Nick Drake
Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake (Rangoon, Burma, June 19, 1948-Warwickshire, England, November 25, 1974) was a British singer-songwriter and musician. Although he had little commercial success during his lifetime, his work is highly regarded today by critics and other musicians, and he is considered one of the greatest artists of the century XX.
Drake's primary instrument was the guitar, but he could also play the piano, clarinet, and saxophone. Drake signed a contract with Island Records when he was twenty years old, and in 1969 he released his first album, Five Leaves Left . He released two other albums, but neither initially sold any significant number of copies, in part because Drake refused to do live performances and interviews.Drake struggled with depression and insomnia throughout his life, a fact that was reflected in the lyrics from him After completing his third album, Pink Moon (released in 1972), he stopped playing and recording and went to live with his parents in Warwickshire.
Drake studied English Literature at Cambridge University, but dropped out nine months early to pursue his musical career. He died on November 25, 1974 at twenty-six years of age, as a result of an overdose of antidepressants that he took to sleep. It has not been possible to establish whether his death was accidental or suicide. He spent the last years of his life plunged into a deep depression, for which he was even hospitalized.
While he received no recognition in life, he is now considered a cult artist, having influenced musicians such as Badly Drawn Boy, Robert Smith (of The Cure), Peter Buck (of R.E.M.), Kate Bush, Paul Weller, The Black Crowes and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth). In 1985 The Dream Academy hit the UK and US charts with "Life in a Northern Town", a song about Drake and dedicated to The first biography of Drake was written in 1997 and the following year a documentary called A Stranger Among Us was released.
Biography
Childhood
Nicholas Rodney Drake was born on June 19, 1948 in Rangoon (Burma), where his family lived for work reasons from his father Rodney (1908–1988), who had gone to live there in the early 1930s to work as an engineer at the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. In 1934, Rodney met Mary Lloyd (1916–1993), called Molly by her family. Rodney proposed to her in 1936, although the couple had to wait a year until Molly turned 21 before the family allowed her to marry. In 1950 they returned to Warwickshire, England to live in a house called Far Leys. Drake had a older sister, Gabrielle, who would later become a successful film and television artist. Both of his parents had an interest in music and both composed pieces. Recordings of Molly that came to light after her death are considered similar in tone and perspective to her son's compositions: both had a fragile way of singing, and both Gabrielle and biographer Trevor Dann noted that there were parallels in their music. in that they generated a sense of premonition and doom. Encouraged by Molly, Drake learned to play the piano at an early age, and began composing his own songs, which he recorded on magnetic tapes.
In 1957 Drake entered Eagle House School, a Berkshire boarding school. Five years later he attended Marlborough College, a public school in Wiltshire attended by his father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather. There he developed an interest in sports: he became a very good sprinter in 100 and 200-yard dashes and was for a time the captain of the school rugby team. His friends from that period consider that, although distant, he was self-assured and "quietly authoritative". According to his father, one of the reports from the school principal stated that "no one seemed to know him very well", and that this was commonplace..
Drake played piano in the school orchestra, and learned to play the clarinet and saxophone. Between 1964 and 1965 he formed a band called The Perfumed Gardeners with four other friends from college. He mainly played the piano, although he occasionally provided his vocals and played the saxophone. The group played covers of jazz and Pye Records artists, as well as songs by The Yardbirds and Manfred Mann. Chris de Burgh asked to join the group, but they did not let him because they considered his tastes "too pop". Meanwhile, Drake's academic performance began to deteriorate and, although he had advanced a year at Eagle House in Marlborough gave up his studies to devote himself more to music. In 1965 Drake paid £13 for his first acoustic guitar, and soon began experimenting with various tuning techniques.
