Nick Drake's Pink Moon

33⅓ Main Series #51

by Amanda Petrusich, Ben Remeaka (Narrator)

The backside of Nick Drake's headstone, wedged deep into the earth of an English parish church graveyard, reads: "Now we rise and we are everywhere." The words were penned by Drake in 1974; 30 years later, they are jarringly prophetic. Like nearly all prematurely buried cult figures, Nick Drake is reinvented each time he is rediscovered. In 2000, the sheepish, astral musings of "Pink Moon" became synonymous with backing a Volkswagen Cabrio convertible away from a raucous house party, as VW boldly sold American drivers on the notion of eschewing red plastic cups and bro-hugs for moonbeams and tree trunks (and a cute German car - sort of). The Cabrio ad inadvertently sparked an unlikely boost in record sales, propelling the album towards platinum status nearly 28 years after its release. But with each well-intentioned revival of interest, Nick Drake slips further and further out of reach, martyred and codified, superceded and consumed by his own tragic context. Since his controversial death in 1974, Nick Drake has become: the 26-year-old prophet, the diffident enigma, the tortured precursor to Kurt Cobain, the fallen hero, the folksinger-as-folksymbol, the self-sacrificing patron saint of lonely, disaffected teenagers - the One who died for our sins.

Like dog-eared, over-highlighted copies of On The Road, Pink Moon gets passed around, shuffled from friend to friend like a secret, and whispered into pillows. There is something about the humility of Pink Moon - its unassuming twenty-eight minute playtime, the modest timbre of Drake's whispers, the unrecognizable open tunings, the way you always find yourself inching closer to your stereo speakers, trying to climb inside this record, to feed off its weird warmth - that endures.

This book will explore how a tiny acoustic record has puttered and purred its way into a new millennium. Amanda Petrusich interviews producer Joe Boyd, string arranger Robert Kirby, and even the marketing team behind the VW commercial.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Criticism, Essays, History, Pop Culture

Audible Audio

First published October 15, 2007

About the author

Amanda Petrusich is the author of “Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records” (Scribner; 2014), “It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music” (Faber and Faber; 2008), and “Pink Moon,” an installment in Continuum/Bloomsbury’s acclaimed 33 1/3 series. She is a contributing writer for Pitchfork and a contributing editor at The Oxford American, and her music and culture writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Spin, BuzzFeed, and elsewhere. She has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from Columbia University and teaches writing and criticism at NYU’s Gallatin School. She lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Alejandro Saint-Barthélemy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably the worst 33 1/3 book I've read (I love the one on "Doolitle"). An okay book about Amanda Petrusich and a Volkswagen advert, though.

[Martyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was already a 1-2 star read for me before the astounding 39 page chapter (fully one third of the book) that serves as an apology for corporate consumer marketing and their vampiric use of any creative artifact that they can lay their hands on. Nick Drake and his album were certainly in the background during this section as we heard from one advertising executive after another about how it's fine to sell out since everyone is doing it and, well, the whole industry is evil anyway, so there's no choice! Of course it's easier to sell out your art when you're still alive to agree to it, but that's moot.

I get that Amanda Petrusich doesn't want to be seen as an uncritical reviewer of Nick Drake's music, actually she often seems not to like him or his music (Drake 'mews' apparently), so she succeeded in that regard; although she does claim this album as a favorite. I do wish she had cut him the same slack that she did for VW et al in the parts of the book given over to discussing his work, she seemed very sympathetic to their arguments; I wonder if VW paid for the writing of it?

I listened to the album directly after finishing this and I'm not sure that Amanda and I are hearing the same things. At all.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best 33 1/3 book I've read. A great balance between telling the story of Drake, the album itself, and its peculiar place in music history as a lost treasure rediscovered through a TV commercial, of all things. Readers who were familiar with Nick Drake before the commercial probably won't understand why Petrusich devotes so much exploration to it. But I don't think you can tell the story of Pink Moon without telling the story of how a mass market ad gave a forgotten musician several orders of magnitude more acclaim than he'd ever had before. As one of the legions of Nick Drake fans that first heard of him that way, the book made tons of sense to me, and I really did want to know as much as possible about the creative process behind the infamous ad just as much as the album itself.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I unfortunately read this book immediately after finishing Gorm Rasmussen's excellent Pink Moon, so this was a bit of a let down.

Petrusich is a good writer, and most of the other contributors to the book wrote interesting vignettes about the album. Why some of the contributions by others were included, however, seems to be a mystery. Some of the others who wrote about the album didn't seem to even be fans of the album.

