There is Music...Good Music, and sometimes GREAT Music! - and then...there is a Music so Sublime, and Otherworldly, that You just KNOW it comes from the other side of the Wall of Sleep...that Diaphanous Curtain that separates the Living, and those who have passed into a Vast Unknown. THIS is That Music!
Beautifully said Mark. I love the way you said from 'the other side of the Wall of Sleep.' I have continuous dreams of my departed family members and it would be awesome if this song blended with the dreams.
The depth and melancholy of this song is transformative. It's otherworldly in its beauty. When I first heard this song it was in a movie made in the mid 2000s. I thought it was a contemporary artist and couldn't believe I hadn't heard it before. He wrote it in 1969!! This man was taken from us much too soon. He was 26. The song and its arrangement has the timeless mark of an old soul, someone with much more musical experience than he could have had in his short life. But there it is. Musical genius is too often taken from us before we have a chance to realize that it is genius.
I quoted this beautiful comment in the video description to this short animated film featuring a notational transcription of 'River Man': ua-cam.com/video/TdPsRCcAnLQ/v-deo.html
I’m no expert but Rivers are usually associated with death and the journey to the next life. Styx being the boundary between the earth and the underworld. One of my very favourite songs “Find the river” is a song about that transition. This is just sublime and when I do take that journey I want this as my soundtrack
There was very little even like this back then, & it is even less likely to occur now. The world is too angry for this profound music. Nick here is obviously talking about the tragedy of death. A lady is used as an example of how she wound up on her way, to this place. She is aware that maybe her life is in question.. "Fallen Leaves". She didn't know what hit her & that she wasn't there of her own accord: "Said she hadn't heard the news, hadn't had the time to choose"... & instead of nothingness, there is something 'else' after death.. "because she believes... " She is aware enough of her happenstance, (in this interregnum between life & death) & finds the "Riverman" of The River Styx, & stalls him, for as long as she can, unknowing that he is an advocate for death. "Gonna see the Riverman, Gonna tell him ALL I can".. She is obviously young, because now she admits that she hasn't found love & wants to have a family yet: "about the plan, for lilac time". If she asks the right questions, she could leave via the river in the opposite direction.. leading back to life: "If he tells me all he knows, about the way the river flows" the next bit "& all night shows & summertime" refers I think to how Heaven is envisioned; having fun, day & night, never a winter in sight! (But this line is deliberately poetic & ambiguous) Then comes a break in the lyrics & the music & strings performance settles for the alacrity & sound of hope for now, but leads into a chicane with clandestine sepulchral partials, from those esoteric strings. They shrill though the mix as Nick foretells of an omission on Betty's behalf.. She is a good Christian.. Prays.. but is guilty of suicidal tendencies. And she is making a devastating realization: "Betty said she Prayed today, for the Sky to Blow away, or maybe stay, she wasn't sure". Nick states that she wanted to dampen the mood for everyone, or maybe just end life now as she knows it.. & that thought itself, takes away the pain of life. This is a heartrending admission from Nick, which is obviously why he tells it from Betty's perspective. "For when she thought of Summer Rain, Calling for her mind again, she lost the pain, & stayed for more". The jagged deliberate strings phrases plays to this conflict, & how it is unnatural in a natural world; free of capitalism, to think such thoughts. Nick reaffirms this by changing the repeated line slightly "Gonna tell him all I can, about the ban, on feeling free". This is so so sad. Nick feels just as trapped in death as he does in life, as he realises his musical endeavors & wants in life are capitulated for world rapacity instead. And even though he is yet to experience death, he condones it. His outlook is _that_ bleak. Truly heart breaking presentation. Now comes the punch line that most miss.. "I don't suppose, it's meant for me" he reveals here that maybe he is having those suicidal thoughts, or maybe he suddenly admits that HE is Betty. This would also shed light on why he abstained from releasing "Parasite" at the time he wrote it. Because it has that same twist at the end.. "For I am the parasite that hangs from your skirt". And would have taken away from the twist on his most heterogeneous song on the album. The last lines & how he repeats them elicits his feelings & thoughts of carelessness, his addled & conflicted frustrations with the lack of sense & purpose in life, & how isolated he feels in knowing all too much too soon. In fact, one _could_ argue that there are some questions we not meant to ask, & that Nick here is way beyond _even_ the answers. And the wonder of his destination compels a sort of.. "Oh Well" in modern day terms. This song couldn't get anymore perfect. It is the difference between The Mona Lisa & the McDonald's Emblem. The only difference is that we are lucky enough, not to have to visit Musée du Louvre to observe it. Thank you for keeping his work in the public eye.