University
In 1966, Drake won a scholarship to study English literature at Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam College, though he delayed his admission to spend six months at the University of Aix-Marseille in France. During his stay in Aix, he began to seriously practice the guitar and play with friends in the city center for tips. Drake began smoking cannabis, and that spring he traveled to Morocco with his friends, since according to his companion Richard Charkin, "that's where you got the best weed". Drake probably first used LSD in his stay in Aix, and his lyrics from that period (such as that of the song "Clothes of Sand") suggest an interest in hallucinogens.
After returning to England, she moved into her sister's flat in Hampstead, London, before entering Cambridge in October. His professors considered him a bright student, but without enthusiasm and little dedication to study. According to Dann, Drake had difficulty relating to both the university staff and his fellow students. Cambridge placed a lot of emphasis on its teams of rugby and cricket, but Drake had lost interest in sporting activities, preferring to stay in his room smoking cannabis and listening to and playing music. In September 1967 he met Robert Kirby, a music student who would later orchestrate the arrangements. strings and horns from Drake's first two albums. By this time, Drake had discovered the English and American folk music scene, and had been influenced by artists such as Bob Dylan, Josh White, and Phil Ochs. It was then that he began appearing in London clubs, and in February 1968, while supporting Country Joe & amp; The Fish in Camden Town, made a good impression on Ashley Hutchings, bassist for the English folk group Fairport Convention, who was not only impressed by his guitar technique, but also by his image of him. He looked like a star & # 34;.
Hutchings introduced him to American producer Joe Boyd, owner of Witchseason Productions, which had a contract with Island Records. Boyd was the one who discovered Fairport Convention and was responsible for introducing John Martyn and The Incredible String Band to the mainstream, making him an important and respected figure on the English folk scene. The two formed an immediate bond, and the producer acted as Drake's mentor throughout his career. Boyd offered him a contract after hearing a home demo that Drake recorded in the spring of 1968. According to Boyd, "halfway through the first song, I felt like it was something special," from an album. Drake's friend Paul Weller said in a 2004 interview that he remembered the excitement of Drake, who had decided not to complete his third year at Cambridge.
Five Leaves Left
Drake began recording his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1968, with Boyd producing. The sessions took place in the Sound Techniques studio in London, and Drake was not going to his university classes to travel to the capital by train. Inspired by the production on Leonard Cohen's first album, conducted by John Simon, Boyd wanted Drake's vocals to be recorded in the same close, intimate style, "without the glossy pop reverberations". incorporate string arrangements similar to those on that album, "without overwhelming or sounding cheesy". For support Boyd called on various contacts he had in the London folk rock scene, including Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson and Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson. He also brought in John Wood as engineer and Richard Hewson to handle string arrangements.
Early recordings were not going well: sessions were irregular and rushed, taking place during the studio's downtime in the middle of recording the Fairport Convention album Unhalfbricking. In addition, some tensions arose between the artist and the producer over the direction the album should take: while Boyd wanted to take George Martin's approach of 'using the studio as an instrument', Drake preferred a more organic. According to Dann, Drake seems "tense and anxious" on the bootlegs of those sessions. None were very satisfied with Hewson's contributions, which they considered too close to mainstream in relation to Drake's songs, who he suggested replacing him with his friend Robert Kirby, though Boyd was skeptical due to being a music student with no prior recording experience, but seeing Drake sticking to his stance, agreed to give him a trial period. Kirby had previously shown Drake some arrangements for his songs, and he took it upon himself to provide the sheet music used on the final version of the album. However, Kirby was not confident enough to arrange the song "River Man", so Boyd had to stretch Witchseason's budget to hire veteran songwriter Harry Robinson, who was asked for a contract. arrangement reminiscent of composers such as Frederick Delius and Maurice Ravel.
Due to some post-production problems, the release was delayed for several months and the album was not sufficiently well marketed and promoted. There were few reviews in the specialized press, which treated it with indifference. In July Melody Maker referred to the record as "poetic" and "interesting," while NME reported in October that it was not varied enough to be entertaining. from the BBC, he occasionally played a few songs. Drake was dissatisfied with the songbook, which had the track list printed in the wrong order and reproduced verses that did not appear in the recorded versions on the album. In an interview, his sister Gabrielle commented: 'He was very private. I knew he was making an album but I didn't know what stage of production it was in until he walked into my room and said, 'There you go.' He threw it on the bed and left! & # 34;.