The book gets a subpar rating from me because its tone was such a shift from the reverence of Rasmussen's book. Petrusich clearly doesn't want the book to be a hagiography of Drake, and that, for some readers, is commendable. But there's an element of mystery that surrounds him, and there are few artists who deserve books that seem to expand the myths around them that the artists cultivated during their own lives. Robert Johnson is one; Nick Drake is another. To be fair, Drake probably did not deliberately try to shroud his legacy in mystery while he was alive. He clearly wanted to be hugely popular from his releases. However, his painful shyness and depression started the impetus for his own myth while he was alive, and it has grown in leaps and bounds since his tragic demise. This myth seems to serve Drake well; because his music is so delicate and sometimes otherworldly one can't help but see Drake in this way.

Petrusich, on the other hand, while undoubtedly writing in a clear journalistic style that attempted to elucidate Drake the man as much as possible, still misses the mark. Much of Drake's musical ingenuity, for example, is unfairly attributed to his drug use. This is unfair, given that other sources (ie, Nick's closest friends) either deny or downplay the role of (hard) drugs in his life the creation of his music. Also, a mention of the 2000 VW commercial that triggered much of the interest in Drake's music is, of course, expected. What was unexpected, however, was the depth of discussion and sheer amount of space that Petrusich dedicates here to the commercial and advertising in general. As a standalone cultural essay on advertising, the chapter is excellent. She clearly did her research. However, in the context of the book, it overshadows the remaining content. The VW exec who created the commercial is a great source to interview about the commercial, but he comes off as egotistical to the point of being really annoying. The chapter ultimately becomes more about applauding him for his ad concoction than praising Drake's own music, the ostensible point of the whole book. Petrusich clearly researched the commercial in depth. However, inexplicably, her research on Drake is mostly limited to secondary sources like Humphries and Dann's biographies of Drake. More primary sources (beyond an occasional email to Robert Kirby or Joe Boyd) would have been appreciated here.

Ultimately, despite my complaints here, the book is good. I recognize that the format of the 33 1/3 series doesn't really afford Petrusich the luxuries to write the sort of book that I was hoping this would be. Still, I was hoping that it would be better at giving us more of a glimpse into Nick Drake and his creative process.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be completely charming. Having been a big fan of this album for years but never having read much about Nick Drake, it gave me a nice overview of his life and history of his posthumous rise to popularity. I enjoyed it very much.

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bizarrely mean-spirited and entirely pointless. The author on one hand says Pink Moon is a perfect record, but then seems to not actually like anything much about it, and seems to consider the fact she listened to it non-stop for a bit in 2001 an episode of trauma she is recovering from. There are needlessly snide comments about Drake’s voice, his playing, his lyrics, his track titles (!), literally everything to do with the poor dude.
There is a a meandering barely-below-surface-level account of Drake’s life that is the 'highlight' of this book, but this is followed by an insanely long essay about the track 'Pink Moon' being in a VW ad (who cares?). There are also brief, inane notes from lots of minor musicians (and Christopher O’Riley lol) who have clearly all been sent the same email: when did you first hear Nick Drake and how did he influence you? Everyone’s answer is pretty much the same and reveals absolutely nothing about anything. I lost track of the amount of times someone mentions Pink Moon is all guitar except for a slither of piano, which is an observation anyone with ears makes at absolute latest the second time they hear the album. (Robyn Hitchcock's response is actually really good, though.)
Needless to say, I don’t recommend this. Weirdly, having now read a good 33 ⅓ (National’s Boxer) and this truly wretched one back to back, I kinda want to read them all, cos at least they are brief and all seem to elicit emotion of some sort.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve now read 10 or 12 books of the 33 1/3 series, and I think this is my favorite so far. Its structure, which I think a number of reviewers here didn’t catch, is sort of a meditative spiral of an album with essentially an audience of one (Drake himself) that was completely ignored by critics and unmarketed by his record label, to an acknowledged masterpiece with such universal appeal that it’s used in car commercials to the disdain of the hipsters who discovered it first.

In between the introductory chapter of Petrusich’s relationship to Pink Moon and the short coda at the end, she artfully renders four chapters that move from Drake’s quiet death alone in bed at 26 in 1974, through a quarter century of gradual discovery until Volkswagen used the title song in its most ubiquitous ad at the turn of the millennium and Drake assumed his place alongside such luminaries as El Greco and Edgar Allan Poe who died alone and convinced of the their failure only to be tardily canonized and subsequently commodified in the many years after their deaths. Even the lengthy quotes between chapters move this trajectory along, from fellow musicians and creative types describing personal relationships to Drake’s music to being turned off by Drake’s ubiquity or claiming they were first to like him.

