I wonder if there are any other Nick Drake appreciators out there in GFSA land.
For those of you not acquainted with Drake's music, he came and went very quickly, recording 3 albums between 1969 and 1972 that sold very few copies on release. He lacked confidence and fell into the grip of severe depression. In 1974 he died by his own hand. Thus there is a huge mythology that has grown around him over the years. I say ignore the legends, the music is what remains and the music is what we're entitled to consider and to speculate about. In particular I don't buy into the legend that he foretold his own demise and his posthumous reputation in the song Fruit Tree on his first album.
When VW launched the New Beetle in the USA they couldn't secure permission for the song they had planned to use in the advertising campaign. Their second choice was Drake's Pink Moon. Radio stations and record stores started getting enquiries about "the song from the VW advert" and finally Nick Drake started selling records.
Producer/manager/discoverer Joe Boyd and record company owner Chris Blackwell always believed that Drake's music was too good to not be appreciated. When Boyd sold his Witchseason company to Blackwell he proposed, and Blackwell readily agreed, that it was on condition that Drake's albums were never to be deleted from the Island catalog.
To me this is some of the most deceptive music there is. Not deceptive in it's intent, but in that it's far deeper and there's more happening then is apparent on a casual listen. Yeah.... it's often that way, but I find it particularly so with Drake. There's this strange quality to his music - it doesn't reach out and grab you, it's just there and you have to go to it.
You won't get any videos of Drake in performance, he didn't do many live shows. However there are some Drake songs with "after the fact" videos.
One of my favourite Drake tracks - Cello Song
Here's the haunting River Man with it's fantastic string arrangement
And the beautiful Fly with John Cale on viola and harpsichord
Beware of the various compilations that have appeared over the years. If you want to explore the small body of work that Drake left behind then head for the records released in his lifetime: Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later, and the short, stark and intense Pink Moon.
For those of you not acquainted with Drake's music, he came and went very quickly, recording 3 albums between 1969 and 1972 that sold very few copies on release. He lacked confidence and fell into the grip of severe depression. In 1974 he died by his own hand. Thus there is a huge mythology that has grown around him over the years. I say ignore the legends, the music is what remains and the music is what we're entitled to consider and to speculate about. In particular I don't buy into the legend that he foretold his own demise and his posthumous reputation in the song Fruit Tree on his first album.
When VW launched the New Beetle in the USA they couldn't secure permission for the song they had planned to use in the advertising campaign. Their second choice was Drake's Pink Moon. Radio stations and record stores started getting enquiries about "the song from the VW advert" and finally Nick Drake started selling records.
Producer/manager/discoverer Joe Boyd and record company owner Chris Blackwell always believed that Drake's music was too good to not be appreciated. When Boyd sold his Witchseason company to Blackwell he proposed, and Blackwell readily agreed, that it was on condition that Drake's albums were never to be deleted from the Island catalog.
To me this is some of the most deceptive music there is. Not deceptive in it's intent, but in that it's far deeper and there's more happening then is apparent on a casual listen. Yeah.... it's often that way, but I find it particularly so with Drake. There's this strange quality to his music - it doesn't reach out and grab you, it's just there and you have to go to it.
You won't get any videos of Drake in performance, he didn't do many live shows. However there are some Drake songs with "after the fact" videos.
One of my favourite Drake tracks - Cello Song
Here's the haunting River Man with it's fantastic string arrangement
And the beautiful Fly with John Cale on viola and harpsichord
Beware of the various compilations that have appeared over the years. If you want to explore the small body of work that Drake left behind then head for the records released in his lifetime: Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later, and the short, stark and intense Pink Moon.