anor Pink Moon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pink Moon is the third and final studio album by the English folk musician Nick Drake, released in the UK by Island Records on 25 February 1972.21 It was the only one of Drake's studio albums to be released in North America during his lifetime: the only previous release there had been a 1971 compilation simply entitled Nick Drake featuring tracks from both his first two albums, which were not released in North America in their original forms until 1976. Pink Moon differs from Drake's previous albums in that it was recorded without a backing band, featuring just Drake on vocals, acoustic guitar and a brief piano riff overdubbed onto the title track Released two years before Drake's death in November 1974, at the age of twenty-six, the lyrical content of Pink Moon has often been attributed to Drake's ongoing battle with depression.) The songs are shorter than on his previous albums, with a total album. running time of just over twenty-eight minutes. Pink Moon, like Drake's previous studio albums, did not sell well while he was still living but has since gained in critical acclaim and record sales, Contents Background Recording Artwork Reception and legacy = 4.1 Accolades = 4.2 1999 Volkswagen Cabriolet advertisement 5 Track listing 6 Personnel 7 Release history 8 9 References External links Background Pink Moon Wikipedia Pink Moon Studio album by Nick Drake Released 25 February 1972 Recorded 30-31 October 1971 at Sound Techniques, London Genre Folk, acoustic Length 28:22 Label Island Producer John Wood Nick Drake chronology Pink Moon «as72y Fruit Tree (1979) Bryter Layter «ag7o0yl4) Nick Drake's first two albums with Island Records, Five Leaves Left (1969) and Bryter Layter (1970), had sold poorly, and combined with Drake's reluctance to perform live or engage in album promotion, Island was not confident of another album from Drake.!*) Additionally, Drake had isolated himself in his London apartment and was suffering from depression, In 1971 he saw a psychiatrist and was prescribed antidepressants which he was reluctant to take due to the stigma associated with depression and his fears concerning the medication's interaction with marijuana, which he smoked regularly.) Although critics often associate Drake's music, and especially the hipven wikipedia. orgwikiPink_ Moon veanno? Pik Moon - Wikipeda perceived melancholy of Pink Moon, with his depression, Cally Calloman of Bryter Music, which manages Drake's estate, remembers it differently: "Nick was incapable of writing and recording while he was suffering from periods of depression. He was not depressed during the writing or recording of Pink Moon and was immensely proud of the album."!4! After facing disappointment with various aspects of his first two albums, Drake sought a more organic sound with Pink Moon. Recording Drake appeared to have made a decision before recording his, third album that it would be as plain as possible and free of the numerous guest musicians that had been employed on Bryter ~ _ Layter. In his autobiography Joe Boyd, producer of Drake's MQ _BBC Radio 2 documentary from 2004 first two albums, remembered that as they were finishing the —) wih John Wood ene ee recording of Bryter Layter Drake had told him that he wanted of recorcing Pink Moon. to make his next record alone,!®l and in his only interview, published in Sounds magazine in March 1971, Drake told interviewer Jerry Gilbert that "for the next [album] I had the idea of just doing something with John Wood, the engineer at Sound Techniques".!7] "Pink Moon Recording" 000 MENU Problems playing this file? See media help. After a brief hiatus in Spain spent at a villa belonging to Island Records' head, Chris Blackwell,!