From The Morning

The lines: And now we rise And we are everywhere is the epitaph on Nick Drakes' headstone, in Tamworth, England.

I just wanted to add the precision that the album PINK MOON in which this song appears, sounds like quite dark and gloomy. Personally, I'm a huge huge fan of Nick Drake and despite the "depressed" side of some of his songs, and especially this album, it's such a beauty that I could listen to it in any mood and it would always make me feel good. But to come back at my comment of the album PINK MOON, it was made by a Nick Drake already corroded by depression at that time (And if you love him and his music, I hope you resist the temptation to turn his life into some dumb romantic tortured poet story, because, for having much studied his history, I know he was a funny and enthousiast but just shy guy. And he fell in this disease but it wasn't his innitial personnality) So he made the album Bryter Layter before this one, album which was very orchestrated and full of collaborations and of a myriad of instruments, contrarily to Pink Moon which contains just the sound of Drake's acoustic guitar and light voice (and a piano touch in the title-song). And he was disappointed by the fact that all the people he known called him a genius but that he hadn't a public recognition (And you can hear this bitterness very clearly in the lyrics of the song HANGING ON A STAR : "Why leave me hanging on a star, when you deem me so high - And why leave me sailing in the sea, when you hear me so clear"). He fell little by little in this depression, and decided to record Pink Moon alone with one sound ingineer, he made it in just two nights, and the result is an extraordinary album, nude, crude, disarming by its beauty out of frills, but very revealing of Drake's state of mind at that time, quite dark therefore. And listening to this album, with headphones to be isolated of all exterior noises, with eyes closed, is a unique experience. Because at the end, the last song you hear is FROM THE MORNING, and this song is so positive! After all an album of a beautiful darkness, you finish on this moving celebration of life, telling you that another day starts after this tormented night, all starts again with a beautiful morning, that everything is possible with the rise of the sun. It's at the opposite with the whole rest of the album, and it ends like that. I'm telling you, you can't arrive at the end of PINK MOON with your eyes dry. That's why this song has a particular saviour. And you need to know that FROM THE MORNING was his parents favourite song, proof that it has a positive reflect, and that's why they chose a quote of this song as epitaph on his gravestone "Now we rise, and we are everywhere". I would end this comment, telling you that his mother has testified that he didn't want to be a star, but he felt that he had something to say to the people of his own generation, and he didn't feel that he did that. His sister has testified that he once said to their mother "If only I could feel that my music had ever done anything to help one single person, it would have make it worth it".... I can truly say that his music helped me!!

a insomniac he was.....

he talks about the sun rising from the earth at dawn, and the cycle of it setting again. then he compares our own human nature and repetative lifestyles to the sun. It rises, and like the sun we rise and cover the earth. He tells everyone to "see the sights, the endless summer nights" and enjoy the nightly escape from our working life. But in the end we have to return to "the game". the one the sun plays every day.

It makes me remember all my friends who died, especially the summer when I mourned them. It was the happiest summer of my life... I was awake every night and went to the mountains with a bunch of people and everything was so in tune, we didn't do anything unpleasant that whole season. And it felt that in doing so we were honoring those who died so young, burned out fast but could still make us smile. We all thought (though none of us said it) that we should make a promise to mourn like this when each of us dies, that we're all remembered as we were. I had my own girl and boy to mourn besides the friend we'd all lost, both of mine junkies, so I kept asking someone to play this song on their guitar because the girl had loved it and shown it to me, and the boy had loved it too, and he might've given up at 14, but those were 14 years lived with a thirst for everything. I knew that if there was a day of reckoning I'd be right there next to him. "Yes, I lied and I cheated and I took drugs and I was impure, but I loved well, so open the gates for me." Whenever I wanted to give up afterwards I thought of him in a white hospital robe trying to hold on to my hand while they were wheeling him away, and I know that he'd never forgive stepping out of this coil until you're good and spent, struggling to breathe from laughing, struggling to see from crying, with your heart so full you can barely stand it.

There is much duality represented. Rising from the ground (day dawning) and endless colored ways seems to be a flower blooming or a good memory.The air at night is beautiful brings to mind photosynthesis (funny I know) as the night air would be clean. Blooms are what we are; like a flower. At night she falls and flies all around is a flower closing up at night or perhaps the pollen flying around. I also get the impression of romance in this song to perhaps the playfulness of sexuality. There is a vibe here of being so liberated in spirit that a rebirth or transformation has occurred. Out of body. He is involved but enjoys observing her spirit uplifted.

He is like a painter that paints himself as a small character in the scenes. So much humility.

Have fun, 'cause you're not gonna be here long. That pretty much sums up Nick Drake for me. He deals with the big, eternal themes of life, death, and love. Every feeling, whether it's joy or sorrow, is transient. But it's almost like he's resigned to all of it. This song reminds me of staying up all night every night during a summer years ago, falling in love every night...the best time i've ever had. He has a way of capturing that kind of thing. Visited his grave in Tanworth, and that inscription is there on his headstone. He's everywhere now, isn't he?

i love this song... it literally almost makes me cry whenever i hear it... i think its just about being one with the world, it just gives you that peaceful feeling... i also think that if i can, i'd like to listen to this when i die....

This song is a posthumous retrospective. The subject in this song has died and is literally floating away from the world.

When looking down, the world is just another arrangement of color and apparent activity; a game.

Beautiful.

Long weeks of careless joy, all day long. This is a feel good song in a way.