Nick Drake's Pink Moon (33 1/3) (Paperback)

by Amanda Petrusich (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The backside of Nick Drake's headstone, wedged deep into the earth of an English parish church graveyard, reads: "Now we rise and we are everywhere." The words were penned by Drake in 1974; 30 years later, they are jarringly prophetic. Like nearly all prematurely buried cult figures, Nick Drake is reinvented each time he is rediscovered. In 2000, the sheepish, astral musings of "Pink Moon" became synonymous with backing a Volkswagen Cabrio convertible away from a raucous house party, as VW boldly sold American drivers on the notion of eschewing red plastic cups and bro-hugs for moonbeams and tree trunks (and a cute German car - sort of). The Cabrio ad inadvertently sparked an unlikely boost in record sales, propelling the album towards platinum status nearly 28 years after its release. But with each well-intentioned revival of interest, Nick Drake slips further and further out of reach, martyred and codified, superceded and consumed by his own tragic context. Since his controversial death in 1974, Nick Drake has become: the 26-year-old prophet, the diffident enigma, the tortured precursor to Kurt Cobain, the fallen hero, the folksinger-as-folksymbol, the self-sacrificing patron saint of lonely, disaffected teenagers - the One who died for our sins.

Like dog-eared, over-highlighted copies of On The Road, Pink Moon gets passed around, shuffled from friend to friend like a secret, and whispered into pillows. There is something about the humility of Pink Moon - its unassuming twenty-eight minute playtime, the modest timbre of Drake's whispers, the unrecognizable open tunings, the way you always find yourself inching closer to your stereo speakers, trying to climb inside this record, to feed off its weird warmth - that endures.

This book will explore how a tiny acoustic record has puttered and purred its way into a new millennium. Amanda Petrusich interviews producer Joe Boyd, string arranger Robert Kirby, and even the marketing team behind the VW commercial.

About the Author
Amanda Petrusich is a Contributing Editor for Paste magazine and also writes regularly for Spin and the Village Voice. Her first book, It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music, will be published by Faber/FSG. She lives in Brooklyn, USA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826427901
• ISBN-13: 978-0826427908
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #421,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Thirty Three and a Third Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, unusual focus on Drake, February 17, 2008

By	Phil the Hypothetical "musiclover44" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This was an enjoyable and suprisingly informative entry in the 33 1/3 series. I agree with the other reviewer on here that the in-between-chapter quotes from musicians and songwriters were a bit superfluous, and over half of them I had never heard of. Those bits of the book seemed like padding to me. The author seems to have opted to devote a good chunk of the book to the story behind the Volkswagon advert from a few years ago, and that's the part of the book that really impressed me. I don't think the author was going to dig up too much new information about Nick or the recording of this great album, so she focused instead on the album's resurrection due to the ad. This came across as very compelling - I have never read such an in-depth account of how TV advertising works, and how people choose the music to go in them. The author talks to the people at the ad agency, and the directors who made the commercial (the people behind Little Miss Sunshine a few years later!) and you get the sense that these people all really care about Nick's music, too. So, in summary, an unusual book but well worth reading in my opinion.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read with new angle on Drake, June 26, 2008

By	Will O'Brien (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

The Nick Drake story has been told already. If you want a straight bio go buy the Patrick Humphries book. Really the most interesting thing about Drake that hasn't been covered is the VW stuff and it's definitely the highlight of the book. The commercial turned an entire generation of music fans onto Drake (including myself) and I really appreciated the author's recognition and analysis of the whole commercial phenomenon. The quotes in between chapters don't add much, but the book was a refreshing change from most Drake coverage in the past few years.

2.0 out of 5 stars Dull "Moon", May 3, 2008

By	Jay Murphy "Jay Thing" (Landover Hills, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While I'll give credit to Ms. Petrusich for the first two thirds of the book for providing insight into Drake's personality, his addictions and his inability to sell records even though his music frequently went way beyond brilliant. She discusses all of his other albums briefly, which I liked about this book. What I didn't like so much were the celebri-nots' musings on "Pink "Moon" in between chapters and the last third of the book describing every last detail of the VW ad. Just a friendly warning.