I'm so in love with Nick. I recently found this man and I haven't identified so much with a singer. He was a poet, a loner, a melancholic dreamer who was only looking for peace in his life. Looking for answers to his depression. Unfortunately, he couldn't find them. I guess the river man never told him about how the river flowed. I was about to be one of those who come and go. Suicide is a silent thought that we keep in the back of our minds, until the right moment comes to say goodbye to this miserable world. I am not ready to let it take over me, but I know that will be such a great release when hopelessnes finally shows up. I will be free. I just don't know when. Maybe in my oldest days. Maybe in my greyest days. Until then, I'll keep wondering if I will pray for the sky to blow away. Thank you Nick for your beautiful lyrics. You were a mysterious man who captured our sadness and struggle in your music. Rest in peace.
@@teariet.tekken-wolffenn5881 ….glad you’re here. I thought of the poem by Khalil Gibran called “Fear” which I hope may be of some comfort as you journey through life. It’s helped me immensely. We are each of us on our separate journeys, but think of the river…where it goes, what it has seen and learnt along life’s twists and turns. The fear is always there…but we cannot go back, so we keep moving on. I hope your life path is treating you kindly.
I am in the same predicament. I understand perfectly what you are saying. Each day is a battle. When I am going to take the jump....I don’t know. But I know is going to be in the spur of the moment. ❤
I think you did a really great job on this video.. the images capture the feeling of the song so well, especially that last part with the sun coming through the clouds... it's perfect with what's happening in the music.
Read his history,like Jackson c frank Tim Harding and another mental disease so sad when they don't get that needed medical help ;( I believe Sandy Denny,accident but alcohol is a drug too
The judges might buzzed it. Even though that Simon is very knowledgeable in music, he wouldn't have get it. They are only focused on the commercial singers that can be superstars. Not in melancholic musicians who are dark sad poets.
Hands down. There in no comparison of the music from the 60's thru the late 80's and some in the 90's, depending on the genre. In those eras, musical artists were poets with SO much talent.
I only learned of him a few years ago bc of this song. So in awe by how it affected me. It’s so incredible every time I hear it I’m saddened that Nick is no longer with us.
The string arrangement was made by a very talented and completely unknown orchestrator called Harry Robinson. ua-cam.com/video/TdPsRCcAnLQ/v-deo.html Reply
He found his purpose. He accomplished it. There is plenty of Nick Drake music available for you. What broke his heart and destroyed him was that at the time, only a very few understood his genius. He had genuine difficulty with social interactions and hated playing concerts, therefore He was seldom called upon for live performances. He was a mostly undiscovered genius in his lifetime, which was incredibly painful. He was painfully shy and possibly had autism or asperger's. He wrote that he had produced his life's work, and that he wouldn't be understood until after he was gone. Right on both counts.
The key for me is knowing that Drake took his own life a few years after this. Betty is his alter ego and represents his feelings of deep melancholy. The River Man is the boatman on the River Styx ready to take the singer to the world of the dead when it is his time ("lilac time"). But Betty moves along. Not today. Still, he wrestles with these suicidal thoughts. "How they come and go. Oh how they come and go...." At least that is how I interpret it.
From the album Five Leaves Left, written in 1969. He died in 1974. Do the math and it gives you a clue. Additionally, the River Man takes you to the other world.