Move to London and record for Bryter Layter
Drake dropped out at Cambridge nine months before graduating, moving to London in the fall of 1969 to concentrate on his career as a musician, despite the fact that his father wrote him long letters mentioning the disadvantages of leaving school. University. Drake spent his first few months in various places in the English capital: sometimes he stayed at his sister's flat in Kensington, but generally he slept at friends' houses, on sofas or on the floor. Finally, for Drake provided she had stability and a phone number, Boyd got her a room with a shared bathroom in Belsize Park, Camden.
In August Drake recorded three unaccompanied songs for the John Peel show on the BBC. Two months later he opened a Fairport Convention show at London's Royal Festival Hall, and subsequently made two live appearances at folk music clubs in Birmingham and Hull. Recalling his performance in Hull, folksinger Michael Chapman commented that he was not well received by the audience, that he "wanted songs with choruses", and that "he didnt say a word the whole time. night". This experience contributed to Drake's decision to stop performing live, and the concerts he did at the time were often short, embarrassing, and under-attended. Drake rarely spoke to the audience, and because some of his songs were played in different tunings, he would take frequent breaks to retune his guitar.
Drake's second album, Bryter Layter, was released in 1970. Also produced by Boyd and engineered by Wood, the album featured a more upbeat, jazzy sound. Due to the little commercial impact of his debut, Drake moved away from his pastoral sound and accepted his producer's proposal to include bass and drum tracks on the recordings. "It was more of a pop sound, I guess" – Boyd said – "I envisioned it as more commercial". Like its predecessor, the album featured contributions from Fairport Convention musicians, and also featured John Cale on two songs: "Northern Sky" (in which he played celesta, piano and organ) and & # 34;Fly & # 34; (in which he contributed harpsichord and viola parts.) According to Trevor Dann, although some sections of & # 34;Northern Sky & # 34; sound closer to Cale's style, it was the closest Drake got to a song with chart potential. In his 1999 biography, Cale admitted to using heroin during this period, and his friend Brian Wells became suspicious. that Drake was also using the drug. Although both Boyd and Wood were confident that the album would be commercially successful, it sold fewer than 3,000 copies. Reviews were again mixed: while Record Mirror praised Drake calling him "a beautiful guitarist" and deeming the arrangements "smooth and beautiful', Melody Maker described the album as "a clumsy mix of folk and cocktail jazz".
Shortly after its release, Boyd sold Witchseasons to Island Records, and moved to Los Angeles to work developing film scores. The loss of his mentor and poor sales of his album drove Drake back into a state of depression. His attitude in London had changed: he was unhappy living in solitude and had been seen nervous and uncomfortable at his concerts in the early 1970s. In June, Drake gave one of his last shows at Ewell Technical College.. Ralph McTell, who also played that night, recalled that "Nick was monosyllabic." On that particular show he was very shy. He made the first set of it and something horrible must have happened. He was playing 'Fruit Tree', and he walked off stage in the middle of the song. His frustration turned to depression, and in 1971 his family convinced him to see a psychiatrist at the St Thomas's Hospital in London, where he was prescribed various antidepressants, but felt uncomfortable and ashamed to take them, and tried to hide it from his friends. He knew enough about drugs to worry about side effects from him, and he was worried about how they would react to mixing with his frequent cannabis use.
Pink Moon
Island Records wanted Drake to promote Bryter Layter through media interviews, radio sessions and live appearances. Drake, who according to Kirby at the time was consuming "incredible amounts" of cannabis and showing "the first signs of psychosis," he refused to do so. Disappointed by the reception of his second album, he also began to withdraw from his family and his friends, rarely leaving his apartment except to play a concert or buy drugs. According to his sister Gabrielle, "he once told me that everything started to go wrong from that moment on."
