Rider On The Wheel

Sounds like he's found out that all relationships are give and take, and he finds it difficult to find that balance of being true to oneself while "keeping up a show" for the other person. This could be true of a familial relationship, a friendship, a love affair, a business partnership, or the relationship between artist and fan.

He's talking about the beginning of a loving relationship. The first few moments of the relationship were magical, but as it continued, the intensity of it revealed his full vulnerability and it's made both of them paranoid and questioning--"and now you know my name / but I don't feel the same / but I ain't gonna blame"

He wants to be trusted in complete faith, but since trust is only something that exists mutually, either her or his own insecure questioning prevents it from occuring--"but I don't feel the same." And even though they've already seen through to each other, the intensity of it has painted them into corners and he "must keep up a show."

I wonder if this song falls in with 'hanging on a star' in being about his reported disillusionment with not breaking through and being more widely accepted/successful, shame he became widely acclaimed only after death. Anyway I wonder if the 'rider on the wheel' is a DJ or anyone playing his record(s)? It would kind of fit. Maybe. Just a thought.

As someone who relates a lot to Nick Drake, I think there is a very clear message in this song about not being able to relate to most people and feeling different from practically everyone. "And now you know my name," fairly literal, or basically you can communicate with me on a surface level. "But I don't feel the same" feel like an outsider, don't want to engage in surface level conversation. "But I ain't gonna blame the rider on the wheel," What is the rider on the wheel? Simple, the wheel is Earth, and everyone is a rider on it, but I think the simplification of life is specifically referring to simple people; people who live through life happily, do the normal things, don't do anything too bad or too good, and then disappear in history. These people make up most of humanity and there is no reason to try to change them or hold animosity towards them for being the way they are. Another interpretation is that he identifies that we are all riders on thee wheel, so we are all the same, so even if you feel different, you are acting the way you are and so are others, don't blame the rider on the wheel.

The second verse is fairly literal to me; his music is not reaching anyone because it has not had time to get around, and it is really ahead of its time, but it holds truth for everyone.

Third verse is about the absurdity of life. "Round and round we go," the Earth hurls across the universe. "Take it fast and slow" its just the way life works. "Must keep up a show, for the rider on the wheel," act like someone your not throughout society.

I hear a story about a long distance relationship. The rider on the wheel, could be a bike mail carrier helping them communicate, but its sparse and undefined at best. Historically people referred to cycling or bike messengers as being a ‘rider on the wheel.’ In their correspondence things are getting lost in translation, but he’s not going to blame the messenger. He writes songs for her, but cant play them directly to her. He’s changed since they met, but must keep up the show for the messenger even through all these issues.

“Rider on the Wheel” is perhaps the best example of Nick Drake’s exceptional ability to unite music and verse into an abstract, poignant message. The tune feels as though it were spontaneously spawned into life by the spirit of a man singing from the moon, without forethought or function. Yet it’s clear from Drake’s history that a great deal of mindshare was directed towards the development of this rather simple composition. The “rider on the wheel” alludes to the needle (stylus) of a turntable, which the listeners (us) are meant to be hearing posthumously, following Drake’s death, as the phonographic record (e.g., an LP) spins around. \n\nIt is widely reported that one of Drake\'s inner demons was an unshakable feeling that the world simply would never appreciate his talents until, perhaps, long after his death. When one considers the extraordinarily exceptional effort which Drake devoted to his guitaring skills, the dedication he placed into his dreamlike music, and the resulting lackluster reception from the music industry during his living years, one can empathize with Drake’s feeling that he would never live to experience the appreciation he deserved.\n\nThe tune opens with a simple guitar melody directing one’s mind towards a street fair victrola, with the image of a rider (stylus) on the wheel (an LP spinning on a turntable). The first verse of the song then explains how we (the future listeners) now know Drake’s name, although Drake cannot possibly be presently aware of this himself, as he has long since passed: “And now you know my name, but I don’t feel the same.” And there is no sense in “blaming” the stylus for this, as it’s simply inanimate and mechanistic. In a sense, Drake parallels his posthumous, unfeeling self to the unfeeling rider on the wheel, as the stylus travels across the grooves of the record and mechanically replays what was once full of life. \n\nMoving further into this theme, the second verse intimates that the song, despite having been written decades in the past, is presently brand-new for the listeners: “I know my song is new. I know it\'s new for you.” The verse then ends by setting up yet another analogy, where Drake will tell us “how it’s true”. Although this analogy isn’t fully clear from the second verse, the third verse certainly drives this home, as we (the listeners) are equated to the turntable: “Round and round we go. We take it, fast and slow.” This of course is reminiscent of the fast and slow standard speeds of a turntables in the 1960s and 1970s. Just as the turntable has no control of itself, so are we moved by forces outside our control. \n\nWhile the third verse does not clearly explain the origin of these controlling forces, we are provided some hint in that “I must keep up a show for the rider on the wheel”, suggesting that showbusiness (e.g., the music industry) is the force which decides our fate. Perhaps Drake felt that his contemporaries would have been more likely to appreciate the magic of his music if their tastes had not been governed by the music industry. \n\nThe song ends with forgiveness to all of us, including Drake, as we are all riders on the wheel, helplessly bound to the mechanics of the system: “I ain’t gonna blame the rider on the wheel.” Indeed, the tune ends with the same sense of peace that drives the entirety of the composition.