I Heard Nick Drake

“The habits of a life time will lay you low into your grave.

And when you are gone, you take the whole world with you.” --- Robyn Hitchcock (I saw Nick Drake)

Jim Morrison. Kurt Cobain. Ian Curtis. Whenever these names are brought up, one would inevitably form the image of a tragic artist who failed to come to terms with reality. Questions like ‘What might have been’ would also linger in one’s mind. However, of these delicate talents whose life ended prematurely like a withered rose, is there a story more tragic and poignant than Nick Drake’s? At least Cobain, Curtis and Morrison enjoyed fame and fortune, and their works were heard by millions before their deaths, but Nick Drake’s works were largely unheard of and unappreciated during his life time, and ironically only became popular more than two decades after his death. Does Van Gogh’s image come to mind?

Unlike most of artists who died young, Nick Drake did not live a life of indulgences and excesses. In fact, one would describe Drake as the antithesis of all things rock and roll. Born into a middleclass British family in 1948, he was educated in all things classical. He picked up guitar playing while he was studying at a boarding school during his teenage years. When he did a live performance while studying at Cambridge, he was spotted by a member of British folk group Fairport Convention and was recommended to producer Joe Boyd. Together they would craft three of the finest albums in British folk history. The first album Five Leaves Left, released in 1969, was well balanced in the sense that it was accessible to casual listeners but yet at the same time revealed Drake’s delicate emotions. The second album Bryter Layter, released in 1970, was a more upbeat affair, with members of Fairport Convention and John Cale lending a hand in the productions. However, both albums did not sell well, with Drake’s reluctance to do live performances as part of the reason. Drake was known to all his friends as someone who was brooding, introverted and morosely alienated. The commercial failure of Drake’s albums was deemed as a large blow to him, and he sank into depression and needed treatment.

It was during this period of depression that Nick Drake crafted his third and final album, Pink Moon. Legend has it that he recorded all of songs by himself alone on an acoustic guitar, and just dropped the master tapes on the counter of the recording company for producer Joe Boyd to collect. Boyd wisely retained the naked and bleak sound of the initial recordings by adding only a few piano pieces. This resulted in one of the bleakest, darkest, and most introspective album in the whole history of music. Although the whole album consists only of eleven short songs that did not even exceed thirty minutes, one can almost feel Drake’s sadness, pain and anguish while listening to this album. One of my all time favorite albums, I still feel touched by Drake’s calm yet disturbed voice, and intricate guitar playing whenever I listen to this album in the middle of the night.

Although Nick Drake recorded a few more songs at home before his death (released posthumously as Time Of No Reply), no new album was completed. On 25 November 1974, he went to bed after taking an overdose of his prescribed medication and never woke up again. Although the verdict of his autopsy was suicide, his friends and families disputed this, as Drake had seemed happier weeks before his untimely death. The truth of Nick Drake’s death may never be known, but judging from the music that he had left the world with, it would be an understatement to say that it was the most premature death in the history of folk music.

For more information regarding Nick Drake’s life and works, one can go to: http://www.nickdrake.net