on guitar, he was often singing the extension of the chord. It’s one of the things that gives his work its highly identifiable sound....
" The world Nick describes in his songs is lonely and tormented, but at the same time comforting and almost seductively beautiful. Dissonance and warmth. Cluster chords. Prosody. He used them to create something we hadn’t heard before in Pop, Rock, or Folk music….
Just as guitarists learn licks by copying them from recordings, I learn melodic phrasing by singing along with good songwriters. But when I tried to sing Nick’s song “Place To Be” I couldn’t do it. It seemed like such a simple song and yet, no matter what I did, I couldn’t anticipate where he was going to start singing the next phrase. Finally, I resorted to counting beats and suddenly everything opened up.
Most songwriters begin a melodic phrase near the first beat of a measure or as a pickup to the first beat. In blues songs, it’s often laid back onto Beat 2. But Nick usually starts on Beat 3, and often ends on Beat 3 as well. So, what you get is the sense of a melody connected to the chords in an unusual, floating way. It helps give his songs their ethereal, fluid quality. (You can also hear this on “Which Will,” “Pink Moon,” “Fruit Tree,” “Poor Boy,” “‘Cello Song,” and more.)
He gets the same effect in another way: he’ll often play chords in two-bar patterns then he’ll start singing a melodic phrase at the beginning of the second bar. This is the trick of “Place To Be.” Count this song in 3/4 time and notice how he changes chords every two bars but starts singing half way through those bars.
While we’re on the subject, I’d like to go on record as saying that “Place To Be” is, without question, the most complicated “simple” song I have ever heard. It seems so natural, direct, plain and unadorned, but don’t be fooled; it contains one of the most sophisticated examples of prosody to be found anywhere.
You will need just a bit more songwriting background to understand what Nick was doing. All chord progressions revolve around a ‘home base’ called the tonic chord. If the song is in the key of C, for instance, that would be a C chord. In the most basic song, the melody would begin on a C chord, progress through a couple other chords and end with a chord called a turnaround that leads straight back home to the C chord.
But “Place To Be” was written by someone who wants to tell us how lost he feels, how much he yearns to go home, to find a place to be. Before he has even finished the musical introduction, we are as lost as he is. He starts on the tonic (home chord), plays just those couple of chords that assure us we know where we are, then starts singing-actually begins the song-in the middle of the progression, in the middle of a two-bar phrase, in the middle of Nowhere. Suddenly you have that sensation of floating, of falling, and now he will take you home over and over, return to the tonic over and over, just to show you how good it feels, how much you want to go there, too."
What a classic!
Dude. I wanted to turn you off after the first 13 seconds of your video. The whole “I’m glad this is a short song. I don’t really want to be here. Take what you get.“ But then you went into it. And it was a really fantastic reaction. Why on earth would you do that?
It was more of a warning to set expectations properly given I wasn't feeling well more than a claim that I didn't want to be recording. I do apologize about that intro though since I can see how it could be interpreted negatively.
@@CriticalReactions You'd have been able to sing 'smelly cat' better than ever :)
@@muskett00 Had to look this up and I think this was a "Friends" skit? Pretty funny clip too.
your throat: 🐴
Simple but effective -- that got a good chuckle out of me 😄
what does “the melody doesn’t resolve “ mean? who are you? fricken mozart?
I feel like he explained it pretty clearly… did you listen? It’s a fairly simple idea.
@@j.prt.979 I believe the only point sR3affect has is the one their skull slopes to.
L take