Recording Pink Moon

drake appeared have made decision before recording third album plain possible , free of numerous guest musicians had been employed on bryter layter. in autobiography joe boyd, producer of drake s first 2 albums, remembered finishing recording of bryter layter drake had told him wanted make next record alone, , in interview, published in sounds magazine in march 1971, drake told interviewer jerry gilbert next [album] had idea of doing john wood, engineer @ sound techniques .

after brief hiatus in spain spent @ villa belonging island records head, chris blackwell, drake returned london refreshed, , in october 1971 approached record engineer , producer john wood. wood had worked drake on previous 2 albums , 1 of few people drake felt trust. wood has worked other artists such fairport convention, cat stevens, , pink floyd, , worked in partnership record producer joe boyd. boyd produced drake s first 2 albums wood acting sound engineer. although wood focused on engineering of album, contributed producer.

when drake reached out wood in 1971 expressing interest in recording album, ensuing process pared down compared drake s other 2 albums. album recorded @ sound techniques studio in london in late october 1971 drake , wood present. studio booked during day, drake , wood arrived around 11:00 p.m. , , quietly recorded half songs. next night, did same. in 2 late night sessions, voice , acoustic guitar, drake created considered many 1 of influential folk albums of time .

contrary popular legend drake dropped album off in plastic bag @ island records reception , left without realising, drake delivered master tapes of pink moon chris blackwell @ island. in interview nick drake fanzine pynk moon in 1996, island s press officer david sandison recalled drake s arrival @ record company had not gone unnoticed, although there had been no indication delivering them new album:

saw him in reception after came lunch , talking , saw figure in corner on bench, , realized nick. had big, 15 ips [inches per second] master tape box under arm, , said have had cup of tea? , said erm, yes , , said want come upstairs? , said yes, okay . went upstairs office, on top of landing, landing went big office huge round table chris , else worked—very democratic—and there big reevox (sic) , sound system there, , sat in office area half hour ... after half hour said d better going , , said okay, nice see , , left. now, went down stairs , still had tapes under arm, , hour later girl worked behind front desk called , said nick s left tapes behind . went down , big sixteen-track master tape , said nick drake pink moon, , thought s not album know . first thing in studio make 7 , half inch safety copy, because master. ran off safety copy play, , think twenty 4 hours later or so, put on reevox in main room , heard pink moon.

the tapes of pink moon session included drake s recording of plaisir d amour (translated french pleasure of love ), classical french love song written in 1784 jean-paul-Égide martini. although plaisir d amour on track listing of pink moon master tape box first track of side two, when tapes presented included note in reference song read, spare title – not use , song didn t make onto album. recording less minute long, featured guitar no vocals, , included hidden track on uk editions of nick drake compilation treasury (2004). had plaisir d amour been included on pink moon album, have been song on of albums nick drake did not write himself.