Issue 21 - River Man

Hello and welcome to my weekly email newsletter, Deep Life Reflections: Friday Five, where I share five things I’m enjoying, thinking about, and find interesting.

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Here’s my Friday Five this week.

1. What I’m Reading

Extracts from Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack.

Nick Drake released just three albums during his lifetime. There is no known footage of him performing live, and very few interviews exist. His beautiful, meditative, and melancholic take on English folk—marked by his gentle, finger-picked guitar style and delicate vocals—slipped through the commercial cracks during his lifetime. Drake died from an overdose of antidepressants in 1974, aged just 26.

The first song I heard by Drake was “River Man,” around 2005, when I was thirty. I’d never heard such a vulnerable vocal delivery of a song. “River Man” is a meditative reflection on the ebb and flow of time and our place within it. The repeated refrain, “Gonna see the River Man,” suggests a longing to escape from the overwhelming rush of time. To me, it’s also a commentary on alienation and loneliness. It’s a sublime piece of music from an extraordinary talent, showcasing his consummate songwriting. Listen to it here.

In the extracts I read from Nick Drake: The Life, there is an exchange of letters between Drake and his father, Rodney, during Nick’s university years. The letters hint at Drake’s growing turmoil and confusion. Nick had expressed a desire to drop out of university to fully commit to his music, but his father urged him—kindly and patiently—to see it through, viewing education as a safety net. Perhaps Rodney failed to grasp the intensity of his son's commitment to his music, or, as he later conceded, his brilliance.

Despite dying in obscurity, Nick Drake’s music has found new audiences and generations in the decades since. His record sales, now in the millions, speak to the enduring appeal of his immaculate and timeless short body of work. His songs continue to capture the intimate nature of life, loss, love, and the passage of time.

“When the day is done / Down to earth then sinks the sun / Along with everything that was lost and won / When the day is done.”

- “Day Is Done” by Nick Drake. From the album Five Leaves Left.

2. What I’m Watching

Simon & Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park. 1981.

One of life’s modern digital pleasures is finding something you weren’t looking for. This happened when I stumbled upon this gem of a live concert from Simon & Garfunkel on YouTube.

On September 19, 1981, after an 11-year hiatus, Simon & Garfunkel reunited on stage for a free concert in New York City's Central Park. The concert was set against the backdrop of a city grappling with financial and social challenges, and the concert was aiming to raise funds for a Central Park in desperate need of maintenance and repair.

The music of Simon & Garfunkel has become synonymous with the social upheaval and revolution of the 1960s. Their music achieves the difficult trick of being both nostalgic and relevant, a testament to the genius of Paul Simon, who stands as one of his generation’s greatest songwriters. On a warm night in Central Park, more than 400,000 people packed into a space for only 50,000, drawn by both nostalgia and the contemporary resonance of their music—a reminder of the power of music to bridge divides, generate a sense of communal belonging, and create shared experiences.

The concert’s highlights included timeless songs like “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “The Sound of Silence,” and “Mrs. Robinson.” These iconic songs, embedded in the American cultural fabric, stirred a sense of shared history and experiences. Amid our era of streaming and digital media, the event's legacy reminds us of the transformative nature of live music and the importance of immersing ourselves in the present moment with those around us (being 1981, there isn’t a single mobile phone in sight).

"Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy..."

These lyrics from “Old Friends” ring prophetic today, echoing the themes of our own lives and the forward march of time. The Simon & Garfunkel Concert in Central Park wasn't just about music; it was a shared memory, a snapshot in time, and a reminder of the many ways music shapes our lives and memories.

Watch the concert here.

3. What I’m Contemplating

In 1994, I went to my first music festival, T In the Park, just outside Glasgow. The highlight was the joint performance of the headlining acts, Rage Against the Machine and Cypress Hill, with Zack de la Rocha, Rage’s frontman, donning a Scotland football jersey to everyone’s delight.

The following year, I had my first experience of Glastonbury, spending six days in the fields of Somerset, England, enjoying some of the best artists in the world. I was nineteen. Twenty-one subsequent Glastonbury events have since taken place, the most recent just a few weeks ago.

Music is uniquely tied with memory. Any discussion or writing about it inevitably becomes personal because music, in its purest form, is a deeply personal experience. It’s a reflection of our different stages of life and experiences, capturing moments of joy, melancholy, discovery, and change.

I’m reminded of REM’s fantastic performance of “Everybody Hurts” at Glastonbury in 1999. (Watch their performance here.) The song is a comforting anthem of resilience, empathy, and shared human experience—a reminder that no-one is alone in their suffering. This shared experience of pain is part of the human condition, transcending individual boundaries. The recurring phrase “Hold on” acts as an encouragement to persevere through dark times, and that while pain is universal, so is the capacity to endure, heal, and find comfort.

4. A Quote to note

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.”

- Leo Tolstoy

5. A Question for you

Do you have a song or an album that helped you through a challenging time in your life, and what does that song or album mean to you today?

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

James