Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney Drake (June 19, 1948 ? November 25, 1974) was a British singer/songwriter.

Biography

Drake's father worked as an engineer. Although he was born in Rangoon, Burma, Nick's family moved back to England soon afterward, and Drake was brought up in Tanworth-in-Arden, a small village in the English county of Warwickshire. He went to public school at Marlborough College, where he learned to play the flute. As a young adult, Drake enrolled in Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge to study English. His older sister, Gabrielle Drake, is an actress.

Related Topics:
Rangoon - Burma - County - Warwickshire - Public school - Marlborough College - Flute - Fitzwilliam College - Cambridge - English - Gabrielle Drake

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Drake was a fan of British and the emerging American folk music scene, including Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. While a university student, Drake began performing in local clubs and coffee houses. He was discovered by Ashley Hutchings, the bass player of the folk rock group Fairport Convention. Hutchings introduced Drake to the other members of Fairport Convention, folk singer John Martyn and producer Joe Boyd.

Related Topics:
Folk music - Bob Dylan - Phil Ochs - Ashley Hutchings - Bass - Fairport Convention - John Martyn - Joe Boyd

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Drake's associates convinced Island Records to sign the young singer/songwriter to a three-album contract. At the age of twenty, he released his first album Five Leaves Left (1969), which featured a chamber music quartet on several songs and had a light, breezy sound. Drake's second album Bryter Layter (1970) introduced a more upbeat, jazzier sound, with keyboards and several brass instruments. Both albums were produced by Boyd and featured several members of Fairport Convention.

Related Topics:
Island Records - Five Leaves Left - 1969 - Chamber music - Bryter Layter - 1970 - Keyboard - Brass instrument

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many accounts of Drake focus on his mythology, but a large part of his enduring popularity is due to his meticulous songwriting, prosody, odd guitar tunings and lyricism.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Drake was pathologically shy and resented touring. The few concerts he did play were usually in support of other British folk acts of the time, such as Fairport Convention or John Martyn and were often brief and awkward. Partially because of this, his work received little attention and sold poorly. Whilst in the recording studio, he was so shy that he'd always play into the wall so as to avoid people's gazes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Severely clinically depressed and doubting his abilities as a musician, Drake recorded his final album Pink Moon (1972) in two two-hour sessions, both starting at midnight. The songs of Pink Moon were short (the album consists of eleven of them and lasts only 26 minutes) and emotionally bleak and Drake recorded them unaccompanied, in the presence of only a sound engineer (a piano was later overdubbed on the title track). Naked and sincere, it is widely thought to be his best work. After recording the album, Drake dropped off the master tapes at the front desk of Island Records' office building and then swore he was retiring from performing music, planning to train to be a computer programmer and possibly write songs for others to perform. The master tapes lay on a secretary's desk over the weekend and were not noticed until later the next week.

Related Topics:
Pink Moon - 1972 - Piano

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, none of Drake's plans materialized. In the next few months, Drake grew severely depressed and maintained relationships only with close friends such as John Martyn, who wrote the title song of his 1973 album Solid Air for and about Drake and French singer Françoise Hardy. He was hospitalized several times and lived with Hardy for a few months. Friends from that time have described how much his appearance changed: his nails grown, his hair and frame long and thin.

Related Topics:
John Martyn - 1973 - French - Françoise Hardy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1974, Drake felt well enough to write and record a few new songs. However, on November 24, he died of an overdose of antidepressants. The coroner concluded that the cause of Drake's death was suicide, although this was disputed by friends and relatives. Antidepressants of that time were quite lethal if ingested in any higher dosage than the one prescribed. His mother recounts that he must have had difficulty sleeping and had got up in the night to have a bowl of cornflakes. It's unclear whether he took more pills to help him sleep or take his own life.

Related Topics:
1974 - November 24 - Antidepressants - Suicide

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

His simple gravestone in the Tanworth churchyard bears the line 'And now we rise/And we are everywhere', taken from "From the Morning"?the last song on the last album Nick lived to complete?a beautiful song on an otherwise stark album and one of his mother's favourites.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~