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caryne
Old Love
United Kingdom
1520 Posts |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3492 Posts |
 Posted - 08/10/2009 : 23:03:48
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yeah, he passed on Saturday unfortunately
worked with the Strawbs, Nick Drake
not sure about whether he worked with
the great John Martyn |
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sometimesmylifeissoeerie
Fourth Love
198 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 03:34:48
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That's very sad to hear.
He couldn't have been that old- in his 60s maybe.
I haven't read the obit yet.
I was just reading an interview with him on the Nick Drake site, where he was told that some people thought the strings were too much for the first Drake LPs.
His odd response was that since Nick Drake is the patron saint of depressives, they're probably just being over-sensitive.
After just reading Ian MacDonald's "Exiled From Heaven", I think IM would be very unhappy about that comment.
IM felt that Drake's music had a more hopeful, transcendent message at the center of it, than the sadness that some people have projected on it.
If you read the rapturous responses to "River Man" on youtube (well over a thousand!), you'd have to agree.
I don't think as highly of Kirby's arrangements as the chap that arranged "River Man".
Kirby's arrangements are all good, but kind of bland compared to "River Man" and say, George Martin's arrangements for the Beatles, but that could've been because that was what Drake wanted for his songs.
He was also very young (they were both still in college).
RIP Mr. Kirby. |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3492 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 04:19:13
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as beautiful as Nicks music is,
it is overwhelmingly sad
Because the fellow died so young (26) and without
fulfilling his considerable potential
I couldn't listen to Pink Moon for a long while I remember,
still can't take "Know" - haven't played that for ages
These days I tend to play Five Leaves Left and the occasional
track off Bryter Layter. I don't think the sadness entered
Nick's life until after Bryter Layter and its commercial failure
Pink Moon is a direct response to that - no strings,
no backing singers. From what you read about Nicks state of mind in
1972 (his refusal to answer the door, his sitting
without speaking) its a miracle he was able to
get Pink Moon down on tape in a couple nights |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9876 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 05:49:28
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I think Nick's music was a direct response to his depression and in that sense, a hopeful outlet. Just as any real blues artist will tell you,
singing the blues is meant to make one feel better, not worse. Maybe you have to live the blues to sing the blues, but it's a release from sorrow, not a self indulgence. And in that sense, Nick was singing the bluest blues. Maybe it's a Zen thing. Love hate, happy sad, goodbye and hello.
So I find all of Nick's music, even the very saddest or lowest, to be uplifting in a strange way. Am I making sense to anyone here? And even Pink Moon ends on a hopeful note with "From The Morning". I like to think that Nick was in a more hopeful place at the end, of there being something better, out there, ahead, somewhere....and that when he awoke that fateful morning, he would be there.
____________________________________________________________
Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might,
and when you laugh, laugh like hell,
and when you get angry, get good and angry.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
--william saroyan
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rocker
Old Love
USA
3606 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 14:42:03
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| lk...Let me say this I admire that you can listen to Drake's music. You know I can't. I find it very hard. My makeup rebels. It's like I can't read certain works or poems. I remember in lit class we had to read Plath. Her inner life was in turmoil. It was hard to read about her great pain. |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3492 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 17:46:07
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I think the last recorded song we hear from Drake is
on Made to Love Magic, where hes playing
"Tow the line" and then you hear him setting his
guitar down, literally
After that of course there would be no music as he overdosed
on his prescribed Triptyzol. His intent there was not clear |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9876 Posts |
Posted - 12/10/2009 : 23:13:12
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quote:
Originally posted by rocker
lk...Let me say this I admire that you can listen to Drake's music. You know I can't. I find it very hard. My makeup rebels. It's like I can't read certain works or poems. I remember in lit class we had to read Plath. Her inner life was in turmoil. It was hard to read about her great pain.
Maybe because I've been through so much in the last 4 years, losing my sister to cancer, my Father-in-Law to pneumonia & my Mother to a fall down her stairs right in front of me. I was at their sides for each passing.
I can wade grief, whole pools of it........not by choice.....so I guess I relate.
____________________________________________________________
Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might,
and when you laugh, laugh like hell,
and when you get angry, get good and angry.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
--william saroyan
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sometimesmylifeissoeerie
Fourth Love
198 Posts |
Posted - 13/10/2009 : 03:11:45
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I've been really immersed in Drake lately, I bought Bryter Layter recently, spent two four hour car drives subjecting my family to Five Leaves Left, read the Humphries biography, and finally finished the Ian MacDonald piece "Exiled From Heaven".
LK is right (sorry to hear about all the misfortunes), and Ian MacDonald agreed with him, Drake wanted to make people happy with his music (just as LK described the effect of the blues on its listeners).
JM was right also, IM's piece on Drake was the most perceptive of the three books/pieces written about him.
There is no way you can understand the cryptic meanings of his songs' lyrics without reading that piece.
He had a very Buddhist outlook on life and IM deciphers all the code words Drake used.
However, I am not including Pink Moon in all the above.
I still don't have that, and I can't comment on that LP.
IM said Nick refused to take the Tryptizol regularly, so he could continue to write the songs for Pink Moon.
However if you don't take an antidepressant regularly, it has no therapeutic effect on a depressive illness.
He used it as a sleeping pill, and when it wouldn't work one night, he took more, and that is the most toxic drug around in overdose.
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caryne
Old Love
United Kingdom
1520 Posts |
Posted - 13/10/2009 : 11:24:32
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| I must admit I am a little sad that a thread mourning the death of one man has been turned into yet another thread about Nick Drake. I admired Drake too but as this is an obituary thread for Robert Kirby I feel it not quite right, on this occasion, to go off on a tangent. Hope everyone understands? |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3492 Posts |
Posted - 13/10/2009 : 15:45:41
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An interesting quote from Melody Maker by Kirby:
I feel I must clarify a poiint which I hope you will wish to correct as soon as possible.
