Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician, known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work has posthumously achieved wider notice and recognition.[1][2][3] Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and was a student at the University of Cambridge, and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums—Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release.[4] Drake's reluctance to perform live, or be interviewed, contributed to his lack of commercial success. No footage of the adult Drake has ever been released; only still photographs and home footage from his childhood.[5]
Drake suffered from major depression, and this was often reflected in his lyrics. On completion of his third album, 1972's Pink Moon, he withdrew from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November 1974, at the age of 26, Drake died from an overdose of approximately 30 amitriptyline pills, a prescribed antidepressant. His cause of death was determined to be suicide.

just listening to Bryter Lyter sounds good

Bryter Later is the stand out from his three albums, give it a few listens and you'll enjoy it even more.

Northern Sky by Nick Drake is one of the greatest songs ever written

excellent

thanks creature just listening to it now

found him by looking at vinyls on ebay Mikael and then playing on you tube, been listening to him for last few days on my 2 and a half hours a day in the car,, great find

amazed that he is not better known given the quality and the originality of his music

Antony Hegarty's voice is sublime and his songs are generally a thing of amazing beauty to my ear; however there are a lot of people who don't seem to get him at all, for example, my sister-in-law.

I think she might be tone deaf and can only appreciate traditional singalongs where it is obvious what the next note should be.

There are a lot of people like that which is why the likes of Cowell have made a mint.

River man, Fly and Black-eyed Dog are all great tracks

Saw him on that same tour in Dublin, clouseau. That was the song that made me say 'must buy that immediately!'

I find Nick Drake ok but dosent compare to Louden Wainwright or Mark Everett (eels ) 2 absolute genius,s when it comes to song writing

The John Martyn track, Solid Air, I mentioned earlier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6iiCXZp9Q

great stuff roger - really glad I posted this thread now. I'm really into listening to his music now

3x media for Nick Drake afficianados:

a) A young German guy who does a Nick Drake cover (the sublime 'One Of These Things First')
and captures the spirit of Nick beautifully. Home video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3LEkLL0PIM

b) There's no commercial footage of Nick Drake, apart from this eerie clip from a 70s music festival
12 seconds long and many people are sceptical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZFnCdTCSXw


c) An excellent Nick Drake podcast - Three Records From Sundown

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/three-records-from-sundown/

listening now

An interesting chronology of Nick Drake.....

As posted previously, I saw him live "supporting" Fairport Convention but I know not where - I thought Richmond or maybe Putney, but this chrono does not help. I went to Cousins loads of times and remember Third Ear Band, John Martyn et al there, but do not remember him at that venue.

I bought Five Leaves Left on the day it came out, from Harlequin Records in Fleet Street. Wish I still had it. Used to pop in there to listen to the latest releases and then pop over the road to the bookies to catch a couple of races on the "blower". Denis Compton was a regular in that Fleet Street bookies.

Great on the guitar the voice isn't the best though.
Came across him over 20 years ago.

thanks bb 58 that is lol!!!!

Nick's father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake (1908–1988), had moved to Rangoon, Burma, in the early 1930s to work as an engineer with the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation.[8] There, in 1934, his father met the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service, Mary Lloyd (1916–1993), known to her family as "Molly". Rodney Drake proposed to her in 1936, though they had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry.[9] In 1950 they returned to England to live in Warwickshire[10] at a house named Far Leys, in the prosperous commuter village of Tanworth-in-Arden just south of Birmingham, the city where Rodney Drake worked from 1952 as the Chairman and Managing Director of Wolseley Engineering.[11] Nick Drake had an older sister, Gabrielle, who became a successful film and television actress. Both parents were musically inclined and each wrote pieces of music. Recordings of Molly Drake's songs, which have come to light since her death, are remarkably similar in tone and outlook to the later work of her son.[12] Mother and son shared a similar fragile vocal delivery and both Gabrielle and biographer Trevor Dann have noted a parallel sense of foreboding and fatalism in their music.[12][13] Encouraged by his mother, Drake learned to play piano at an early age and began to compose songs which he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder she kept in the family drawing room.[3]