"Pink moon". It is the name of a demon and, according to the lunars, a sign of doom. Whispered with a disconnected and almost childlike voice, it is instead the refrain of a folk tune, two minutes of gentle guitar, punctuated only for a few moments by a blinding moonbeam which is then a piano, melancholic and luminous that will not return. This, in fact, is track one and from two to eleven there is only voice and guitar.

Nick Drake recorded Pink Moon in 1972 at twenty-four years old. A prodigy boy, he had invested a large part of his mental energies into music and, pampered by Joe Boyd, one of the most intelligent producers of the time, had the opportunity to record two albums with the cream of the English folk/rock scene musicians. The result was a series of timeless songs, even if here and there weighed down by too baroque arrangements. Those records, albeit beautiful, sometimes give the impression of betraying the fragile and touching simplicity of his songs, for which it is almost always preferable, when it exists, the demo version for only voice and guitar. And this should not be surprising, because Nick, just like the great blues men of the past, made a single man of voice and guitar, so much so that many have written that there was something supernatural in this, an idea I find quite sensible, especially if one considers another of his gifts, which was creating such intimate and hypnotic atmospheres that it almost gave the impression to every single listener that he and he alone is the interlocutor of that voice and that guitar. A bit like what happens with certain movies, aided by the darkness of the theater, when you are without a girlfriend and without friends and the off-screen voice is only telling you its story. And of confidants, as everyone knows, one is enough, two are already too many. As are too many, returning to Nick, certain violins, or that damn jazzy saxophone that, just to give an example, defaces “At the chime of a city clock”, a wonderful song where Nick whispers that it's cold and one needs to get on their knees and pray for some warmth. Sure, there are cases where the arrangements are even successful, but most of the time the effect is that of annoying interference. Do not worry though, there is still plenty of magic in those records. My grievances are just quirks.

Magical records then, but it's not their time and they go almost unnoticed. Furthermore, Nick, affected by almost pathological sensitivity and shyness, cannot perform live. He tries, yes, but on stage he barely manages to mumble something without being able to look people in the face.
Not accustomed to the life of a big city like London, he gets lost and withdraws into himself until something breaks. So he returns to his parents convinced he has failed.
At home, the situation deteriorates with psychiatric visits, psychotropic drugs, a void that becomes total. Yet those from the record company continue, despite the absolutely unexpected failure, to pamper him. The boss, Chris Blackwell, gives Nick the keys to his apartment in Algesiras, Spain, hoping for a positive break from the usual patterns. It’s the beginning of summer and Nick leaves.
Upon returning in October, he calls John Wood, the record company’s sound engineer, saying he wants to record a new album. And John Wood says OK, also because he had a precise mandate, to record at any time anything Nick wanted. So they arrange for a night session.
Nick arrives and his appearance is spectral. He enters the studio and, eyes turned to the wall, records one after another the songs of Pink Moon. Then to a stunned Wood, he says that the songs are fine the way they are, only voice and guitar.
"No cotton wool and frills"
He will limit himself to adding the piano solo I have mentioned. That’s it.
In just two days Pink Moon is ready. The recordings of the previous records had lasted months and months.

In the end, one could say that in Pink Moon there is nothing but a guy singing and playing the guitar. And it is true in a certain sense. Also, keep in mind that when I listened to it the first time, I had no idea what the words meant. But the fact is that the words must come out well from the mouth, as someone said, and they must do nothing but convey a feeling. And the feeling is grasped even without translation.
Sure, with a few quotes from those sparse lyrics, such as “you see me, but I’m not here” "give me a place to stay" "I’ve grown old and I have to clean up," you perhaps get a clearer idea.
And my idea is this: Pink Moon is the album of the crossroads, of when you have to decide what to do and cannot tell lies, the junction, the intersection of wind-swept roads where according to the blues legend a benevolent deity protects you from the dark and helps you to make things clear in your mind, spelling the word destiny for you. And where the sacrificial pyre of past mistakes is made, and all those guitar flights are nothing but the sparks of fire. But all this is intuited even without understanding the meaning of the words.
Listen to the slightly disconnected, almost childlike voice, especially when compared to that of previous records. In the homonymous song, this effect is almost incredible, Nick doesn’t even seem able to pronounce the words well. "It’s as if a four-year-old child, while playing with some stones, suddenly received a message from Mars and began to repeat pink moon, pink moon, pink moon," says that someone again (who is then a very wise guy named Robyn Hitchcock).
Then comes that piano solo and it says it in another way, as if it was really a moonbeam entering suddenly through the window. But I don’t feel like being a music critic. So enough.
Let’s just say that the old Robyn compared Nick’s songs to butterflies, butterflies tied to an anchor. I say instead that his voice is the morning that sings the night. And that "Pink Moon" is a masterpiece, an absolute masterpiece.