This is not Nick Drake fan fiction, and Petrusich continually questions the mythology connecting his tragic early death to the music itself. I also imagine that the chapter studying the role of advertising in Pink Moon’s resurgence is discomfiting to quite a few readers (I was not comfortable reading it myself). I finished the book feeling no more closely connected to the album itself, which I already knew pretty well as someone who came to Drake in the 90s, before the Volkswagen commercial but well after he’d been canonized(I love all three of Drake’s albums, but Pink Moon is probably my third favorite). This little book did, though, connect me more to the process by which music (or writing, or art) moves from solitary expression to universal canon, which I appreciate more as a reader and writer.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best book of the "33 1/3" series I've read so far. Too many of the other books place too much emphasis on the album's influence on the writer's life, but this one has a nice balance between the biography of the artist and the author. Everything you ever wanted to know about Nick Drake, and unfortunately there's not a lot to cover for such a short life, is here. In addition, short paragraphs from artists like Lou Barlow and Robyn Hitchcock on Drake's influence appear at the end of chapters. And unlike some of the other "33 1/3" books, the album gets full attention without any unnecessary distractions. I think the Beach Boys one stands out in my mind for discussing everything but Pet Sounds, the subject of the damn book for godsakes. Anyway, maybe author Amanda Petrusich devotes too much time in the end to the famous Volkswagen commercial, but it is important to the overall legacy of Pink Moon. Advertising introduced the album to a whole new audience, giving Drake the attention that he so deserved, but never saw in his lifetime. Reading the pop culture analysis of the commercial was interesting, like a college thesis but not as boring, especially in the discussion of art versus commerce, a topic I spent a lot of time writing about in grad school.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three-and-three-quarters stars.

This book fulfills my hope for the bulk of the 33 1/3 series: a small book that reads like extended liner notes, perfect for someone who wants to dive deeper but maybe not read a full-size book about a musical act's life. We get the beginnings of Drake's life, his development as a musician, his increasing depression and his untimely end. Between chapters are interludes written by some famous names in music reflecting for a page or so on their personal connection with Pink Moon. I had always wondered how Drake's music (massive failures in his lifetime) ever grew to the cult following he has. (Sure, I knew about the VW commercial, but what else contributed?) We get a chapter on that subject...followed by a far-too-long chapter on the VW commercial, but all is forgiven.



Various compilations and box sets were released to continued failure after his death. Things picked up when Dream Academy dedicated their biggest hit (1985's "Life in a Northern Town") to Drake's memory. This created some buzz. Years later, Peter Buck of REM would frequently cite Drake as a primary influence. In 1994, a new compilation of his work was runner-up for Rolling Stone's "Best Reissue." The VW commercial happened in late-2000.

"And now we rise / And we are everywhere" from "From the Morning" is carved on his tombstone
Island's PR department spent their whole promo campaign for Pink Moon on a full-page

[Łukasz Langa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little unclear to me what this book wanted to be. It's part a detailed story on the album's creation and cultural influence, and part a memoir by the author and others on how they first heard Nick Drake, as well as what his music and this album meant for them.

The book is split into six chapters with rather non-descriptive names, taken from the title song's lyrics. There's a lot of interesting information in it, I'd say it's worth a read. But its somewhat chaotic narrative makes it harder to return later to the book to check on a particular fact. For instance, the book mentions Nick's alternate tunings. How do you find where this was in the book? Unless you have the Kindle version, good luck :-)

All in all, if you read this book like a novel, you'll find interesting quotes from Nick himself and other people on him, you'll learn more about his story and about "Pink Moon" in particular. But if you expected a book that might be used as reference material on the album, you might end up disappointed. Especially given how much weight in the book was given to a Volkswagen commercial.

[Chris Barnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just downgraded my rating from 3⭐️ to 2⭐️. I thought it would be a critical opinion essay on the album and then each song. Instead what we got was a quick review of Nick’s life much of which was unashamedly lifted from Humphries’ biography and demonstrating that we all know more about Drake than Petrusich then a dash through the album without daring to offer an opinion, followed by - literally a full 33% of the book - a dissection of a certain VW ad. A few pages, ok, but this was ridiculous and boring!

