The decade in which I was born has given me a strange perspective on its music. I discovered pretty much all of the 70’s sounds – from prog rock to punk to disco – well after they came into the world. It wasn’t until the late 80’s that I discovered what I was missing. I would characterize the decade as one where budding genres leaped off their inspiration pads and came to fruition. For the month of February, Mental Jukebox will feature some of these gems with a different 70’s song each day. #28DaysOf70sSongs
Pink Moon was the third and final studio album from Nick Drake. His life vanished before most fans even had a chance to know his music. But his legacy has certainly lived on, and Drake has become somewhat larger than life several decades later. His music is appreciated more these days, but it also resonates more. His brand of folk was quite different from the Simon & Garfunkels and JTs of his era. But one could argue his version of the genre and his musical vision has had the most staying power. No better example of this than “Place To Be”.
Like the rest of the Pink Moon album, “Place To Be” is Nick Drake and no one else. He sings, he strums. It’s incredibly bare, like a friend playing a song for you in your living room. Much has been said about Drake’s bout with depression and his suicide. Pink Moon was released two months before his death, which adds a gravity to “Place To Be”. These were some of his last words and thoughts. It’s a melancholic treatise where Drake’s acoustic guitar strums are like logs in the fire and his vocals are like embers floating away in the dark, dark sky.
“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.”