Nick Drake - Clothes Of Sand Lyrics

Commercials should not violate the beauty of this song

Some of his songs that never made his 3 studio albums are his best. This, Joey, Been Smoking Too Long and Time Of No Reply spring to mind.

15 people dislike this, I can't believe it! Listening to this 2019

Timeless and Beautiful. A song so haunting that it sounds as if it has always existed from time immoral.

I've played this song about eight times in a row now. On this night, 45 years ago, Nick went to sleep for the last time. Heartbreaking.

How could he compose such a heart-rending melancholy intro to a song? One can only close the eyes and cry

For the guitar players this is simply the 2nd string turned down to "A" (EADGAE). This song is well within reach for any hobby player IMO. Great tuning to know. Cheers.

Can you now return to from where you came, try to burn your changing name

This song is absolutely amazing...as one friend suggested me is probably about himself...a mirror...the 'new' him...who has taken you so far from me... an absolute talent...Divine Gift***

What an amazing song why has it taken me so long to find it

A interpretação de Renato Russo também ficou sensacional

I keep thinkin ive just found my favourite song by Nick... till i start hearing another one!

Mystical.

my love! thank you

i love how every one of his songs has comments like this is one of Nick's best songs

I feel sorry for people who have never heard Nick Drake.

Me too✌

What a good looking kid with a sad story - just watched his documentary. So many of his pictures remind me of Beck in his longer hair days. I kept thinking "Who is that reminding me of?" and it hit me. https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/rs-9339-130202-beck-7-rect-1359841425.jpg?crop=900:600&width=440 (especially on the front cover of the MOJO magazine.)

Absolutely Divine. Absolutely haunting.

In a similar vibe?
https://youtu.be/fA3Ue8xDBN0

Renato Russo.

I'm off to Tamworth again this year to visit Nick's grave. His music means so much to me. This is another hidden gem, thanks Saturdayson.

I hope to go someday... ❤

@Taylor Atkins Go to the "Gathering" ;-)

I hear Chris Cornell or Eddie Vedder in his voice, similar spirit

This guy was here to remind us of our mere mortalness - when we thought we were pretty good, there was Nick Drake to remind us that we weren't even close to good.

Mortality?

So this song is about a girl he liked converting to islam and running off with a muslim man, right?

This sounds like death. Death has taken his lady fair.

PANCAKES PANCAKES That's been my take on the lyrics. Lost his girl to the fast life and found her lifeless on the beach.

Really? I always thought that it was about someone losing themselves in drug addiction, falling far from grace and the "singer" is asking these questions, who has dressed you in these crappy clothes, was it all worth it seeing the world through painted eyes(chasing the high). Can you now return to from where u came, try to your changing name, pretty much going back and fixing things especially with those who were affected by the other persons addiction, and getting better. Who had said that my sayings were wrong? Pretty much sounds to me like despite all the advise of staying away from such hurtful things, the user rejects it all and sucumbs to their addiction. It doesnt necessarily have to be about drugs. But maybe someone who took a different path in life despite knowing that it wasnt a good one, and ended up in a very bad place. Thats the beauty of nick drakes writing, they can be intrepreted a thousand different ways

God damn gorgeous.

Steve von till of Neurosis does a really nice cover of this song... I didn't even know it was a cover until recently

Renato russo

Who has dressed you in strange clothes of sand
Who has taken you far from my land
Who has said that my sayings were wrong
And who will say that I stayed much too long?

Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning but taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me

Does it now seem worth all the colour of skies
To see the earth through painted eyes
To look through panes of shaded glass
See the stains of winter's grass

Can you now return to from where you came
Try to burn your changing name
Or with silver spoons and coloured light
Will you worship moons in winter's night

Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning but taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me

Thank you.

It is a Holly Letter

l'art c'est l'expression et la musique de nick; c'est l'expression pure et simple qu'on ne peut resté indifferent à son écoute,malgré toutes ces années écoulées;les artistes doués de ce don sont très très rares.merci nick....

My God. What a beauty

giovanni natoli Nick Drake, Tim Buckley e John Martyn. Il meglio del meglio...

He's one of my spirit guides I have experienced the undiscovered

Nick has a nostalgic voice, beautiful we should shoot his music video

Amazing.everybody has to see that cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl92Z-sa2rY

Kedves Károly köszönöm szépen.

The sheer gravity of those opening chords....

This is one of Nick's best songs, so it's odd that it wasn't included on one of the three main albums but the danger there would have been the interference of over-production rather than the pure essence of Nick singing alone with his guitar.

to look to panes of shade of glass..see the stains of winters grass? like

I love this song. Renato Russo 's cover is amazing.

So mystical and brilliant.

If he'd have lived he would have been as big as Leonard Cohen.

Nope. Nice try tho

He would have been bigger.. his songwriting is phenomenal. All of his songs have a soundscape that's so unique. It's haunting and beautiful to hear. And popularity has nothing to do with the amount of talent. So in all honesty I don't know if he would have been more famous but it doesn't matter at all.

@Jules Gilmour he wouldnt. He didnt want to be famous. He wouldve just kept living and died in obscurity. Just like he wanted to

I think he'd just be a recluse and knock out albums.

@Andrew Corbett if he had had more recognition in his lifetime perhaps he would still be with us. He was the opposite of hype

Only Nick Drake and Elliott Smith could do this...What a feeling..

I would say Jeff Buckley, too. But in a different way.

A song to our sons who've followed the Pied Piper of Morphine to their deaths.

Clothes of Sand-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2bg1M9jn8

This is incredible

See the earth through painted eyes

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3, yes, just a silly list of hearts, nick is unenarrable

Apparently inspired somehow by his time in Morocco.