[Sam Schnurbusch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I found this book interesting. I wish the author had spent more time on Nick Drake‘s music and less on the Volkswagen advertisement that brought a lot of people into his music.

[Caroline Morris · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a pointless little book. I certainly didn’t need to read a whole chapter about a Volkswagen advert.

[Jackson · Rating 1 out of 5]

As regards the first half of the book: some interesting tidbits, but otherwise dogshit - in other words, it's a 33 1/3 book.

But what tips the scale from middling to disgraceful is that the entire second half is given over to *praising a Volkswagen commercial* that featured the title track in the late 90s. True enough - the ad helped to popularize Nick Drake. Also, it's an ad for a car. One of the few books I've wanted to set on fire by the end. A shameful production.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is from a series of little books called 33 1/3. Each book deals with a classic album: how it was made and what the build-up to it was.

The author achieves a good balance between the subjective and the objective by relating her experience of constantly listening to this bleak, ethereal and haunting album in New York in the weeks after 9/11.

That she managed to not throw herself under a train in that time is remarkable, because this is possibly one of the saddest albums I've ever heard, and even though I love it to bits, it's a hard listen, because Nick Drake killed himself at the age of 26, and gave no indication as to why. He left no written words beside his songs, there is no film footage of him beside stills. All we have to go on are three exquisite albums: Bryter Later, Five Leaves Left, and the one that is the subject of this book, his final album, Pink Moon.

She deals with the making of the first two albums without dwelling too much on them. The book, obviously, is about Pink Moon. And perhaps I would not have enjoyed the book quite as much if she had dwelt solely on that album. I enjoyed reading the story behind how Drake went from being a very minor cult figure, little known outside of England, to one that had a huge influence, some 30 years after his death, on some of the young American and Canadian musicians playing what became known as alt-folk. It was all because of an advert.

Bizarrely, Drake and his Island Record label-mate, John Martyn, had an enormous influence on a bunch of white musicians of my generation and a bit older, here in a tiny city on the southern tip of Africa, so it was fascinating for me to read about Drake and how obscure he really had been until the VW ad of 2000 (if I recall correctly? A friend has my copy of the book at present). For us he was always quite a big thing.

A good read and a nice little treasure to own if you are a Drake fan. If you have not heard him but you like that kind of music, it's a good companion on your journey into the music of one of the most haunting and enigmatic songwriter/acoustic guitarists of the last 40 years.

[Merwyn Haskett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never seen The Commercial. I didn't even hear about it until I had already gotten curious about Nick Drake.

It's a curious thing, my admiration for Nick Drake. Few of my other favorite albums or singers are his style - sparse, lo-fi. My actual favorite Drake songs come from his other albums, and yet, when played in one setting (which is easy at 28 minutes) Pink Moon is a masterpiece.

I couldn't even hardly get into it at first - I tested the actual Pink Moon song and wondered what the hype was. I took the plunge and listened to the whole album - I didn't have the life-changing experience everyone else has gushed about, my thoughts instead bordered on "eh"

But then...for whatever reason..I kept repeating Pink Moon in my head. When it finally established itself firmly as a "song I like" afterall the rest of the album came easily.

It's like M. Ward's Transistor Radio (without the overdubbing and electricity) - something best heard all at once on an early morning or lazy afternoon.

Because Drake's life is a mystery to all but the smallest number of close friends there's not much in this book that wasn't already in his two biographies. It focuses, rather, on the authors life regarding hearing the album - and on how the commercial came about. (Worth reading for one of the creator's responses to an Angry Fan.)

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This would serve you well if you were mildly interested in Nick Drake and wanted a quick rundown of his known history. I hesitate to read biographies of artists because it often rubs a bit of charm off their work. This reads more like a college research paper, as do most of the books in this series. The author writes for Pitchfork Media. That is the caliber of writing you should be prepared for, should you decide to read this book. Having read the Nick Drake biography by Patrick Humphries, this book shed virtually no new light on Drake's life. Rather than talking in depth about the music and where and how it was recorded, this seems to focus more on the author's discovery of Pink Moon and its place in her life. There is a chapter on the Volkswagon commercial that featured "Pink Moon", which interviews some of the advertising folks that worked on it. There are also a few misquotes of important lyrics, which I found to be a bit unprofessional.

[John Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. Fairly disappointing. Not enough discussion about the album itself, several factual errors, a bit more biography than what is really necessary, and the occasional comment from an admirer of the album who actually seems to know what he is talking about.

