I am always on the lookout for new folk music. I‰’ve listened to the complete works of Dylan and Cash, Mitchell and Baez, but somehow my craving for this eclectic, yet beautifully simple music is never quite satisfied. I was looking through a Spotify playlist the other day, and came across a song called “Pink Moon‰” by British, singer-songwriter, Nick Drake. I was astounded that I had never heard his music before, as his vocal style and unique lyrics were comparable to those of the great music giants who laid the foundation for folk music as a serious genre.

“Pink Moon‰” is soft-spoken and simple without being boring or dull. It is what you consider to be hauntingly beautiful or disturbingly graceful music (clichÌ© oxymorons, I know). However, through just a few straightforward lyrics, the song sums up the tragedy of Nick Drake‰’s life and evokes his sense of loss and lack of hope for the world within the listener.

A pink moon symbolizes death, the central theme to the song, which expresses the pain and struggle of Drake‰’s ongoing battle with depression. “Pink Moon‰” is undoubtedly Drake‰’s musical white flag, his way of giving up the fight between himself and the various disappointments of his life: an unsuccessful music career, the inevitable diagnosis of a mental illness, and the inability to connect to the people around him. While playing a simple guitar melody, he sings “I saw it written and I saw it say/Pink moon is on it’s way/And none of you stand so tall/Pink moon gonna get you all‰Û. He repeats these blatant lines in the second, and final verse of “Pink Moon‰Û, leaving a saddening mood within the listener.

Perhaps the most painful part of the song, however, is during the brief piano riff dubbed over the guitar towards the end of the piece. The piano has an almost dropping and sinking sound, which reminds me of a teardrop falling from someone‰’s eye to a hard surface. I can‰’t say for certain if this was Drake‰’s intent, but it certainly adds another layer of intensity and heavy emotion to “Pink Moon.‰Û