*! Drake returned to London refreshed, and in October 1971 approached record engineer and producer John Wood.!"] Wood had worked with Drake on his previous two albums and was one of the few people Drake felt he could trust. Wood has worked with other artists such as Fairport Convention, Cat Stevens, and Pink Floyd, and he often worked in partnership with record producer Joe Boyd. Boyd produced Drake's first two albums with Wood acting as sound engineer, Although Wood primarily focused on the engineering of an album, he often contributed as a producer. When Drake reached out to Wood in 1971 expressing his interest in recording another album, the ensuing process was significantly pared down compared to Drake's other two albums. The album was recorded at Sound Techniques studio in London in late October 1971 with just Drake and Wood present"! The studio was booked during the day, so Drake and Wood arrived around 11:00 p.m. and simply and quietly recorded half the songs. The next night, they did the same. In only two late night sessions, with just his voice and acoustic guitar, Drake created what is considered by many to be one of the "most influential folk albums of all time"l'01 Contrary to popular legend that Drake dropped the album off in a plastic bag at Island Records' reception and then left without anyone realising, Drake delivered the master tapes of Pink Moon to Chris Blackwell at Island.! In an interview for the Nick Drake fanzine Pynk Moon in 1996, Island's press officer David Sandison recalled that Drake's arrival at the record company had certainly not gone unnoticed, although there had been no indication that he was delivering them a new album: “I saw him in reception after I came back from lunch and I was talking to somebody and I saw a figure in the comer on the bench, and I suddenly realized it was Nick. He had this big, 15 ips [inches per second] master tape box under his arm, and I said ‘Have you had a cup of tea” and he said 'Erm, yes’, and I said 'Do you want to come upstairs” and he said "Yes, okay’. So we went upstairs into my offi which was on top of the landing, it was a landing that went into the big office with a huge round table where Chris and everybody else worked—very democratic—and there was a big Reevox (sic) and sound system there, and he just sat in my office area for about half an hour ... After about half an hour he said Td better be going’, and I said ‘Okay, nice to see you’, and he lef, Now, he went down the stairs and he still had the tapes under his arm, and about an hour later the girl who worked behind the front desk called up and said 'Nick's left his tapes behind’. So I went down and it was the big sixteen- tpn wikpedaorgwikiPink Moon 28anno? Pik Moon - Wikipeda track master tape and it said NICK DRAKE PINK MOON, and I thought ‘that's not an album I know’. The first thing to do was get it in the studio to make a seven and a half inch safety copy, because that was the master. So we ran off a safety copy to actually play, and I think twenty four hours later or so, it ‘was put on the Reevox in the main room and we heard Pink Moon."|!!) The tapes of the Pink Moon session also included Drake's recording of *Plaisir d'amour" (translated from French as "The Pleasure of Love"), a classical French love song written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Fgide Martini, Although "Plaisir d'amour" was on the track listing of the Pink Moon master tape box as the first track of Side Two, when the tapes were presented they included a note in reference to the song which read, "Spare title - Do not use",(!2] so the song didn't make it onto the album. The recording was less than a minute long, featured guitar with no vocals, and was eventually included as a hidden track on UK editions of the Nick Drake compilation A Treasury (2004). Had "Plaisir d'amour" been included on the Pink Moon album, it would have been the only song on any of his albums that Nick Drake did not write himself. Artwork Keith Mortis was the photographer who took Drake's photo for the cover of Bryter Layter (1970) and he was commissioned to photograph Drake for the cover of Pink Moon. However, the photos were not used as Drake's rapidly deteriorating appearance, hunched figure and blank expression were not considered good selling points. Island's creative director Annie Sullivan, who oversaw the shoot, recalled the difficulty in making a decision around the cover of the LP: "I remember going to talk to [Nick], and he just sat there, hunched up, and even though he didn't speak, I knew the album was called Pink Moon, and I can't remember how he conveyed it, whether he wrote it down ... he wanted a pink moon. He couldn't tell me what he wanted, but I had 'pink moon’ to go on."