This book turned out to be filled up with a lot of crap, and not enough about the actual album itself. I was especially surprised to find that the majority of people that comment on the album as being so magnificent, don't even listen to the darn thing anymore. The author comments on this and defends it by stating that Pink Moon is something to be cherished and one shouldn't over-indulge in it. Bah! Utter nonsense. The album is brilliant and I haven't stopped listening to it for the past 7 or 8 years. It will never get old or "worn out"; that's part of the genius of Nick Drake.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 2 out of 5]

My most disappointing book of the year. The author seemingly spent more time talking about her own life, car commercials, and other ephemera, than the fantastic music contained on the album and the amazing musician who made it. Either of the Nick Drake biographies by Patrick Humphries or Trevor Dann would have been a better read. Some readers enjoy when the author gets equal billing with the book's subject; I'm not one of them. Fortunately the book was short.

[Kerry Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this little series of books. This is a good one! Pink Moon is a moody, impressionistic, quiet piece of art and this book shows you its impact on other musicians and the world. That's what these books do: destruct a beloved album. This isn't supposed to be a biography of Nick Drake.

[Matt JL · Rating 3 out of 5]

a charming story of nick drakes rise and fall as well as the myth surrounding him, but it spends an unfortunate amount of time (1/3 of the book) talking about a volkswagen commercial. perhaps there was a page count to be met. it is a shame because for the first 75 pages i couldn’t put this book down. by page 100 i nearly forgot that this book was about nick drake and not a VW ad. oh well.. maybe next time..

[Phillip Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The anecdotes by musicians were mostly shallow and uninspiring. Petrusich's work was interesting, except the largest section of this book was a rambling justification for using a Nick Drake song in a VW commercial. I appreciated the perspective, but overall it felt like a distraction.

[Jesse Barker · Rating 2 out of 5]

About a third of this is about the vw commercial. I feel like there is more to be said about the album itself rather than it’s commercial success /selling out.

[Frank Jude · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another book offered as part of the 33 1/3 series published by Bloomsbury. If you're unaware of this series, it's a series devoted to iconic albums written by critics, scholars and fans of the particular album and is consistently good. Some are great: for instance, I absolutely LOVED the book on Television's Marquee Moon and the one on Horses by Pati Smith. This one, from Amanda Petrusich presents a more challenging assessment. If you look at some of the other Goodreads reviews, you'll find one person giving it one or two stars calling it "the worst of the series," while the very next reviewer suggests it's one of the best!

While I was reading it, I found the biographical history and cultural context interesting, but kept wondering when the description of the actual creation of the album and any critical survey of the music was going to be presented. Unlike many in the series, like Blank Generation covering the landmark LP from Richard Hell and the Void-oids where there is a song by song breakdown, Petrusich refrains from offering such a review. Instead, what seems like passing remarks about the "brushing guitar work" opening the title cut, or the unique tunings used by Drake, or the one flub at the end of one of the songs that Drake chose to keep are all we get. But, considering the apparent 'slightness' of this album, and its sparseness, there is something stylistically appropriate: it's as if any more detailed analysis would eviscerate the songs, leaving nothing but dead air.

The longest chapter is devoted to the Cabrio ad that introduced Nick Drake to the larger audience he so desperately wished to reach while he was alive. As I read it, I had an initial reaction some other reviewers had: why such detail about the commercial? I'm still not convinced the depth and length of her coverage of the ad is necessary (I was a fan of Nick Drake while he was still alive, listening to his albums throughout my turbulent years of High School) and had actually never seen it. Reading about it drew me to YouTube in order to watch it and I began to see that it is certainly relevant to devote at least some time to it. Nick Drake wanted his music to reach a large audience. His shyness and deep depression prevented him from performing live, granting interviews or helping in marketing his work. Each of his three albums, while he was alive, sold less than 5,000 copies. It's been suggested that the lack of acceptance and income from his music was one of the driving forces behind his deepening depression and what I and many think was his suicide. Joe Boyd, his producer still feels it was more an unintentional act of indifference....

