Josh & Nick

For people who read this as a Note on Facebook: There are a number of videos embeded in this post and will not be transferred over to FB, so go to View Original Post (at my blog URL) to get the full entry as intended. They really need to fix that. Anyway, on to the post…

Something I’ve become quite aware of as I’ve gotten older is that one of the primary characteristics I possess is that I’m passionate. This has the unfortunate side effect that I can get wrapped into things that are occasionally by nature temporary. I sometimes have looked for the eternal in that which is inherently fleeting in nature. However, and thankfully, this isn’t the case with all of my passions. One of these is music and I’m convinced that music is one of the vehicles by which God moves, communicates, and envelopes us. Having said that, I’ve seen myself go through a number of stages in my musical trajectory and I know that today is one step towards tomorrow. We’re always in motion.

With all this as preface, I share with you a recent realization. I had been thinking how the music of English folk singer Nick Drake has totally wrapped around my heart in recent months. I came late to the party and only started listening to him this spring and I’ve been kicking myself for not getting into his stuff sooner, however I hadn’t been able to place my finger on to what about his music has created this connection, and then it came to me.

One of the first things you’ll notice about his songs is that he’s literate, complicated (lyrically and musically), and that he has A LOT of things to share from beauty, vignettes of life, various contemplations, and all told with a passion of love but fought with loss and unfilled potential. For the uninitiated, here’s a quick re-cap. Nick released three albums between 1969-72, none of which sold more than 5,000 copies, during this time everyone around him told him he was a genius yet had NO commercial success at all and was unwilling to do any real promotion and was incredibly (painfully so) shy and introverted, this in turn caused (or probably more accentuated) him to go into a deep depression, and in 1974 (at the age of 26) he died from an overdose of medication he was on for depression. His death was ruled a suicide, although there’s be rampant speculation as to if this really was the case or if he simply took too many pills in an effort to sleep (he was a noted insomniac). Regardless, he was a troubled guy and tried his best to express this through his music.

I’ll say this. I get it. I understand having a wealth of untapped potential swimming throughout your soul and not being able to aptly express it. With Nick, he was pouring himself into these songs and nobody was listening. That must have been brutal. I know, and I mean *know*, what it’s like to realize that you’re supposed to do something and no matter what you do, it comes to no avail. This comes across in his songs as there’s an intense longing to be appreciated, loved, and to let the beauty from within come out. In related, by all accounts he only had two women who approached anything resembling a girlfriend (although neither “official” as it were) and he almost assuredly died a virgin. I bring this up as when you listen to his music you know he has a real romantic and poetic side and then you find out it was never fully reciprocated it’s something that I’ve related to. It’s been the exact same thing I’ve struggled with almost my entire life. I too, have had to live with the knowledge that I possess a serious passion for love and I’ve known all too well what it’s like to not have a genuine outlet for that passion. The stifling nature almost makes one crazy. To know you care so much but to have a series of dead ends is enough to make anyone depressed and, in an aside, if it wouldn’t have been for my faith who knows if I would be here now. And it’s because of God using music that has probably saved me as I know even if I don’t have love, there *is* some kind of reality that can be transmitted through heartfelt music, and it’s seen me through thus far.

Okay, *now* I’m getting off the rails. The point is that I suddenly came to the realization that this is someone just like me, who was passionate, who cared more than he should have, and suffered the ill effects of unrequited appreciation, love, and who knows what else he was looking for. Anyway, for me not only have I found another artist to give voice for that which has sometimes gone lacking in my life but, in an odd way, someone who’s work has shown true durability as he’s now considered one of the finest English songwriters of the past 50 years. Too bad it took so long.

Anyway, here are some of the songs I’ve related to pretty strongly in the past few months.

“Time Has Told Me” A song about longing (“Someday our ocean will find its shore”) told from someone too young to know any better. Or you would think.




“Day is Done” A contemplative piece on the work you’ve done and what it might mean.



“’Cello Song” It’s a song about death. Kinda. It’s about moving on, transition really, where we can forget this cruel world and look forward to something greater.



“Man In a Shed” Perhaps the most apt musical of story of how *I* feel in my journey of love. Sheds sometimes *are* nicer than you thought…



“Saturday Sun” Sometimes life is about the little moments and slices of life…like the sun coming out of nowhere on a Saturday. Although it’s followed up with rain on Sunday and you come to the understanding that he’s looking for Saturday sun and only getting Sunday rain. He is experiencing the sun he wants second hand, but that that’s as close as he might come.



“One of These Things First” Life has many possibilities. Which one will come first?



“Fly” Recently I was hit with the opening lines of this song, “Please give me a second grace, Please give me a second face” Sometimes I think we all need a second chance at grace with another face.



“Northern Sky” Yes, I know I just had a post of this song, and that post was actually the genesis for all of this…anyway should I be graced with another woman in my life I’d like to have this be our first dance. Holy nuts I’m a sap.



“Which Will” So much of life is about the choices we make and the effects of them. Seemingly random acts of happenstance can mean so much in the grand scheme of things.



“From The Morning” I love the potential of possibilities presented each day as we rise. This can be the fount of from which all things beautifully escape and begin to sway from a latent state to the soft embrace of grace.




“Clothes of Sand” Many claim this is primarily about his use of LSD, and there are certainly allusions to drug use which I think make up a part of this tune, but the heart of the song seems to lie in the chorus:

“Clothes of sand have covered your face
Give you meaning taken my place
So make your way down to the sea
Something has taken you far from me”
It’s about how time and circumstance change people.



Wow, didn’t mean to end the video portion with a downer. Maybe it’s not. Change isn’t always a bad thing.

Anyway, so that’s Josh & Nick. Music can be incredibly cathartic, changing, empowering, and a reminder that we’re not alone in this life. All things to His glory and purposes, right? Who musically touches your soul?