simple pleasures no.1 - time has told me

The summer holiday homework for my photography group is to take ten photos on the theme of 'Simple Pleasures'.

Here's my first, a box-set of CDs compiling the work of the late Nick Drake.The box itself is a replica of Nick's tuck-box at school. It was used to guard the cakes sent to him on a regular basis by his mother, Molly.

My first encounter with Nick's music came through, "Nice Enough to Eat", a brilliant 1960s Island sampler. One of the tracks I played repeatedly was "Time Has Told Me", which I subsequently discovered was the first song on Nick's debut album, "Five Leaves Left."

Nick led a short and tragic life, dying in mysterious circumstances aged just twenty six following yet another bout of depression. He's buried at Tanworth-in-Arden near to his childhood home and his grave is a regular place of pilgrimage for his many fans.

I've visited twice and on both occasions I found a haunting, elegiac beauty in the silence of the graveyard. If you want to see the photographs I took just click here.

If you've never heard the music of Nick Drake I thoroughly recommend it to you. It's one of my simple pleasures in life and I'm listening to this as I type.

From the Morning

A day once dawned, and it was beautiful
A day once dawned from the ground
Then the night she fell
And the air was beautiful
The night she fell all around.

So look see the days
The endless coloured ways
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning.

And now we rise
And we are everywhere
And now we rise from the ground
And see she flies
And she is everywhere
See she flies all around

So look see the sights
The endless summer nights
And go play the game that you learnt
From the morning

Songwriter: Nick Drake

© BMG Rights Management (Uk) Limited, Warlock Music, Ltd.

endless coloured ways

This beautiful song by Nick Drake always reminds me of Autumn for some reason. It was the last thing he recorded before his untimely death.
 

'From The Morning'

A day once dawned and it was beautiful
A day once dawned from the ground
Then the night she fell and the air was beautiful
The night she fell all around

So look, see the days
The endless coloured ways
And go play the game that you learned
From the morning

And now we rise and we are everywhere
And now we rise from the ground
And see she flies, and she is everywhere
See she flies all around

So look, see the sights
The endless summer nights
And go play the game that you learned
From the morning

Nick Drake

(1948 - 1974)

 

chasing down the night

Into the night, chasing down shadows and voices and silent black and white images projected onto two screen curtains.

We heard their voices soar. The music from a Tanworth window taking us back in time to sunlight and chasing butterflies across a churchyard tombstone, stone dead and just five leaves left.