Nick Drake- Parasite (REACTION & REVIEW) 

The film I was trying to remember was "The Man From Nowhere" 🎬

David Bowie once said that in a fully technologised future, people will find comfort in touching something that is made of wood. I think this is one of the reasons why Nick Drake's music is so enduringly popular; it sounds like it's made of wood. Not just the sound though, because it's played on a wooden instrument, obviously, but also the feel of it. There's an authenticity to it that just can't be dissected.

I've always taken it that he's on the tube passing through stations..... he's observing but nobody notices him. It's words from a poor melancholic soul. Nick was a wallflower...... but a rare and beautiful one

There are many references to the London landscape he was living in at that time. As a Londoner myself, it invokes the depressing post sixties atmosphere that enshrouded London then. . He's got it perfectly. He's a poet!

Stay safe in the storm Justin! Similar chord progression to Dear Prudence by The Beatles but a step and then some higher.

Beautiful song! It kinda sounds similar to Radiohead's “Subterranean Homesick Alien”. I wonder if they knew Nick's song when they wrote it.

My favourite Nick Drake album is Five Leaves Left. Listened to it in awe and wonder many times. Stay safe JP.

As Martin Paterson said in the comments, this is about homelessness and the people society regard as “parasites”. I almost see it as a companion piece to Jethro Tull’s Aqualung, but with a very different approach and style.

Amazing song. An amazing band who you may also like is Godspeed you black emperor

I believe you're feelings are felt by many on first listening to this artist I can tell you I'm in your corner... Enjoyed your reaction as usual Not sure about the music but it's growing on me... a little more each time, especially since I watched a documentary on him...

If I had to summarise this album in one word I would say hypnotic. When I listen, he seems to communicate feeling in a way that I can't simply explain from the lyrics, the guitar playing or even his voice. With some albums, the feeling you experience comes because of when you first heard them and memories of that time, particularly if it was when you were growing up. However, that's not the case for me here because I discovered Nick Drake relatively recently. I did know the story of his life before I heard him, though, and that could colour the experience of listening to him, I suppose.

Ned from Spain again. Thank you J for your excellent and insightful comment. Nick Drake is to me a bridge between traditional folk, which could be complex, and post punk, modern music, artists like Magazine, Soft Boys, Nico, John Lennons early solo albums but also Scott Walker because it's intense, dark, no punches pulled and boiled down to it's essence. Plus name me anyone who could play with that kind of precision, emotion and incisive razor sharp lyrics and make it so beautiful too.

Cold Fish! You’re thinking of Cold Fish!

Casting out demons, with guitar and words. The Drake could not duck the voices he heard. Nick was seeking paradise, but never found the bird. Peace.✌🦆

Another lovely reaction to a great song - thanks for all that you do. It's no doubt because you are a young American responding to a British song from way back but you miss the social context. Primarily it's about the homeless sleeping rough in London (the Northern Line is a reference to the Tube stations where they sleep and beg) - and no one, especially the rich and the politicians, care what happens to them: they are regarded as undeserving, as parasites on society. It's actually pretty close in theme to the Bong Joon-Ho movie, and to Bob Dylan's song "Only a Hobo". Back to Kevin Coyne for a moment - I wished you'd not rushed through those lyrics, maybe you did because of the technical issue with them - but there is a very similar psychological and sociological depth to them and they merit closer attention: the outsider wanting to be let in, but also - to refer to a joke cited by Freud - not wanting to belong to any club whose standards are so low that it would have him as a member.

"Name me someone who's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"

The Northern Line is an underground metro line in London. It existed in the 1970s in Nick's day also. I imagine him descending the escalator in the station, to go busking. And the lyrics are his POV as an unnoticeable, unwanted busker, who views himself as a parasite but also sees the behavior of people passing by parasites who travel two by two from the metro to the station escalator, and possibly the behaviour of certain men and how they treated women. Also, Nick was born in formerly British India, and raised in England, so its possible his family were economically sound, so he felt like he was a silver spoon kid that did nothing with his life so far. A deeply personal and introspective tale I think. The chord playing is mesmeric though.

Oh my God. Nick’s songs just like Mark Hollis’s later records always stop me in my tracks, and leave me feeling so emotional

I don't listen to enough Nick Drake but, then again, neither does the entire planet. PS. You made 'The Prog Corner's' top 15 RU-vid channels worth listening to! Congrats.

Banger

The thing about Korean movies - for decades they were under stifling film censorship laws. Then in the 90's those laws were lifted, resulting in a release of pent-up creativity that was like a dam bursting.

This is an album you play from beginning to end on a quiet night around your fire pit. Just you and your thoughts. I guess anyone that wants to be with you in this kind of contemplative state is welcome so long as they are totally muzzled and/or muted. Time stops and you can dive deep when you toss on Pink Moon and give yourself the gift of pressing “play”. I can almost hear the crackle of a good cedar fire.

Parasite is a great track, more importantly my favourite Korean movie is Welcome to Dongmakgal a beautiful film or Japanese film Fish Story saw it recently genius

One of the most beautifully tortured tunes I know of. Forever in my top 5 Nick Drake songs

Enjoying this journey with you and appreciating your ability to help me hear music I love in different ways.

Hope you get a chance to listen to a little more English folk/rock there are many great artists that are that not that well known in the US. I can't remember if you've done Bert Jansch yet, but I know you listened to Pentangle, which he was a part of. Neil Young called him the Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar. Led Zeppelin stole his adaptation of the Irish folk tune Down by Blackwaterside as Black Mountain Side for their first album. He has quite a large catalog so I'd suggest either Bert Jansch, Birthday Blues or L.A. Turnaround.

I Saw the Devil, Train to Busan, The Host.. Great entertainment

I had Way to Blue in 1994. This one didn’t make it on to that compilation and i can appreciate why. The Lilac Time were one of many fans of Nick Drake’s, but are they the only band to be named after one of his lyrics? Try “in iverna gardens “ for a late blast of summer joni on holiday vibe. U betcha

Proto-grunge

Simply beautiful.

Haunting genius

I've been known to bandy the word 'samey' around on several of my comments, but i'm now reallising Mr Drake here is the king of samey. He just seems to trot out weak fingerpicked tunes and rambles over the top. Just as well you're playing this JP, no way i'd get through a whole album of this stuff on my jack...

Holy moly. No one cares about Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, or Draco Rosa. A lot of people get overlooked. So I get it, but thanks so much. I would really love it if you would do a back to back of Nick Drake’s “Northern Sky“ and a youth choir version of it. They are so great. Yeah they are. The Nick Drake original - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S3jCFeCtSjk.html The youth choir. This is what I want our world to look like. It makes me so happy to see all of this. I don’t mean to be optimistic, but I am. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EZ5X4qesLRs.html