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MICROSTORY OF ART

MICROSTORY OF ART
ONLINE JOURNAL FOR ART, CONNOISSEURSHIP AND CULTURAL JOURNALISM

Dedicated to Nick Drake (and his 1969 song River Man)

Watching the River Flow

Is He the River Man?

The Character of Betty

(Portrait of Nick Drake; picture: all pictures by DS)

Nick Drake

(28.7.2023) Some piano sheets of Nick Drake’s magisterial 1969 song River Man suggest that the song should be played in a ›relaxed swing feel‹. This is perhaps not the full truth. The mood of the song is partly relaxed, yes, but partly also very tense, eerie, and gloomy. The song is written basically in 5/4 time, and yes, it has the 5/4 swing feel, as it is known from Take Five, but changes, here and there, into a 4/4 measure. The essence of the song, as it seems to me, is instability, the feel of being out of balance, or better: to see someone being out of balance, to be in dialogue with someone who is obviously not very stable. As the character of Betty, since the song is a dialogue of the singer with a character named Betty, and it is not always very clear who’s speaking.

In Search of the River Man

Eye in Eye with the River Man

I have dedicated a series of drawings, done with a brush, but also with Neocolor and other media, to Nick Drake, and especially to his song River Man. This series could develop into many directions: into a series of paintings, but also into a graphic book, or even a graphic novel, since I had begun with a portrait of Drake (above), and it occured to me that I could draw the basic characters of the song. But who are these characters? Nick Drake, the folk singer, misjudged by his time, but rediscovered – what irony – also due to a commercial using one of his songs. The character named Betty who is oscillating between very decided gestures, she has something to say about what happened today, but the song reveals that she is probably desperate, with swinging moods, praying for something, but not recalling if she wanted the sky to be blown away or not. And then there is the River Man. But who is the River Man? I would say that the River Man is an imaginary person, someone who could be asked, as one is imagining, about things. About what is happening in the world, about what is happening in life. But it is not quite clear if such person does exist, and if yes, if one would understand his message. And this is probably what makes the singer somewhat relaxed again. We don’t have to know. Perhaps we cannot know at all. But we can ask. And we can stroll around, imagining that one or the other person that we might encounter on our walk, could be the River Man. Because we still have plans, we still are active, we still are seeking a sort of balance in life. And this search is it. Life. So the graphic novel, in case my series of drawings would develop into that direction, is not even in need of a plot. It is about being. Listening, looking, imagining, thinking, talking perhaps, and observing.

The Handstand-Moocher

Swinging Moods

Nick Dragging his Coat, Betty Watching the Sky

There is a character doing a handstand, at a public square, upon which the person is – quite aggressively – demanding money from people that are around, people who, often, not even have seen his performance. Could the handstand-moocher be the River Man? Perhaps, but I don’t think so. I have lost Betty for the moment. And Nick is listening to some street artist, around which many people have gathered. Perhaps a better showman than the real Nick Drake has been. Which means that Orpheus is rather hiding in the crowd, while the showman who is louder than Nick, gets all the attention. But not from me.
It is about the setting: people are just hanging around, at the border of a river perhaps, but not necessarily so; some, obviously, are rather out of balance, but this probably does not show with all people that actually are out of balance. It is an adventure to seek for the River Man. Who could it be? And as long as this is only a kind of game, a game that children play naturally, things are in order, and we can be relaxed. At least for the moment. The summer rain, the night, is part of the setting. The news of the day. The fallen leaves. And whoever we might encounter while strolling through such scenery. With a song in mind. A song with a beautiful harmonic pattern (in C it is: C major, add 9; C minor, add 9; Eb major 7, add 9; and Ab major, add 6; returning to C major), a pattern that remotely reminds of classic piano pieces that can be associated with water as well, but wilder waters: Etude in C minor by Chopin (the last piece in book two); Moment musical in C major by Rachmaninov (last piece of the collection). But River Man has the simplicity of a great song, that could develop, although the string arrangement is already rather baroque, into more baroque soundscapes. Or landscapes. Or into s suite. But perhaps rather into a graphic novel.