{41 Island picked a piece of surrealist Dali-esque art by Michael Trevithick, who was incidentally a friend of Drake's sister Gabrielle. Although Drake was not outspoken in his opinion on the cover art of Pink Moon, many close to him felt that he approved. David Sandison stated that he found the original framed artwork for Pink Moon in among the debris of the basement room that Island later allocated to him as his office, and he took it home and hung it on the wall of his house for several years, before eventually presenting it to Drake's parents{"'] An undated photo of Drake's music room at his parents’ house in Tanworth-in-Arden shows what appears to be the artwork hanging on the wall. Reception and legacy Island Records launched an unusual promotional campaign for the initial release of Pink Moon. They spent the entire promotional budget on full-page advertisements in all major music magazines the month of the record’s release. Initially, Pink Moon garnered a small amount of critical attention. Jerry Gilbert, who had conducted the only known interview with Drake the previous year, wrote the first review of Pink Moon; he was not impressed. Writing in Sounds in March 1972, Gilbert stated that, "The album consists entirely of Nick's guitar, voice and piano and features all the usual characteristics without ever matching up to Bryter Layter. One has to accept that Nick's songs necessarily require further augmentation, for whilst his own accompaniments are good the songs are not sufficiently strong to stand up without any embroidery at all. ‘Things Behind The Sun’ makes it, so does 'Parasite! — but maybe it's time Mr. Drake stopped acting so mysteriously and started getting something properly organised for himself."22] Another early review was written by critic Mark Plummer and appeared in Melody Maker in May 1972. Plummer appreciated the music, but was distracted by Drake's growing ascetic mythology: "His music is so personal and shyly presented both lyrically and in his confined guitar and piano playing that neither does nor doesn't come over ... The more you listen to Drake though, the more compelling his music becomes — but all the tpn wikpetaorgwikiPink Moon 38anor Pink Moon Wikipedia time it hides f 0 time it hides from you. On Professional ratings hag) "Things Behind The Sun’, he sings to me, embarrassed and Review scores shy. Perhaps one should play his Source Rating albums with the sound off and wt , just look at the cover and make Imusic deci the musie in your head reciting | Melody Maker average his words from inside the cover to your own rhythmic heart rhymes ... It could be that Nick ° eee ce (2000 reissue}l"7 e 5 QI TUNER] Drake docs not exist a all" Mojo very favourable (200 reissue) br Ww Stephen Holden, in a more hg enthusiastic review for Rolling Pitchfork Media toto) DEN TAR stone magazine, said "the beauty n 2 “fete te (1990 reissue] Rolling Stone ) of Drake's voice is its own ia docs! Full page advertisement of ‘justification. May it become Rolling Stone etek (2008 reissue)?! the release of Pink Moon 81 familiar to-us al. "71 Sounds tour By the time of the album's reissues on compact dise in the 1990s and 2000s, Drake's fame and critical standing had improved considerably, and legacy reviews of the album were overwhelmingly favourable. Q's review of the 1990 reissue noted that "the mood is even more remote [than Drake's first two albums] with—finally—a defeated strain in both throat and words, but several of his most elegant melodies".!'*] The review of the 2000 reissue in the same magazine was more positive still, claiming that "many hold up Pink Moon as Nick Drake's best album" and saying, "The motivation of success had evaporated and Drake made a record so singular and uncompromising that, superficially, it beggars belief ... The truth is that Pink Moon's excellence shines through, irrespective of the endless speculation [regarding Drake's frame of mind during the making of the record and subsequent death]. Few records have ever sounded so intimate, or embodied the eternal human ailment known as Melancholy with such grace and assurance."