While Island neither expected nor wanted a third album, Drake approached Wood in October 1971 to begin work on what would be his final album. The sessions only included Drake and his engineer in the studio, and the recording took place over two nights. The somber songs on Pink Moon are short and the album consists of eleven songs., it only lasts 28 minutes, an "adequate" according to Wood. Drake had not been satisfied with the sound of his previous work, as he thought the arrangements of strings, horns and saxophone made it sound "very full, very elaborate". Drake has no accompaniment on Pink Moon, except a piano on the title track. According to Wood, Drake was determined to make a very austere and minimalist album: "I definitely wanted it to be him above all else. And I think in some ways Pink Moon is more like Nick than the other two albums". According to Richie Unterberger, Pink Moon is " one of the bleakest statements in all of rock".
When the album was complete, Drake took the master tape to the lobby of the Island Records building, placed it on a receptionist's desk, and left without a word. The tapes were left there all weekend, until they were found the following week. Pink Moon sold even fewer copies than its predecessors, although it received favorable reviews. In Zigzag magazine, Connor McKnight wrote that "Nick Drake is an artist who never fakes. This album makes no concessions to the theory that music should be escapist. It's just a musician's way of looking at life at that moment, and you can't ask for more than that."
Island Records founder Chris Blackwell felt that Pink Moon had the potential to bring Drake to a mass audience; however, his staff were disappointed by Drake's reluctance to engage in promotional activities. However, Boyd insisted that Drake agree to be interviewed by Jerry Gilbert of Sounds magazine, which it was the only interview with Drake to be published. In it, the "shy, introverted folk singer" he spoke of his distaste for playing live and not much else: "There was no connection whatsoever," according to Gilbert. "I don't think he ever made eye contact with me once." Discouraged and convinced that he could never write songs again, Drake decided to retire from the world of music, and considered various careers, including the possibility of joining the army.
Homecoming
In the months following the release of Pink Moon, Drake became increasingly distant from his acquaintances, and moved back in with his parents. Although he did not want to do so, he felt it was necessary because of his problems. His return caused difficulties for his family: according to his sister Gabrielle, "good days at my parents' house were good days for Nick.", and bad days were bad days for Nick. His only source of income there was £20 a week from Island Records, and his financial situation reached such a point that he could not buy new shoes. for several days, showing up unannounced at his friends' houses, withdrawn and reserved. Robert Kirby described a typical visit: "He would arrive and not speak, he would sit, listen to music, smoke, drink something, sleep there at night and two or three days later he was not there, he was gone." And three months later he came back.& # 34;
Referring to this period, John Martyn (who in 1973 wrote the title track Solid Air for and about Drake) described him as the most reserved person he had ever known. Sometimes he would take his mother's car and drive for hours aimlessly, until he ran out of gas and was forced to call his parents to pick him up. According to friends of his, his appearance changed during this period, and he sometimes refused to wash his hair or cut his nails.In early 1972 he suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for five weeks.
In February 1974 Drake contacted John Wood again to say he was ready to begin work on a fourth album. Boyd was in England at the time and agreed to come to the recordings. This initial session was followed by others in July. In his 2006 autobiography, the producer recalls his surprise at Drake's anger and bitterness: "[He said that] I had told him he was a genius, and others agreed. Why wasn't he famous and rich? This anger must have been brewing under this deadpan exterior for years." Both Boyd and Wood noted a perceptible deterioration in Drake's acting skills. According to Boyd & # 34; he was creepy. He was really scary. He was so…he was in such bad shape that he couldn't sing and play guitar at the same time.” However, the return to the Sound Techniques studio boosted Drake's spirits; His mother would comment years later that: "We were absolutely delighted to think that Nick was happy, because there had been no happiness in Nick's life for years."
