I’m listening to the Pink Moon album at the moment.
I can’t believe one person could be so damned talented. The innovation in guitar technique; the beautiful interplay between the lyrics, tune and guitar work; the indefinable haunting quality of the entire thing.
Amazing.
Yes. Thank goodness someone at Volkswagen’s ad agency has good taste in music.
–Cliffy
Nick Drake fans have had it hard recently. We had to suffer through a freaking car commercial that used “Pink Moon”. You’ve probably seen it. They’re driving to a party in the woods in a convertible and PM is playing. Now, what I want to know is: Who sold the rights to this song? Don’t his parents own the rights?
Cliffy just pre-empted my post…
As much as I love Belle and Sebastian, it’s hard for me to think of them as anything other than a Nick Drake tribute band. I am so in love with Nick Drake I wanna marry him.
Nick Drake is one of the few artists who produced a perfect body of work - I don’t think I can fault any of the songs on any of his records. I just love them all.
Parasite is my favorite song right now.
‘Boo hoo. VW ruined Nick and now everyone knows about him. If anyone else wants to ruin my life, I’ll be in my room, burning incense and writing crappy poetry.’
Yeah, it’s a real shame that a lot of people were introduced to Drake’s amazing music. Especially since it was by commercial. Just think of how Moby must feel.
Oh, that’s right, he feels pretty good, now that he’s rich and has an audience for his music.
Great Dave, I’ll second that.
I’m one of the uberdorks who hadn’t head of Nick Drake before the VW commerical but I loved that song. Now I’m a huge fan of his. Had the song not been in the ad, I don’t know that I ever would have been exposed to him. Quite a tragedy for me.
The Volkswagen commercials have had a lot of really good songs in them, and I thought the one with Pink Moon was nicely done. But putting a song in a commercial does cheapen it, Great Dave, and that’s not really a radical or unreasonable point of view to have.
Artists should not be criticized for needing to pay the rent, but then again, artistic integrity isn’t free either. It’s not a zero sum proposition… accepting money for art because you have to eat isn’t bad, but at the same time not accepting money because you view it as an artistic compromise is without a doubt a noble thing to do.
Don’t mistake people saying they have more respect for artists who don’t sell out as meaning they have no respect for artists that do. The act of compromising your beliefs in order to earn a living (or provide for loved ones) has an integrity all its own, but it isn’t artistic integrity.
-fh
warning - morbid thoughts
Time Has Told Me is gonna play at my funeral.
Good points, hazel-rah, but did anyone really ‘suffer’? Except for the artist’s integrity, and that’s up for debate. Moby’s Play is the most licensed album in history, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it, nor the other 10 million people who bought his album. Is the work any less valuble now that it has reached commercial success?
Yeah, but see, I don’t burn incense or write poetry, in my room or elsewhere, and I also don’t hide behind cheesy little handles on a message board and attack people.
My point was not begrudge artists a living. I’m not a believer in the old-fashioned notion that money=sell-out (part of what wKurt Cobain, in his suicide note, sarcastically called “Punk Rock 101”). But Nick Drake is dead. Now, someone’s using his music in way he might or might not have liked–who knows how he would have felt about it? Unlike Moby, he has no say about to the use or misuse of his music.
He was a tormented soul and an incredible talent.
Hell even the “Artis’s Integrity” couldn’t suffer. The guys dead. So who suffers? Other than fan’s who no longer can feel better than people who never heard of the music before.
BareNaked Ladies on the other hand started to slip prior to getting into a car commercial. So at least they were smart and cashed in while they still had some value.
I’ve been a fan for 15 years now, and I think that putting Pink Moon in the VW Commercial is the best thing that could have happened. The more things that can introduce people to his music, the better. Who cares where it’s heard, as long as more people get to experience the pleasure and beauty of his work? I’d like to see Nick Drake on MTV (though maybe not remixed with a Euro-pop dance beat and loads of thong-clad babes dancing round a pool. But then again…).
A bit off topic but Linda thompson’s three most famous beaus have been; Richard Thompson (natch); Martin Carthy and Nick Drake.
If she womps Bert Jansch she’ll have the set.
Nick Drake is/was a truly wonderful artist.
Drake’s feelings about fame are pretty well laid out in that “Fruit Tree” song. He seemed ambivalent about the idea. But he also craved popular acceptance–something he never had in his lifetime. The lack of response to his work is what led to the depression that killed him. So, I’m sure he would have liked that alot of people, even belatedly, have gotten to hear him. But does that mean he would have liked being used to sell ugly Nazi cars to yuppies? I don’t think so…
No, it doesn’t. Is a song less good because other people hear it? Do the notes suddenly go out of tune? When Pink Moon was broadcast in the Cabrio commercials, did that song mysteriously disappear from the CD’s and albums in people’s collections? The placement in the Cabrio commercial couldn’t cheapen the song, because the song is exactly the same as it was before. I admit that it’s possible an artist could choose not to make the music he really wants to make for commercial reasons, but for records that have already been pressed, nothing in the future will ruin it – you can’t change the past.
–Cliffy
Nick Drake’s parents are both dead. Nick’s sister Gabrielle Drake controls his estate, and she authorized the use of “Pink Moon” in the Volkwagen commercial. She probably has a better idea than you or I what Nick would have wanted.
And for many people, like myself, who had never heard of the song or Nick Drake, that lovely Cabrio ad led to discovering this artist. I don’t ever remember hearing anything of his played on the radio in all my years of listening before the Cabrio ad. It is worth being an obscure cult figure?
BTW, the Nick Drake site is:
http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/DRAKE.html