“Know” by Nick Drake from Pink Moon [1971]

The best book I read over my winter break was Joe Boyd’s White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Boyd started out as an ambitious young music fan with an adventurous streak that took him around the American South, to Newport, and to Europe. As his career peaked near the end of the Sixties, Boyd produced Pink Floyd’s debut single, albums for the Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention, and Vasthi Bunyan’s most noteworthy album Just Another Diamond Day. 

Of all the great musicians he worked with, none were as intriguing or multi-talented as Nick Drake. Drake could play complex guitar licks and sing in pitch without ever missing a pluck. But his severely introverted personality, his utter inability to interact with almost anyone, kept him from supporting his early albums with live tours. When it came time to record his third album Pink Moon, Drake somehow found the courage to challenge his supporting group at Island Records, including Boyd, to let him record his songs without the backing arrangements that had supported his playing on Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter. No strings, no pianos, no percussion. Just Nick and his guitar. The song “Know” is exemplary. 

See Boyd’s great book for a much more personal account of the recording sessions and of Nick’s lonely final days.