There is Music...Good Music, and sometimes GREAT Music! - and then...there is a Music so Sublime, and Otherworldly, that You just KNOW it comes from the other side of the Wall of Sleep...that Diaphanous Curtain that separates the Living, and those who have passed into a Vast Unknown. THIS is That Music!
Beautifully stated...... thank you !
Beautifully said Mark. I love the way you said from 'the other side of the Wall of Sleep.' I have continuous dreams of my departed family members and it would be awesome if this song blended with the dreams.
Beautiful song, sad state of mind, may he rest
I think so.
The depth and melancholy of this song is transformative. It's otherworldly in its beauty. When I first heard this song it was in a movie made in the mid 2000s. I thought it was a contemporary artist and couldn't believe I hadn't heard it before. He wrote it in 1969!! This man was taken from us much too soon. He was 26. The song and its arrangement has the timeless mark of an old soul, someone with much more musical experience than he could have had in his short life. But there it is. Musical genius is too often taken from us before we have a chance to realize that it is genius.
I quoted this beautiful comment in the video description to this short animated film featuring a notational transcription of 'River Man': ua-cam.com/video/TdPsRCcAnLQ/v-deo.html
So beautiful.
I’m no expert but Rivers are usually associated with death and the journey to the next life. Styx being the boundary between the earth and the underworld. One of my very favourite songs “Find the river” is a song about that transition. This is just sublime and when I do take that journey I want this as my soundtrack
Absolutely enchanting. Only discovered this beauty today. Never even heard of Nick Drake! So glad I have now 😊
Wow, this is amazing! I never knew about this piece until 2023! Simply gorgeous!
I could never tire of this masterpiece. It is timeless. 🔥
There was very little even like this back then, & it is even less likely to occur now. The world is too angry for this profound music.
Nick here is obviously talking about the tragedy of death. A lady is used as an example of how she wound up on her way, to this place. She is aware that maybe her life is in question.. "Fallen Leaves".
She didn't know what hit her & that she wasn't there of her own accord: "Said she hadn't heard the news, hadn't had the time to choose"... & instead of nothingness, there is something 'else' after death.. "because she believes... "
She is aware enough of her happenstance, (in this interregnum between life & death) & finds the "Riverman" of The River Styx, & stalls him, for as long as she can, unknowing that he is an advocate for death. "Gonna see the Riverman, Gonna tell him ALL I can"..
She is obviously young, because now she admits that she hasn't found love & wants to have a family yet: "about the plan, for lilac time".
If she asks the right questions, she could leave via the river in the opposite direction.. leading back to life: "If he tells me all he knows, about the way the river flows" the next bit "& all night shows & summertime" refers I think to how Heaven is envisioned; having fun, day & night, never a winter in sight! (But this line is deliberately poetic & ambiguous)
Then comes a break in the lyrics & the music & strings performance settles for the alacrity & sound of hope for now, but leads into a chicane with clandestine sepulchral partials, from those esoteric strings. They shrill though the mix as Nick foretells of an omission on Betty's behalf.. She is a good Christian.. Prays.. but is guilty of suicidal tendencies. And she is making a devastating realization: "Betty said she Prayed today, for the Sky to Blow away, or maybe stay, she wasn't sure".
Nick states that she wanted to dampen the mood for everyone, or maybe just end life now as she knows it.. & that thought itself, takes away the pain of life. This is a heartrending admission from Nick, which is obviously why he tells it from Betty's perspective. "For when she thought of Summer Rain, Calling for her mind again, she lost the pain, & stayed for more". The jagged deliberate strings phrases plays to this conflict, & how it is unnatural in a natural world; free of capitalism, to think such thoughts.
Nick reaffirms this by changing the repeated line slightly "Gonna tell him all I can, about the ban, on feeling free". This is so so sad. Nick feels just as trapped in death as he does in life, as he realises his musical endeavors & wants in life are capitulated for world rapacity instead. And even though he is yet to experience death, he condones it. His outlook is _that_ bleak. Truly heart breaking presentation.
