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9:24 PM
The night has stretched its weary gaze across the world as I turn on my stereo.
Nick Drake, "Way To Blue."
The spiral staircase wraps around my thoughts, between the pages of a book.
"And then the man whom Pain called his friend sought the shore again, and found a shell (...)
And sang softly beside the pearly edge:
but the sad dweller of the lonely sea paths
changed all her song into a confused lament
in the whirl of her coils, forgetting it.
W. B. Yeats
9:59 PM
Nick Drake was not a sad person, it's the hindsight of posterity that painted him that way.
He loved life, more or less like everyone else.
It was not his dream to become a mirror to pass through.
A mirror through which, as in Lewis Carroll, those who wanted could leave all their sadness and return to the real world rejuvenated.
10:21 PM
My favorite piece from this album is perhaps "Thoughts Of Mary Jane" (the draft version on the celebratory album "Made To Love Magic" is also very beautiful).
Thoughts are everything in the world, the only place where one remains alone in the company of the entire universe.
11:04 PM
Nick Drake knew how to put the universe into music, the real one and the "imaginary" one, under sweet blankets of notes called "Fruit Tree," "Day is Done," "Three Hours."
That he then decided to leave was only because he was tired enough to know the rest.
11:59 PM
Far away, the tugboat whistled; its call passed the bridge, one more arch, another, the lock, another bridge, far, farther away....
It called to itself all the river barges, all, and the whole city, and the sky and the countryside, and us, it carried everything away, even the Seine, everything, let there be no more talk of it.
L.F. Celine
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Time Has Told Me (04:27)
Time has told me
You're a rare rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind
And time has told me
Not to ask for more
Someday our ocean
Will find its shore
So I`ll leave the ways that are making me be
What I really don't want to be
Leave the ways that are making me love
What I really don't want to love
Time has told me
You came with the dawn
A soul with no footprint
A rose with no thorn
Your tears they tell me
There's really no way
Of ending your troubles
With things you can say
And time will tell you
To stay by my side
To keep on trying
'til there's no more to hide
So leave the ways that are making you be
What you really don't want to be
Leave the ways that are making you love
What you really don't want to love
Time has told me
You're a rare rare find
A troubled cure
For a troubled mind
And time has told me
Not to ask for more
For some day our ocean
Will find its shore
02 River Man (04:21)
Betty came by on her way
Said she had a word to say
About things today
And fallen leaves.
Said she hadn't heard the news
Hadn't had the time to choose
A way to lose
But she believes.
Going to see the river man
Going to tell him all I can
About the plan
For lilac time.
If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows
And all night shows
In summertime.
Betty said she prayed today
For the sky to blow away
Or maybe stay
She wasn't sure.
For when she thought of summer rain
Calling for her mind again
She lost the pain
And stayed for more.
Going to see the river man
Going to tell him all I can
About the ban
On feeling free.
If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows
I don't suppose
It's meant for me.
Oh, how they come and go
Oh, how they come and go.
03 Three Hours (06:16)
Three hours from sundown
Jeremy flies
Hoping to keep
The sun from his eyes
East from the city
And down to the cave
In search of a master
In search of a slave
Three hours from London
Jacomo's free
Taking his woes
Down to the sea
In search of a lifetime
To tell when he's home
In search of a story
That's never been known
Three hours from speaking
Everyone's flown
Not wanting to be
Seen on their own
Three hours is needed
To leave from them all
Three hours to wonder
And three hours to fall
Three hours from sundown
Jeremy flies
Hoping to keep
The sun from his eyes
East from the city
And down to the cave
In search for a master
In search for a slave
04 Way to Blue (03:11)
Don't you have a word to show what may be done
Have you never heard a way to find the sun
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won't you come and say
If you know the way to blue?
Have you seen the land living by the breeze
Can you understand a light among the trees
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today
If you know the way to blue?
Look through time and find your rhyme
Tell us what you find
We will wait at your gate
Hoping like the blind.
Can you now recall all that you have known?
Will you never fall
When the light has flown?
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won't you come and say
If you know the way to blue?
05 Day Is Done (02:29)
When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.
When the day is done
Hope so much your race will be all run
Then you find you jumped the gun
Have to go back where you began
When the day is done.
When the night is cold
Some get by but some get old
Just to show life's not made of gold
When the night is cold.
When the bird has flown
Got no-one to call your own
Got no place to call your home
When the bird has flown.
When the game's been fought
You speed the ball across the court
Lost much sooner than you would have thought
Now the game's been fought.
When the party's through
Seems so very sad for you
Didn't do the things you meant to do
Now there's no time to start anew
Now the party's through.
When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.
09 Fruit Tree (04:50)
Fame is but a fruit tree
So very unsound
It can never flourish
Till its stalk is in the ground
So men of fame
Can never find a way
Till time has flown
Far from their dying day
Forgotten while you're here
Remembered for a while
A much updated rain
From a much updated style
Life is but a memory
Happened long ago
Theatre full of sadness
For a long forgotten show
Seems so easy
Just to let it go on by
Till you stop and wonder
Why you never wondered why
Safe in a womb of an everlasting night
You find the darkness can give the brightest light
Safe in your place deep in the earth
That's when they'll know
What you are really worth
Forgotten while you're here
Remembered for a while
A much updated rain
From a much updated style
Fame is but a fruit tree
So very unsound
It can never flourish
Till its stalk is in the ground
So men of fame can never find a way
Till time has flown far from their dying day
Fruit tree
Fruit tree
No one knows you but the rain and the air
Don't you worry
They'll stand and stare when you're gone
Fruit tree
Fruit tree
Open your eyes to another year
They will know that you were here
when you are gone
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Other reviews
By francis
"Unlike Dylan, Drake doesn’t want to impose himself as an 'engaged' protest singer; his music speaks from the heart."
"His voice shines over the small orchestra like a comet in a starry night at the North Pole."
By luludia
The voice comes from immeasurable distances, telling the story of a wandering girl and a mysterious river man.
"River Man," a gentle guitar, a bossa nova voice from the deep, with strings that arrive like a kiss, like a caress to a desolate child.