Death
In the fall of 1974 Drake stopped receiving money from Island, and continued to be estranged from his friends due to his depression. Around this time he tried to keep in touch with Sophia Ryde, whom he had met in London in 1968. Ryde has been described by Drake's biographers as the "closest" to Drake. to a girlfriend Drake had, although she prefers to be considered his best friend.In a 2005 interview, Ryde revealed that a week before Drake's death, she had tried to break off the relationship: "I couldn't get over it I asked him for some time. And I never saw him again. As with Drake's previous relationship with another folk artist, Linda Thompson, the relationship with Ryde was never consummated. In October 1974 Drake traveled to France to contact singer-actress Françoise Hardy, who on one occasion he considered the possibility of recording an album with his songs.
In the early hours of November 25, 1974, Nick Drake died at his parents' home from an overdose of amitriptyline, a type of antidepressant. The night before he had gone to bed early, after spending the afternoon visiting with a friend. Near dawn he left his room to go to the kitchen. His family was used to hearing him do that, as he used to do it often, but this time he didn't make a sound. They thought he was having a bowl of cereal. Shortly after he returned to his room and took some pills "to help him sleep. " Drake used to suffer from insomnia and would often stay up all night, playing and listening to music, before sleeping until morning. following. Recalling the events of that night, his mother later stated: "She didn't used to bother him at all." But it was twelve o'clock, and I went in, because it really seemed like it was time for him to get up. That was how he found him dead.There was no suicide note, though a letter to Ryde was found near his bed.
At the inquest that took place over the next month, the coroner stated that the cause of death was acute poisoning from her antidepressant, concluding that it had been suicide. However, some members of Drake's family disagree.Rodney described the death of his son as unexpected and extraordinary; however, in a 1979 interview he admitted that he was always worried about his son because of his depression: "We used to hide aspirin and pills and stuff." Boyd has stated that he prefers to think the overdose was accidental., and has mentioned that according to his parents his mood in the previous weeks was very positive, and that he had planned to move back to London to restart his musical career. Boyd thinks that this period of lightness may have been later accompanied by a new "fall into despair," and that Drake may have taken a high dose of his antidepressants trying to regain that sense of optimism.. Thus he prefers to imagine Drake "making a lunge for life rather than a calculated surrender to death". In 1975 NME journalist Nick Kent commented on the irony that Drake would have died at a time when he was beginning to regain a sense of "personal balance". For her part, Gabrielle Drake has stated that she prefers to think that Drake committed suicide, "in the sense that I'd rather that he died because he wanted to than that he was the result of a tragic mistake. That would be terrible..."
On 2 December 1974, following a ceremony at St Mary Magdalene Church in Tanworth-in-Arden, Drake was cremated at Solihull Crematorium and his ashes were later interred under an oak tree in the churchyard adjoining that church. church. Approximately 50 people attended the funeral, including friends from Marlborough, Aix, Cambridge, London, Witchseason and Tanworth. Referring to Drake's tendency to keep his acquaintances apart from each other, Brian Wells later commented that many met for the first time that morning. According to Molly "many of her young friends came. Many of them we did not know."
Posthumous popularity and subsequent releases
When Drake died, there were no obituaries in the press, documentaries or compilations. The musician remained little known for the rest of the 1970s, although his name did occasionally appear in the specialized media. Initially, Island Records saw little commercial value in his catalogue, but at the same time, Drake's parents began hosting an increasing number of fans at his home. In 1979 Rob Partridge joined Island Records and commissioned the release of the box set Fruit Tree. Partridge was a fan of Drake, having seen him live in 1969: "The first thing I did when I got to Island was suggest we put together a retrospective: the studio albums plus everything else there was." Fruit Tree is a box set with the three albums Drake released in his lifetime, plus a disc with the four songs recorded in 1974 with Wood and other unpublished works; It also contains an extensive biography written by the American journalist Arthur Lubow. However, the set sold few copies and received little media attention, so it was removed from Island's catalog in 1983.