Now comes the punch line that most miss.. "I don't suppose, it's meant for me" he reveals here that maybe he is having those suicidal thoughts, or maybe he suddenly admits that HE is Betty. This would also shed light on why he abstained from releasing "Parasite" at the time he wrote it. Because it has that same twist at the end.. "For I am the parasite that hangs from your skirt". And would have taken away from the twist on his most heterogeneous song on the album.
The last lines & how he repeats them elicits his feelings & thoughts of carelessness, his addled & conflicted frustrations with the lack of sense & purpose in life, & how isolated he feels in knowing all too much too soon. In fact, one _could_ argue that there are some questions we not meant to ask, & that Nick here is way beyond _even_ the answers. And the wonder of his destination compels a sort of.. "Oh Well" in modern day terms.
This song couldn't get anymore perfect. It is the difference between The Mona Lisa & the McDonald's Emblem.
The only difference is that we are lucky enough, not to have to visit Musée du Louvre to observe it.
Thank you for keeping his work in the public eye.
Really underrated
-
It’s my favourite song, just how it sounds has always spoken to me, and how you’ve explained the lyrics- it couldn’t be any more perfect (sadly)
In fact, I don’t know how I’ve listened to it for this long and never realised the River Man was Charon on the Styx, now it seems so obvious...
I barely understand all off this. And love the atmospheric sounds and his voice.
I'm so in love with Nick. I recently found this man and I haven't identified so much with a singer. He was a poet, a loner, a melancholic dreamer who was only looking for peace in his life. Looking for answers to his depression. Unfortunately, he couldn't find them. I guess the river man never told him about how the river flowed.
I was about to be one of those who come and go.
Suicide is a silent thought that we keep in the back of our minds, until the right moment comes to say goodbye to this miserable world.
I am not ready to let it take over me, but I know that will be such a great release when hopelessnes finally shows up.
I will be free. I just don't know when. Maybe in my oldest days. Maybe in my greyest days.
Until then, I'll keep wondering if I will pray for the sky to blow away.
Thank you Nick for your beautiful lyrics. You were a mysterious man who captured our sadness and struggle in your music. Rest in peace.
Beautifully put.
Don’t let the darkness envelop you….I hope you’re still with us, on this side of the river ❤
@@andreabrothers6055 yes man. Still alive and kicking. Thank you for your kind words.
@@teariet.tekken-wolffenn5881 ….glad you’re here. I thought of the poem by Khalil Gibran called “Fear” which I hope may be of some comfort as you journey through life. It’s helped me immensely. We are each of us on our separate journeys, but think of the river…where it goes, what it has seen and learnt along life’s twists and turns. The fear is always there…but we cannot go back, so we keep moving on. I hope your life path is treating you kindly.
I am in the same predicament. I understand perfectly what you are saying. Each day is a battle. When I am going to take the jump....I don’t know. But I know is going to be in the spur of the moment. ❤
Beautiful nick drake my go to place when the trauma of life has become reality just float away
One of my favorite songs ever
Love this song so much. I listen to it pretty much every morning getting ready for my day. Love Nick’s music. Gone way too soon.
❤️💜💚
Want this played at my funeral or memorial
That sounds like a winner to me. I can visualize it being played at mine too.
During my cremation.
One of the most enchanting songs I ever laid ears on
I feel that this song resume the all life process, it's flow like the river
Really soulfool💙
Really good songs take you to a mental and emotional state that is otherwise impossible to articulate. This song is extraordinary.
Hey Nick, thank you! Where-ever you are. Love your work.
Brits and yanks the same. We argue, but both have the best music, and both have lovelly hidden gems like this.
So glad you mentioned the strings as other musicians often don't even get a mention and these clearly add a lot to the track .
Haunting.
Beautiful
That's it. I really love it.
This is a truly perfect song.
This song shows there is beauty in sadness
And sadness in beauty.
It’s just wonderful and tragic at the same time. Like life, perhaps.