Musically very much drawing on Jackson C Frank (listen to Milk and Honey)

Robert Schmitt
Thanks for the info . :)

Wish I had met him.

Who has dressed you in strange clothes of sand
Who has taken you far from my land
Who has said that my sayings were wrong
And who will say that I stayed much too long?

Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning but taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me.

Does it now seem worth all the colour of skies
To see the earth through painted eyes
To look through panes of shaded glass
See the stains of winters grass.

Can you now return to from where you came
Try to burn your changing name
Or with silver spoons and coloured light
Will you worship moons in winters night.

Clothes of sand have covered your face
Given you meaning but taken my place
So make your way on down to the sea
Something has taken you so far from me.

This man touches your inner reflections and psychi.

David Cummings
Who you telling . :)

One friend of mine say something interesting "nick drake and john keats are the same soul in other life." I dont believe in those things but its interesting. When you listen to nick he stays with you like an outum leave. And john keats feels the same once you read him. Them both were very sensitive, shy and have deep roots in nature and melancholy.

Perfect. Renders melancholy absolutely; understandably; compellingly...

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
https://www.facebook.com/Nick-Drake-Five-Leaves-Left-1684909638418028/

gosto do Renato Russo cantando ela

Quase Nada MC5 Conheci o Nick Drake pelo Renato kkkkkk. Realmente é muito top... aquele vozeirão cantando essa música...

Sim o Renato cantando ficou melhor q o original...

If you want a similar vibe to Nick's music, check out my song I have on my channel. It would mean the world to me. Keep supporting good music & have a nice day, I won't disappoint!

Prachtig

As with many of Nick's lyrics, multiple meaning may be found. To me it is a song about Christ and how people have been taken far from Him in their trips (literal) and otherwise. The sand could mean the burial or death that comes with sin. Nick was more traditional than some might think in some ways. I wonder if his family attended that church in Tanworth-In Arden? I know his mother donated money to the organ and/or organist who organizes the annual remembrance.

+Jolene DeLilys This may or may not be accurate, but a friend told me he read an interview with Drake that he arranged these lyrics from a poem his grandmother had written about losing her first love in WW1. According to the interview, the 'Clothes of Sand' is a burial reference, as is "so make your way on down to the sea", [during the funeral procession]. If that's true, I find the line "Does it now seem worth all the colour of skies?" to be the most prescient, succinct description of the complete pointlessness that the catastrophic slaughter that the war was.

Thank you for that profound info.

+voodoosilent Is very interisting that information because i have always thought that this song talks about loss of love...

Still mind blowing after a thousand listens

Right?! intense!

Mystical.

simply beautiful 

Nessuno, come Nick Drake, riesce a raccontare con tanta amarezza e con una tale timida e pacata poesia, il dolore esistenziale che ti lascia un amore a vuoto

Such bittersweet intensity superimposed on a bare, minimal framework. Emotion conveyed almost without emotion, yearning on a flat sheet, words rendered down to base values.

i would say cLothes of SanD

He floats my heart with each note! :)

What an amazing singer/songwriter/guitarist.

mine too.

mine too...

mine too...

mine too...

Check out my songs! They are inspired by Nick Drake.

Deeply moved by Nicks music...always ♥

Remember first listening to Time of No Reply and being almost instantly hypnotised, under Nick's thrall - and particularly to this track, which I immediately learned how to play - never could be a substitute for his sublime voice x

All his songs end too soon.

I think this might be my favorite song *nods* It is. Love ND, Love this the most, it tugs at my heart and pulls at its strings with every note. Beautifully written and performed, the man is an actual legend.

Nick has more feeling in his songs than anyone else I've listened to. And it doesn't get better than this one. It's perfection.

exactly, well said.

i especially like the line "does it now seem worth all the colours of skies, to see the earth through painted eyes". It's so paradoxical to ask whether it is worth something that is good. Nick was so good at writing stuff that doesn't seem to make any sense until you've thought about it for hours and hours, and only then does a sort of narrative start to take shape.

I love this song....it has an aching quality and otherworldliness that goes right to the core. it has a feeling of someone caught between worlds that i can relate to ,and an expression of grief that is palpable,saying farewell to someone who has chosen to leave not just a home,but an entire way of life,never to return. Beautiful.

Me encanta esta canción .... tiene una calidad dolor y otro mundo que va a la derecha hasta la médula. tiene un sentimiento de alguien atrapado entre mundos que puedo relacionar, y una expresión de dolor que es palpable, diciendo adiós a alguien que ha optado por dejar no sólo una casa, sino toda una forma de vida, nunca volver. Hermosa.

So true...

so lovely, so soft. "only the good die young". RIP.

Do you like Gordon Lightfoot?

are you saying nick drake is female you fucking worthless bitch!?!? pathetic attention seeker if so!!! nick drake is a legend...died in a sad way, from anti-depression pills he took face down, his mom didn't hear him praticing his guitar and knew something was wrong! back then depression and pills were not as well understood as today, can't believe you said this was a woman! this is from fucking 1969! he has a facial, hair style of jim morrison of the doors actually....

John_Peisithanatos
You tell it !!

your mumbo jumbo never tells me anything

WOMAN??
GO BACK TO BIEBER

he died long ago

are you fucking serious?

This song is like a glimpse of paradise...

O Trovador!

Lovely !! Thank you for posting

TE ADORO NICK¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Thanks for this wonderful piece of music Nick :)

Truly an enigma, little gems rise to our awareness when we least expect it, Thanks Nick <3

jeez amazing vocals

interesting pictures....never seen the one at 2:15 before. There's quite a few pictures of Nick Drake but strangely no footage

this song always ends too soon

he brokes my heart