‘Last Ride’: The song Beach House wrote about the tragic death of Nico
Countless legendary musicians have had songs written about them, especially if the circumstances surrounding their death feel particularly tragic. John Lennon, for instance, inspired songs like ‘Murder’ by David Gilmour and Paul McCartney’s ‘Here Today’. When Nico died after a bike accident and misdiagnosis in 1988, Beach House captured the unfortunate event with a heartfelt piano-based anthem about life’s fragility.
Nico’s storied life and career are filled with immense twists and turns, but her endearing aura and unwavering appeal can be best condensed into one word: authenticity. After all, many artists attempt to feign coolness or misery to seem more mysterious or endearing, but Nico always had authenticity effortlessly ingrained in her the moment she set foot in the spotlight.
Born post-World War II in Cologne, Nico didn’t just know and acknowledge the darkness in her own heart; it was as much a part of her as breathing, setting the tone for many themes she would later explore in her art, like heartache, loss, and cultural disillusionment. When she became a part of the counterculture scene, people became enamoured with her enigmatic charm, drawn in by an indescribable quality that made her stand out from the rest.
Everything about her was a beacon, from her unconventional look to her accent, all of which came adorned with a type of cynicism that reflected many facets of the German Expressionist aesthetic. She was unkempt, uncanny, and the ultimate detector of pretence, with a deep-seated fascination with melancholy and embracing inner demons.
This je ne sais quoi was perhaps best captured by John Cooper Clark when he reflected on her presence in the pages of his memoir, I Wanna Be Yours. “Even if it was for one night only at a Holiday Inn, [Nico] would convert the most anonymous accommodation into Nico World,” he wrote, highlighting how, wherever she found herself and whoever she was surrounded by, the show became hers, and hers only.
Despite the self-destructive tendencies she entertained while she was alive, her death added an overwhelming layer of tragedy to an already complicated legacy, enhancing the sense of sorrow of someone who knew trauma from day one. As a result, capturing this in a song is difficult, almost impossible, even, but somehow, Beach House managed to highlight the viscera of her life and death with the atmospherically haunting track, ‘Last Ride’.
On July 17th, 1988, Nico fell from her bike and hit her head before doctors at the hospital misdiagnosed a heart attack as a complication from heat exposure. This, coupled with the many difficulties she experienced while she was alive, was captured not only in the song’s lyrics but also in its visceral arrangements, signposting an ambiguous existence rooted in darkness and despair.
This is also what makes the lyrics feel oddly blunt and direct when compared with the accompanying arrangements, which thrive on evoking overwhelming feelings of reflection and nostalgia. “There she goes / Around the bend / The sun is slow / Unknown friend / There she goes / The sun went bad / The cycle ends,” lead singer Victoria Legrand chronicles, masterfully capturing Nico’s own disposition—sharp-edged and to the point, but with an underlayer of haunting tragedy.
