In 68 eh? wow you must've been one of the first to 'dig' him then, interesting. Pink Moon ain't painful if you're a guitarist, for every plucked note is far too inspiring for the mind to wander among the doomy spiel. I find it one of the most uplifting albums; one ND dichotomy that I have my take on, is (& unlike most musicians) that 99% of his bare tunes are so damn positive, uplifting and 'major'; very few minor chords thoughout. He added mystery and doom only in his lyrics and dry vocal style. Pink Moon, BEDog, Parasite, Road among his most doom filled.. but tunes as uplifting musically I possibly don't have in my whole collection. That is odd.
I think he was playing a childish, dark and dangerous game with people by creating a sort of doomed characature, hashish ultimately frazzling his perception of reality and this pseudo world he created for himself.. but he could still play beautiful, complicated guitar right up till the last days afaik, so he definately had this dexterity firmly in check.