Measured thoughtful beautiful music so restful
I think you did a really great job on this video.. the images capture the feeling of the song so well, especially that last part with the sun coming through the clouds... it's perfect with what's happening in the music.
what a wonderful song. Five chords song !
Deep spiritual song.. Thank's...
Such a mysterious song, just dreamy and sad.
Thanks for the lovely video.
Read his history,like Jackson c frank Tim Harding and another mental disease so sad when they don't get that needed medical help ;( I believe Sandy Denny,accident but alcohol is a drug too
Speechless 😊
Oh gosh, osti, how i find Nick D, mesmerizing
one of last poets
This was written and produced in 1969, will beat any Pop Idol or X Factor hands down...
The judges might buzzed it. Even though that Simon is very knowledgeable in music, he wouldn't have get it. They are only focused on the commercial singers that can be superstars. Not in melancholic musicians who are dark sad poets.
Imagine Nick playing it on one of those cheesy shows. He would have blown their minds completely away.
Hands down. There in no comparison of the music from the 60's thru the late 80's and some in the 90's, depending on the genre. In those eras, musical artists were poets with SO much talent.
What a beautiful lyric, what a moving singer! Why did I learn of him only now?
I only learned of him a few years ago bc of this song. So in awe by how it affected me. It’s so incredible every time I hear it I’m saddened that Nick is no longer with us.
@@lisasutherland-fraser4479 Yes
Lisa Sutherland-Fraser been listening to him since 1969, hazy Jane such a beautiful song his music is deeply moving. Enjoy.
I envy you, to discover Nick Drake for the first time is something i wish i could experience again.
Eloquent and beautiful stated
Playing to find peace inside
Beautiful song and video.
Timeless ❤ a other planet is just talented
fantastic
Astonishing.
One of THE great 60s classics
Very lovely lyrics video - thank you! 🥰
Truly helps heals the broke in a heart.
Love this song
The Lovely musically done! The stringarrangement sounds orange,
About the ban on feeling free..........
A very poignant line indeed!
The string arrangement takes this song from an 8.6 to a solid 10.
The string arrangement was made by a very talented and completely unknown orchestrator called Harry Robinson. ua-cam.com/video/TdPsRCcAnLQ/v-deo.html
Reply
'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'....Endymion....John Keats.....1818...
The reason I chose this name.
Also I love rivers.
Nice one Paul
Dedicated to my old Friend and Mentor Roger Knott-Fayle ❤️
Godly
Nick Drake wrote and performed truly beautiful songs. What a waste...
✨💞
奈何桥难忍
Wij (2018)
Trascendental..….to say the least…
Страшан кантаутор,као и Дени нестали су млади.
=== This song is Contemplating suicide ==== WOW! ===
good song. sounds like the ending of snl episodes. i think they stole his ironic haha
Its sad he couldnt find his purpose
He found his purpose. He accomplished it. There is plenty of Nick Drake music available for you. What broke his heart and destroyed him was that at the time, only a very few understood his genius. He had genuine difficulty with social interactions and hated playing concerts, therefore He was seldom called upon for live performances. He was a mostly undiscovered genius in his lifetime, which was incredibly painful. He was painfully shy and possibly had autism or asperger's. He wrote that he had produced his life's work, and that he wouldn't be understood until after he was gone. Right on both counts.
Can somebody explain the lyrics? They don't make sense. Thanks!
if they don’t make sense for you, you don’t want to know.
@@dalmex1234 Okay cool guy
The key for me is knowing that Drake took his own life a few years after this. Betty is his alter ego and represents his feelings of deep melancholy. The River Man is the boatman on the River Styx ready to take the singer to the world of the dead when it is his time ("lilac time"). But Betty moves along. Not today. Still, he wrestles with these suicidal thoughts. "How they come and go. Oh how they come and go...." At least that is how I interpret it.
From the album Five Leaves Left, written in 1969. He died in 1974. Do the math and it gives you a clue. Additionally, the River Man takes you to the other world.
Beautiful...