('7] Mojo claimed that "Pink Moon is his masterpiece and the Robert Johnson comparisons are fully deserved".!"8 Reviewing the 2003 North American reissue, Rolling Stone said, "The album unleashes a dramatic starkness and some breathtakingly pretty music”.?!] Accolades In the 2000s, Pink Moon was critically lauded, making it to the Melody Maker "All Time Top 100 Albums" as number 48.75] In 2003, the album was ranked number 320 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.!?4! In 2012, that ranking was revised to number 321,251 American singer Meshell Ndegeocello recorded a cover of the title track "Pink Moon" for the album Time of No Reply by Misja Fitzgerald. The American indie band, Sebadoh, has also covered "Pink Moon", which appears on their album Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock. Lucinda Williams covered "Which Will" on her 1992 album Sweet Old World. 1999 Volkswagen Cabriolet advertisement On 11 November 1999 Volkswagen announced that it was debuting, for the first time, a television advertisement on the internet. The campaign, named "Milky Way", featured the Volkswagen Cabriolet with the title track of Pink Moon as the soundtrack. Ron Lawner, Chief Creative Officer of Amold Communications stated in the press release, "The song is very special. It's an old song by a guy named Nick Drake. It's called 'Pink Moon' and is ipven wikipedia. orglwikiPink_ Moon 48aar017 Pik Moon - Wikipeda actually a very good introduction to Nick Drake if you're not familiar with him, It's very transporting. And to us seemed very fitting for a beautiful drive in the country on a very special night."5l The Volkswagen Cabriolet commercial, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and filmed by Lance Acord, led to a large increase in record sales,271 and a number-five placing for Pink Moon in Amazon.com's sales chart.”8] The VW and "Pink Moon" pairing marked a new step in advertising. Bethany Klein, a professor in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Central England states, "The role of Pink Moon' in the suecess of "Milky Way" was interesting, in that it both added to the artistry of the commercial and was also protected by the visual artistry of the spot: because the ad ‘worked! (it was an aesthetic success) the usual negative discourse surrounding the use of popular music in advertising was, if not stopped, at least reduced and accompanied by positive appraisals ... The linking together of the ad being a ‘watershed! and being ‘nicely done' is no coincidence; it is because the ad is so well executed and so aesthetically successful that the industry and the public reassessed the use of music in advertising around this example."°] In 2001, Volkswagen honored the music and advertising pairings they had made over the years by giving all new Volkswagen Cabrio buyers a compilation CD which featured "Pink Moon" as the first track. Promotional CD given to buyers of a VW in 2001 Track listing All songs written and composed by Nick Drake Side one No. Title 1. "Pink Moon" 2. "Place to Be" 3. "Road" 4. "Which Will” 5. "Hom" 6. "Things Behind the Sun" Side two No. Title Length 7. "Know" 2:26 8. "Parasite" 3:36 9. "Free Ride" 3:06 10, "Harvest Breed" 137 11. "From the Morning" 2:30 28:22 Personnel All personnel credits adapted from the album's liner notes.!2°1 Performer ipven wikipedia. orglwikiPink_ Moon 56anor Pink Moon Wikipedia = Nick Drake— vocals, acoustic guitar, piano (1) Production = John Wood — producer, engineer Design personnel = Michael Trevithick — artwork = Keith Morris - photography = C.CS. Associates — typography Release history Region | Year | Label | Format 25 pated sm February ecom 1972 LP United Stace 1972, Island United ‘Kingdom Spal & Europe cD United (22 June | Hannibal States 1992 Records United Kingdom 26lune aE 2000 ‘urope remastered United oD States 6 May 2003 Canada sland United Kingdom jaMay i gram ‘& Europe 3 12 Remastered Worldwide November LP box act 2012 vor set References Catalog ILPS 9184 SMAS 9318 IMCD 94/842 923-2 HINCD 4436 IMCD 94/842 923-2 422 842 923-2 4228429232 1745697 0602537134335 Notes Re-pressed 1976, 1978 and 1989 with different Island Records logos Original CD release as part of the Island Masters series CD reissue as part of the Island Masters series, now labelled "Island Re-Masters”, with additional slip cover and original label reprint on the CD re-pressed 18 November 2013 Drake, Gabrielle, Nick Drake: Remembered For A While, Little, Brown and Company, 2014, 2. Humphries, Patrick (1998). Nick Drake: The Biography. London, England: Bloomsbury. p. 174, ISBN 978-0-7475-3503- 4 ISBN 978-0-306-81520-1 Dann, Trevor (2006). Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake. London, England: Da Capo Press. 4. Petrusich, Amanda (2007). Pink Moon, Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-8264-2790-8. 5. "BBC Radio 2 ~ Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". Archive.org, 22 May 2004. Retrieved 23 November 2013. ipven wikipedia. orglwikiPink_ Moonaar017 Pink Moon Wikipeda 6. Boyd, Joe (2006). White Bicyeles ~ Making Music in the 1960s. London, England: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 978-1-84765- 216-4. 7. Gilbert, Jerry (13 March 1971). "Something else for Nick?". Sounds. London, England: United Newspapers, 8. Brown, Mick (12 July 1997). "The sad ballad of Nick Drake". The Daily Telegraph. London, England: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 19 November 2013. 9, MacDonald, Ian (January 2000). "Exiled from Heaven", Mojo, London, England: EMAP (74): 32-47. Retrieved 19 November 2013. 10, Silva, Jared (16 February 2011). "Second Look: Nick Drake ~ Pink Moon". www: beatsperminute.com. Retrieved 19 November 2013. 11. Creed, Jason (24 June 1996). "Interview with David Sandison”. Pynk Moon fanzine (6). Reproduced in Humphries (1998). 12. "Pink Moon Master Tape Box". www. freecovers.net. 24 October 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2013. 13. "40 Years Ago This Week: Nick Drake's Pink Moon Released". Blogspot.com. 27 February 2012, Retrieved 11 November 2013. 14, Raggett, Ned. "Pink Moon - Nick Drake : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic". Allmusic, Retrieved 27 January 2014 15. Plummer, Mark (1 May 1972). "Review: Nick Drake — Pink Moon", Melody Maker. London, England: IPC Media, 16. Aston, Martin (August 1990). "Review: Nick Drake ~ Pink Moon". Q. EMAP (47): 111 17. Harris, John (August 2000). "Review: Nick Drake — Pink Moon". Q. EMAP (167): 112-13, 18. Chapman, Rob (July 2000). "Review: Nick Drake ~ Pink Moon". Mojo. EMAP (80): 99. 19. Greene, Jayson (22 January 2014). "Nick Drake: Tuck Box : Album Reviews : Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved 27 January 2014. 20, DeCurtis, Anthony (17 February 2000). "Review: Nick Drake — Pink Moon" Rolling Stone. New York City, USA: Wenner Media LLC. Retrieved 14 August 2013. 21. Hunter, James (15 May 2003). "Review: Nick Drake ~ Pink Moon". Rolling Stone. New York City, USA: Wenner Media LLC (922): 136, 22. Gilbert, Jerry (25 March 1972). "Review: Nick Drake — Pink Moon’. Sounds. London, England: United Newspapers. 23. All Time Top 100 Albums. Melody Maker. Loniion, England: IPC Media. 5 January 2000. 24, "Nick Drake, 'Pink Moon'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 19 November 2013. 25. Wenner, Jann S. (ed.) (2012). The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. New York City, USA: Wenner Media. ISBN 978-7- 09-893419-6. 26.""Milky Way’ is the First Volkswagen Ad to Launch on Web Sneak Preview on the Internet Prior to National Broadcast" Volkswagen of America. 11 November 1999, Retrieved 13 November 2013. 27. Drake, Nick (16 July 2006). "Nick Drake: You're Nicked”, The Independent. London, England: Independent Print Limited. Retrieved 19 November 2013, 28. "Rock Star Back from the Dead”. The Birmingham Post (UK). 7 April 2000, 29. Klein, Bethany (2010). As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-4094-0764-5. 30. Pink Moon (LP). Nick Drake, Island Records. 1972. ILPS 9184, External links = Pink Moon (hitps://musicbrainz.org/release/c356465b-656b-4081-b474-dda0d08018a5) at MusicBrainz. = VW Cabrio commercial (article + video) (http://creativity-online.com/work/volkswagen-milky-way/6922) Retrieved from "https://en. wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title-Pink_Moon&oldid=768136882" Categories: Nick Drake albums | 1972 albums | Island Records albums Albums produced by John Wood (record producer) | English-language albums = This page was last modified on 2 March 2017, at 00:42. = Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark ipven wikipedia. orglwikiPink_ Moon 78