Tracklist Lyrics and Videos

01   Pink Moon (02:06)

I saw it written and I saw it say
Pink moon is on its way
And none of you stand so tall
Pink moon gonna get you all
It's a pink moon
It's a pink, pink, pink, pink, pink moon...

02   Place to Be (02:43)

When I was young, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now I'm older see it face to face
And now I'm older gotta get up clean the place

And I was green, greener than the hill
Where flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now I'm darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be

And I was strong, strong inside
I thought I'd see when day was done
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you

03   Road (02:02)

You can say the sun is shining if you really want to
I can see the moon and it seems so clear
You can take the road that takes you to the stars now
I can take a road that'll see me through
I can take a road that'll see me through.

You can take a road that takes you to the stars now
I can take a road that'll see me through
I can take a road that'll see me through
I can take a road that'll see me through.

04   Which Will (02:58)

05   Horn (01:23)

Instrumental

06   Things Behind the Sun (03:57)

Please beware of them that stare
They'll only smile to see you while
Your time away
And once you've seen what they have been
To win the earth just won't seem worth
Your night or your day
Who'll hear what I say.
Look around you find the ground
Is not so far from where you are
But not too wise
For down below they never grow
They're always tired and charms are hired
From out of their eyes
Never surprise.

Take your time and you'll be fine
And say a prayer for people there
Who live on the floor
And if you see what's meant to be
Don't name the day or try to say
It happened before.

Don't be shy you learn to fly
And see the sun when day is done
If only you see
Just what you are beneath a star
That came to stay one rainy day
In autumn for free
Yes, be what you'll be.
Please beware of them that stare
They'll only smile to see you while
Your time away
And once you've seen what they have been
To win the earth just won't seem worth
Your night or your day
Who'll hear what I say.

Open up the broken cup
Let goodly sin and sunshine in
Yes that's today.
And open wide the hymns you hide
You find reknown while people frown
At things that you say
But say what you'll say
About the farmers and the fun
And the things behind the sun
And the people round your head
Who say everything's been said
And the movement in your brain
Sends you out into the rain.

07   Know (02:25)

08   Parasite (03:36)

When lifting the mask from a local clown
feeling down like him.
Seeing the light in a station bar and travelling far in sin.
Sailing downstairs to the Northern line
watching the shine of the shoes.
Hearing the trials of the people there
who's to care if they lose.

Take a look you might see me on the ground,
for I am the parasite of this town.

Dancing a jig in a church with chimes
a sign of the times today.
Hearing no bell from a steeple tall
people all in dismay.
Falling so far on a silver spoon
making the moon for fun.
Changing a robe for a size to small
people all get hung.

Take a look you might see me coming through,
for I am the parasite who travels two by two.

Lifting the mask from a local clown
feeling down again.
Seeing the light in a station bar
and travelling far in sin.
Sailing downstairs to the Northern line
watching the shine of the shoes.
Hearing the trials of the people there
who's to care if they lose.

Take a look you might see me on the ground,
for I am the parasite of this town.
Take a look you might see me in the dirt,
for I am the parasite who hangs from your skirt.

09   Free Ride (03:06)

10   Harvest Breed (01:37)

Falling fast and falling free you look to find a friend
Falling fast and falling free this could just be the end
Falling fast you stoop to touch and kiss the flowers that bend
And you're ready now
For the harvest breed

11   From the Morning (02:32)

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Other reviews

By zaireeka

 Listening is not enough.

 I listen to Pink Moon and embark on a journey at the end of my little night.


By joe strummer

 Nick’s voice penetrated my heart to touch the deepest strings of my soul, it motivated me immensely.

 This album has made my life less trivial, less flat and gray.


By maxgit

 "'Pink Moon' is the story of a defeat but also represents a victory."

 The image is one of free fall, into the void, without a parachute. But there’s no pain, no suffering, you simply let yourself be carried away.


By Louis

 I recognize that fantastically acoustic guitar, that familiar and unknown voice, beautiful and dangerous, perhaps the right thing at the wrong time?

 Tears are the blood of the soul.


By Frank Bermuda

 "Pink Moon is just like a sad phone call that goes deep inside you and injects you with a form of profound melancholy."

 "Nick Drake is the almost extinguished ember burning in the coal of a fireplace, but that will never fully go out."