In any event, as soon as the Cabrio ad started getting airplay, Pink Moon started selling and became a big seller on Amazon, jumping from about 4 - 6,000 copies a year to over 70,000. Finally, Nick was reaching the audience he always suspected was out there.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatness of Nick Drake lies in the way he never seeks to dominate the foreground and yet everything he is doing - his awesome picking, his hushed but urgent vocals, his vivid command of imagery - commands that foreground. You are thus drawn towards him, one step, two steps… Of all the artists I listen to with frequency, he is one of the few about whom I can say I am never even remotely bored or sated. I have even had this short album on a loop for days, playing time after time, without ever feeling that I had heard Free Ride or Things Behind The Sun too many times. Given this durability, of course he was not going to be cheapened by the use of Pink Moon in a VW advertisement, a moment that has become both iconic and infamous. Imagine if Nick Drake had any idea that not just his three albums, but also his home taped demos would be played so often 50 years after they were recorded…

The method used in this entry in the 33 1/3 series is to use testimony by a wide range of musicians, critics and other artists to show the way that Nick Drake's music strikes them. Certain core threads stand out in these testimonies, one of which is the fact Nick Drake is performing for you, and you alone, and the way that the meaning of the songs is so amorphous and ever-changing that you can come to them at many different moments of your life. Of course the prime need one has while reading one of these books is to go back to the album, and listen to it possibly with fresh ears and fresh ideas. Even with a lack of new material on him (I have read pretty well all the main biographies of Nick Drake) there is still the sense that this tall, talented but awkward character was so utterly inscrutable as to remain completely himself. Pink Moon sounds like a letter from beyond already, a lsiting of fears and exhortations, but also pleasures and wistful longings for a moment when one could feel comfortable in one's own skin. Oddly, it is the truthful tales of those who are least comfortable in their skin that tend to provide us with the wherewithal to enjoy moments of introspection into our own lives.

[Kevin Krein · Rating 3 out of 5]

To prepare for the 50th anniversary of Pink Moon in March, I was looking for a biography on Nick Drake—there are a few, but the reader reviews of them both on this site are extremely polarizing about how they are written and what the opted to cover about Drake's short life and career. So I went with this. Written by a former Pitchfork writer and current New Yorker staffer, it, also, has polarizing reader reviews, and I guess I get it. It was informative enough for why I bought it and what I needed it for, but the second half of the book gets hung up on the usage of "Pink Moon" in the V.W. convertible commercial from the year 2000, rather than the album itself. The feeling I got from this book is that folks really like Drake, they try to separate the artist and this album from the mythology around both, but it's impossible to do. There are a lot little blurbs from other musicians in here about Pink Moon, but none of the blurbs really get to the why of why they like the album, or why it's important, or what it actually means to them.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

(5/10)

This book had some interesting insight into, not only the making of the album, but also Drake's backstory and personal accounts from the likes of Joe Boyd and his sister that I wouldn't have gotten from a browse through Wikipedia, which was nice. However, a big issue I had reading this was just how padded it was. Half of the content of this 33 1/3 book was just artists' experiences with the record. While having a few would've been fine, it's ends up being a lot of nothing and doesn't intrigue in the slightest, leading to me skipping through so many sections. Couple that with Petrusich just randomly blurting out other albums that came out that particular year for no discernable reason and we get a pretty bloated experience. It's not horrible it just feels mostly unnecessary.

[Seth Arnopole · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is not much to say about the background of this short album, the third and final release of Nick Drake's career (in his lifetime, that is). He recorded it while in the throes of depression, and though the songs only feature guitar, voice, and a dab of piano, the album as a whole is not stark or depressing to listen to. The biographical and production information is nice to have, but I was not as interested in hearing from the creative team that used the title song in a Volkswagen ad in 2000. It is a necessary part of the story, however, because that was the first true widespread exposure Nick Drake's music ever got.

[Justin Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ironic that this book tells you almost nothing about Nick Drake, his music, or this album, because some people worry that Drake's legacy has been tainted by the release of everything he ever put on tape. But this is much more of a cash-grab, it seems--most of the book is just block quotes of people warbling on about how much they like Pink Moon, and I do mean block quotes; they often drag on for pages. Either a good idea gone terribly awry for some reason (I hope it's that), or it's a cynical attempt to make money from Nick Drake completists. Even the most completist of you don't need this. I don't think I'll be wasting any more money on the blatantly over-priced 33 1/3 series.

[Linnéa Jönsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay with some interesting facts about Drake and also about the author taking comfort in his music. But filling the later half of the book with the story about how the Volkswagen-commercial somehow was the sole reason for the resurgence of Nick Drake's music and uncritical quotes from the admen behind was just embarrassingly weird and also plain wrong. Since the book was pretty thin I guess it was a way for the author to fill out the pages. The album Pink Moon so much deserves better than this.