Drake's reputation continued to rise, and by the late 1980s his name was appearing regularly in English newspapers and music magazines. And although he was still a cult figure, he was no longer unknown, and had become a representative of a certain type of "doomed romantic hero" for many. In 1986 Fruit Tree was reissued, and in the same year the last disc of the set was released separately as Time Of No Reply.
In early 1999, BBC2 broadcast a documentary titled A Stranger Among Us — In Search of Nick Drake. The following year, Dutch director Jeroen Berkvens released a documentary called A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, which included interviews with Boyd, Gabrielle Drake, Wood and Kirby. Later that year, The Guardian ranked Bryter Layter at the top of their list of the "Alternative top 100 albums ever". Rolling Stone placed the three albums Drake released in his lifetime on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. Bryter Layter is listed at number 245, Five Leaves Left at number 283 and Pink Moon at number 320. In the year 2000, Volkswagen used the title song of Pink Moon for an advertisement in the United States, which led to an increase in Drake's record sales, and made Pink Moon reached fifth place on the Amazon.com sales list. Since the late 1990s, Drake's music began to appear on the soundtrack of many Hollywood films, such as Hideous Kinky, The Royal Tenenbaums, Serendipity and Garden State.
Folk artist Tom Flannery recorded an album in 2002 titled Drinking With Nick Drake. In 2004, when Drake was already a cult artist and about to celebrate 30 years after his death, Made to Love Magic was published, an album containing unpublished recordings of some of his songs, arrangements added to others and a new, previously unreleased track, "Tow the Line," which was part of Drake's last recordings (along with the four songs that had already been released). This release allowed Drake to make his first income. to the charts when two singles ("Magic" and "River Man") reached the middle of the UK charts. Later that year the BBC broadcast a radio documentary about Drake narrated by Brad Pitt.
Critic Ian MacDonald illustrated Drake's growing popularity this way: "In the early 1980s I distanced myself from the music scene. When I returned, I was surprised to discover that Nick was becoming famous." Due to the fact that he achieved more popularity after his death than during his lifetime, many critics argue that the lyrics of "Fruit Tree", a song by Five Leaves Left, foretells his fate.
Influence
Now considered a cult artist, Drake has inspired musicians such as Blur, Elliott Smith, Robert Smith (leader of The Cure), Peter Buck (R.E.M. guitarist), Badly Drawn Boy, Kate Bush, Paul Weller, Elton John, Tom Verlaine, Jackson Browne, Will Oldham, and The Black Crowes. John Martyn, who knew Drake, wrote the title track of his album Solid Air about him.
During the mid-'80s, many artists began citing Drake as one of their influences, including R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. and Robert Smith of The Cure, who claims the origin of his group's name comes from a phrase ("a troubled cure for a troubled mind") from the lyrics of "Time Has Told Me" 34;, a song from Drake's debut album. Other artists such as Paul Weller and Elton John (who before he became famous recorded a demo with Drake songs) have been influenced by his work. Luca Prodan dedicated his & # 34; Nick & # 39; s Song & # 34;, and reversed & # 34; Solid Air & # 34;. In 1985 The Dream Academy released the single "Life in a Northern Town", a song dedicated to Drake, while other artists such as Tom Verlaine (former member of Television) expressed their admiration for Drake and a former member of Duran Duran, Stephen Duffy, named his new band "The Lilac Time" in reference to a line from his song 'River Man'. In recent years, many artists, including Lucinda Williams, Badly Drawn Boy, Lou Barlow, and Mark Eitzel, have cited Drake as one of their influences..
