Sunday, August 01, 2010

That Song In The AT&T Gates Commercial

Maybe you've seen it by now - that AT&T commercial with everything being covered in golden/orange curtains. It might seem vaguely familiar. Remember "The Gates", the art show in Central Park 2005?

(Holy cow, was that five years ago?)

Anyway, the commercial is so reminiscent of that event that it includes a disclaimer saying that the artists have nothing to do with it.

Yet it's not the imagery that grabbed me about that commercial. It's the music. A deep, melodic guitar-strumming tune, and I recognized the voice the minute I heard it.

Nick Drake.

Every once in a while Drake's songs are heard in pop culture. Take Garden State, for instance. Zach Braff's brilliant film includes "One of These Things First" from Bryter Later. Volkswagen used "Pink Moon" from the same album and his musical popularity increased.

Drake died in 1974 of an overdose and by all accounts didn't have the happiest of lives. His music lives on, of course, especially when commercials and movies give it some play (good luck finding it on the radio - not very often, for sure).

The words on his headstone read, "Now we rise/And we are everywhere" and they come from the last song on the album Pink Moon. The song is called "From the Morning" and it is the one that AT&T is using in their latest commercial. I couldn't find the spot on YouTube but I did find this video for the song.

Enjoy, and ponder.

Deep stuff to start a Sunday morning with. It matches my mood.

1 comment:

IJS said...

way to identify that song!
I love the song off the garden state cd and didn't realize he died in the 70's