Pink Moon [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Nick Drake

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 8, 1992)
• Original Release Date: 1972
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B00000064G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (280 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,726 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #6 in	Music > Indie Music > Folk > Folk Rock
  #49 in	Music > Folk > Traditional British & Celtic Folk > British Folk
  #76 in	Music > Pop > Oldies > Baroque Pop

Track Listings

1. Pink Moon

2. Place To Be

3. Road

4. Which Will

5. Horn

6. Things Behind The Sun

7. Know

8. Parasite

9. Ride

10. Harvest Breed

11. From The Morning

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pink Moon is the sound of Nick Drake cracking up. That's not exactly true--some have long thought that his death by an overdose of an anti-depressant was an accident, and not suicide--but this album, recorded over two late nights, certainly sounds like a fever dream. Peter Buck of R.E.M. has called the album "Like an English version of (Robert Johnson's great blues) `Hellhound on My Trail.'" The lyrics to the title song read in their entirety: "Saw it written and I saw it say, pink moon is on its way. None of you will stand so tall, pink moon is gonna get ye all. And it's a pink moon." Aside from a splash of piano, the only instrumentation on this stark and spooky collection is Drake's eloquent acoustic guitar. --John Milward

Product Description

Heavyweight 180 gram virgin vinyl LP reissue of this 1972 album. Nick Drake's third and final album, many consider to be his finest moment, was a radical departure from his previous work, stripped of the lush orchestral arrangements, Pink Moon featured Drake alone on vocals, acoustic guitar and the occasional piano accompaniment. This starkness was matched in brevity, with Pink Moon consisting of 11 short songs coming to less than half-an-hour of music. Though critically well received at the time, commercial success did not arrive till nearly 30 years later, when 30 seconds of 'Pink Moon' was used in a Volkswagen commercial. 2009. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocked to see Pink Moon in a VW Cabrio ad, December 9, 1999

By A Customer

To my surprise recently I saw the VW Cabrio ad with Nick Drake singing "Pink Moon". I thought, "Wow, great! More people getting turned on to Nick Drake's music, I hope!"

Each Nick Drake album is a little different, but each is fulfilling in its own way. If you enjoy this release then you will definitely want the Fruit Tree boxed set which compiled all three of his studio albums plus a fourth CD of extra tracks. It is well worth the money spent, trust me.

Pink Moon itself is way stark. Just the man and his acoustic guitar (with a touch of piano on the title track). But the songs themselves, the minute you hear them (and it's only 29 minutes of them on this album), they sound like you've heard them before.

If you're into old REM you'll see in a few of these tracks how they were influenced.

If you enjoy this release, you may want to check out Elliott Smith's releases, especially his album "XO". It is in a similar vein to Nick Drake.

139 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nick Drake sings songs and plays guitar on his final album, January 17, 2004

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Pink Moon (Audio CD)

In the throes of a depression that would see him dead at the age of 26 from an overdose of anti-depression medication, Nick Drake still managed to produce his last album, "Pink Moon." Unlike his first two efforts, which consisted of orchestrated folk-pop music, this 1972 album was just Drake playing his acoustic guitar and singing (with a bit of piano here and there). The result is a bleak testament to melancholy and alienation that has a haunting and pristine beauty. There are only eleven songs, most of which are under three minutes in length, which is why the album is not even a half-hour long, but there is a sense in which anything longer would be too much to bear. "Pink Moon," by itself, justifies Drake's status as a cult figure among those who love folk-rock.

Ironically, you have probably hear Nick Drake's music before, because the title track was used for a Volkswaggen commercial, just another example of how music is perverted to commercial interests (what else is new?). I have been spending the cold winter putting together mixes of folk music (in the broadest sense) and making a concerted effort to get beyond Bob Dylan and the Byrds to explore the likes of Sandy Denny and the Beau Brummels. Checking out Sandy Denny led me to Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson, and eventually to Ralph McTell and Nick Drake. Now I can only wonder what rock I have been living under that I have never come across these artists before.

The title track is a beautiful folk ballad, performed with just Drake's superb acoustic guitar playing and haunting vocal. Throughout the album you notice the depth of his lyrics and his guitar playing. The latter might have been lost in an album with orchestration, but here you have the opportunity to listen to the openings of "Radio" and "Parasite" unadorned. For the former a choice example would be the opening of what is probably the best song on the album (it is hard to choose), "Which Will," which begins: "Which will you go for/Which will you love/Which will you choose from/From the stars above?" There is a simple elegance to the lyrics, captured by the vocals, and complimented by the more complex guitar playing.

Nick Drake only produced three albums, so there is no reason not to have all of them in your music library. These works represent the very best of the British folk-rock scene and Drake is a first rate singer-songwriter whose songs of failed romance, mortality, and depression are quite affective. Drake intended "Pink Moon" to be his final album, saying he had nothing left to record. When you lose yourself listening to these songs, you can actually convince yourself that this was true.

149 of 162 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drake finally gets the success his music so deserved, June 11, 2000

By	Tom Tom "Tom" (Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

I acquired this album from a friend about 6 months before VW decided to use the title track in their Cabrio commercial. I found it amazing that almost no-one had heard of Nick Drake, prior to the VW ad that is. The cd is 28 minutes or so, and it is purely amazing, just a wonderful way to pass half an hour of time. Most of the songs on Pink Moon are played in alternate tunings which account for their somewhat "different" sound. The cd has a very simple and clean feel to it, likely because it is merely Nick on acoustic guitar with occasional piano parts. So if you're into acoustic guitar music, you should like this album. Overall I find Pink Moon very peaceful, nice to relax to. Just sit back in your recliner, close your eyes, and really *listen*. To me it's mind-boggling that his music has been overlooked for more than 25 years. It's a shame Nick didn't live to see the success of his music.