Some contemporary artists have covered Drake songs. Norah Jones recorded her own version of & # 34; Day is Done & # 34;, as did Elton John, who also covered & # 34; River Man & # 34;, & # 34; Way to Blue & # 3. 4; and "Poor Boy". Brad Mehldau also covered "River Man" and "Poor Boy", while The Mars Volta performed "Things Behind the Sun". Anathema guitarist Daniel Cavanagh released a limited edition album titled A Place To Be: a Tribute to Nick Drake, in which he covers eleven of his songs. The Swedish band The Soundtrack of Our Lives on their new album Communion has included a cover of the song "Fly" Drake's. Also the group from Granada Los Planetas in their double CD "Canciones para una Orquesta Química" cover "Cielo del Norte (Northern Sky)". The Uruguayan singer-songwriter Pablo Sciuto dedicated the song "Canción Azul" inspired by his last stay in Paris.
Work
Drake released only three albums in his lifetime: Five Leaves Left (1969), Bryter Layter (1970) and Pink Moon (1972). Five Leaves Left was based on acoustic guitar, with some string and wind orchestral arrangements, plus bass and drums. Bryter Layter introduced a sound with elements of jazz and keyboards. Pink Moon, recorded in two two-hour sessions starting at midnight, has as instrumentation, apart from Nick Drake's voice, only his guitar and piano on the title track of the album.. After recording this record, Drake stated, "I have nothing more to say"[needs to cite sources].
Drake was inspired by folk and blues music, and is famous for his unusual guitar tunings and virtuoso right-hand picking technique. Drake practiced obsessively on the guitar, often staying up nights experimenting with tunings and working on his songs. A self-taught guitarist, Drake was noted for his use of clusters, which are often difficult to achieve on guitars, but Drake did this by tuning his instrument so that the lower strings were tuned higher than those above them. In many songs he accentuated the dissonant effect of these alternate tunings with his vocal melodies.
Drake studied English literature at Cambridge, and was drawn to the work of William Blake, William Butler Yeats, and Henry Vaughan. However, in his lyrics he does not use the typical metaphors and images of these influences, but rather symbols and elemental codes derived from nature. His lyrics, dark and enigmatic, speak of love, misunderstanding, loneliness and dreams, with nature (the sea, the wind, the trees, the moon, the rain, the sky, the stars and the seasons) as a constant backdrop, partly due to having been raised in a rural area. In his works the images were based on summer, but since Bryter Layter his language is more autumnal, evoking a season generally associated with feelings of loss and grief. Drake wrote more as an observer than as a participant: the magazine Rolling Stone described this separation "as if he was viewing his life from an irreducible distance". This apparent inability to connect with others has given rise to much speculation about his sexuality. Boyd maintains that his lyrics and music have a "virginal" quality, and claims that he has never observed or heard the singer-songwriter behave in a sexual way with anyone. Kirby described Drake's lyrics as "a complete and extremely vivid series of observations, almost as a series of epigrammatic proverbs', although he doubts that Drake saw himself as a poet, and considers that Drake's lyrics were written to 'complement and compose a mood that the melody dictates'. in the first place".
Discography
Studio Albums
- Five Leaves Left (1969)
- Bryter Layter (1970)
- Pink Moon (1972)
Singles
- Magic (17 May 2004)
- includes "Northern Sky"
- River Man (13 September 2004)
- includes "Day is Done", played by The Charlie Hunter Quartet with Norah Jones
Compilations
- Time of No Reply (1986). Includes unpublished topics
- Fruit Tree (1986). Complete Discography and Time of No Reply
- Heaven in a Wild Flower: An Exploration of Nick Drake (1986)
- Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake (1994)
- Made to Love Magic (2004). Includes unpublished topics
- Treasury (2004). Includes the theme "Plaisir d'amour", by Jean Paul Égide Martini; not previously edited
- Family Tree (2007). Includes previous homemade and study recordings Five Leaves LeftLike two songs from his mother Molly Drake, versions of Dylan, Blind Boy Fuller and Jackson C Frank and own songs.
Bootlegs
- Tanworth-in-Arden (1967-1968): bootlegs of themes recorded at Drake's house
- Second Grace (1968-1969): bootleg of recorded themes at Drake's house and at Hampstead
Contenido relacionado
Hamtaro
Auto sacramental
Bonnie and Clyde