In Nick Kent's article on Nick Drake he states at some length that I was responsible for the arrangement of the track "Riverman" on the album "Five leaves left". In our discussion on the phone, I pointed out to Mr Kent that at that time Nick and myself agreed that I was not able to arrange such a complex song. It was beautifully scored by Harry Robinson (as stated on the sleeve).
As the majority of people who know and love Nick's music agree that this is probably his finest orchestral song, I would hate to be thought in any way responsible for such a misrepresentation (though obviously accidental) against Mr Robinson, who is probably Britains most skillfully original string arranger
- Robert Kirby, Muswell Hill, London N10 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9876 Posts |
Posted - 13/10/2009 : 22:46:50
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It's a bit silly to police a subject and try to control where it goes. The point of a forum like this is to start a subject and see where it goes. So what if it digresses to other related subjects or even seemingly UNrelated subjects... Kirby has a direct and important connection to Nick which gives us a link to appreciate Kirby's talents and roots.
Almost any subject that is somehow related to Drake, even if it starts with something "unrelated", will inevitably lead to discussions of Nick....but who cares!! Just because one starts a certain subject doesn't mean there is an inherent right to police it. I am quite pleased when a subject moves around, about and forward from an original post & I would guess most everyone else agrees here.
Hell, we can now move to a discussion of Elton John and Elvis Costello, as far as I'm concerned, (two more artists that Kirby wrote and arranged for) and I would be happy that the original post about Robert Kirby's passing led us there....a tribute to his talents, not a sad thing at ALL!
____________________________________________________________
Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might,
and when you laugh, laugh like hell,
and when you get angry, get good and angry.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
--william saroyan
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caryne
Old Love
United Kingdom
1520 Posts |
Posted - 13/10/2009 : 23:06:49
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quote:
Originally posted by lemonade kid
It's a bit silly to police a subject and try to control where it goes. The point of a forum like this is to start a subject and see where it goes. So what if it digresses to other related subjects or even seemingly UNrelated subjects... Kirby has a direct and important connection to Nick which gives us a link to appreciate Kirby's talents and roots.
Almost any subject that is somehow related to Drake, even if it starts with something "unrelated", will inevitably lead to discussions of Nick....but who cares!! Just because one starts a certain subject doesn't mean there is an inherent right to police it. I am quite pleased when a subject moves around, about and forward from an original post & I would guess most everyone else agrees here.
Hell, we can now move to a discussion of Elton John and Elvis Costello, as far as I'm concerned, (two more artists that Kirby wrote and arranged for) and I would be happy that the original post about Robert Kirby's passing led us there....a tribute to his talents, not a sad thing at ALL!
____________________________________________________________
Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might,
and when you laugh, laugh like hell,
and when you get angry, get good and angry.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
--william saroyan
With any other type of thread I would totally agree with you LK, I really would. I just felt with an obituary type thread it isn't quite the done thing. Just how I feel, that's all. |
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Joe Morris
Old Love
3492 Posts |
Posted - 14/10/2009 : 16:06:11
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I understand Elton really likes Nick Drake
(And who wouldn't Scot  ?
Back to Kirby - I hope they release the scores he worked on for Nicks
songs. He had kept several in his potting shed - its how he
did the "new" songs for I Was Made to Love Magic:
"I was made to love magic" (aka "Magic") and "Time of no reply"
Did he ever do any work with John Martyn I wonder - can't hear
Martyn with strings though - his acoustic playing is pretty raw
Back to Kirby: yeah, meeting Nick while both were trying out for
Footlights in Cambridge really changed the course of his life. I
didn't know he dropped out of college (like Nick, who didn't want
a safety net - which turned to his undoing when he couldn't keep any
other job, unfortunately, after music failed him)
Island Records must've LOVED him
Ironic that Nick's best orchestrated song ("River song") (lets just say best song, actually) should prove not to be not his work
I love how Nick really didn't like the work of the original arranger
Hewson on the tracks
they cut for Five Leaves Left and insisted on Kirby. And when they
heard his work on "Way to blue", Joe Boyd and John Wood were STUNNED
How old was he at the time - round about Nicks age I imagine. Talk
about a break! 21 and you're hearing your work done on album
Like how he liked the Beatles - yeah, they were a pretty good band!
Definitely an "Eleanor Rigby" influence on Five Leaves Left
I have a few interviews of the man, one at a Nick Drake tribute night
(a Skin too few film premiere where they even brought along Nicks
guitar!)
Always gave the impression of being obliged to Nick and in awe of his
musical genius
I do think Robert was in bands in Cambridge before meeting with Nick
and working on his music. The two did do a fete at Cambridge
(I think Nick played piano, and sax) and of course Robert
arranged songs like "Way to blue" that were played
Being a musician must've helped, as most of the chord voicings
Nick used cannot have been easy to transpose ("Thoughts of
Mary Jane" is in open G5 tuning for Gods sake!
RIP Rob. Cheers mate! |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9876 Posts |
Posted - 14/10/2009 : 18:44:33
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Thanks for that info, Joe, and thanks for the Elton John reference!! 
____________________________________________________________
Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might,
and when you laugh, laugh like hell,
and when you get angry, get good and angry.
Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
--william saroyan
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scully
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
217 Posts |
Posted - 14/10/2009 : 21:32:49
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quote:
Originally posted by caryne
Just thought many here would, like me, be saddened to hear of the death of Robert Kirby, known for arranging work with Nick Drake.
The Guardian have printed an obituary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/07/robert-kirby-obituary
Ah, sad news, so many great souls going recently. |
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Robert Kirby - RIP
