Although he recorded only three albums, critics and fellow musicians hold his work in very high esteem. Drake failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime and had a strong aversion to performing. Since his death, however, Drake's music has gained a significant cult following.
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 clarinet and piano. As a young adult, Drake enrolled in Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, to study English. His older sister, Gabrielle Drake, is an actress.
Drake was a fan of British and the emerging American folk music scene, including artists 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.
He delayed attendance to spend six months at the University of Aix-Marseille, France, beginning in February 1967. While in Aix, he began to practice guitar in earnest and to earn money would often busk with friends in the town centre. Drake began to smoke cannabis, and that spring he traveled with friends to Morocco, because, according to traveling companion Richard Charkin, "that was where you got the best pot". Drake's associates convinced Island Records to sign the young singer-songwriter to a three-album contract. Drake began recording his debut album Five Leaves Left later in 1968, with Boyd assuming the role of producer. The sessions took place in Sound Techniques studio, London, with Drake skipping lectures to travel by train to the capital. 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, horns and several brass instruments. Both albums were produced by Boyd and featured several members of Fairport Convention.
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 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 28 minutes) and emotionally bleak. 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.
At this point, he considered other careers including the army and computer programming, but more suitably as a songwriter for other artists. 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 with Sophia Ryde. 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 gaunt and thin.
In 1974, Drake felt well enough to write and record a few new songs. However, on November 25, 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 to take his own life.
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.
Posthumous popularity
Since Drake’s death, his music has grown steadily in popularity. Several modern musicians, such as Lucinda Williams, Badly Drawn Boy, Matthew Good, Sebadoh's Lou Barlow, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, Blur’s Graham Coxon, and Belle and Sebastian, consider Drake an important influence. In early 1999, BBC2 aired a 40-minute Nick Drake documentary, "A Stranger Among Us — In Search of Nick Drake", as part of its Picture This strand. The following year saw the release of a documentary by Dutch director Jeroen Berkvens, titled A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake and featuring interviews with Joe Boyd, Gabrielle Drake, audio engineer John Wood, and arranger Robert Kirby. Brad Pitt is a fan of Drake and, in 2004, he narrated a BBC radio documentary about the singer.
Island has responded to Drake’s popularity with several new releases including Time of No Reply (1986), an album of unreleased material including four new songs recorded in 1974, Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake (1994), a "best of" album, remastered HDCD releases of his three studio albums in 2000, and Made to Love Magic (2004), featuring one new track and some newly recorded orchestration for a previously released track. A replacement for Way to Blue called A Treasury was also released in 2004 on Hybrid-SACD.
In 2000, Volkswagen licensed the track Pink Moon, the title track from Nick's third release, for a particularly serene car commercial in the US. The advertisement caused a significant bounce in Drake’s popularity, bolstered by uses of Drake's music on a number of film soundtracks, including 1998's Hideous Kinky and Practical Magic (featuring "Road" from Pink Moon and "Black Eyed Dog" from Time of No Reply, respectively). In 2001, two Bryter Layter tracks appeared in mainstream films: "Northern Sky" in Serendipity, and "Fly" in The Royal Tenenbaums. In the same year, "Cello Song" from Five Leaves Left was featured in Me Without You. In 2004, "One of These Things First" appeared in Garden State and "Northern Sky" was featured again, this time in Fever Pitch.
Drake's "River Man" has become quite popular among Jazz musicians. A piano improvisation based on the melody was released by Brad Mehldau on the album "Progression: Art Of The Trio, Volume 5", and a Jazz vocal version by Claire Martin appears on the album Take My Heart.
Drake's posthumous popularity has made many fans consider the lyrics to "Fruit Tree" a song from Five Leaves Left prophetic: “Fame is but a fruit tree / So very unsound. / It can never flourish / Till its stock is in the ground. / So men of fame / Can never find a way / Till time has flown / Far from their dying day.” In 2004 two of his singles reached low positions in the UK charts - "Magic" and "River Man".
Most recently, Nick Drake has emerged as a key influence in the resurgence of 1960's and 1970's folk traditions, apparent in the works of artists including Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, and Six Organs of Admittance.
In 2005, performer Beck updated his website during Christmas time with covers of three songs from Pink Moon: "Pink Moon", "Which Will" and "Parasite."
Family Tree, the next Bryter Music/Island record was released in July 2007.
BOY
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I never help my neighbor
Never do what is proper
For my fair share of labor.
I'm a poor boy
And I'm a rover
Count your coins and
I may grow older
Nobody knows
How cold it grows
And nobody sees
How shaky my knees
Nobody cares
How steep my stairs
And nobody smiles
If I cross their stiles.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health.
You may say every day
Where will he stay tonight.
Never know what I came for
Seems that I've forgotten
Never ask what I came for
Or how I was begotten.
I'm a poor boy
And I'm a ranger
Things I say
May seem stranger than Sunday
Changing to Monday.
Nobody knows
How cold it flows
And nobody feels
The worn down heels
Nobody's eyes
Make the skies
Nobody spreads
Their aching heads.
Oh poor boy
So worried for his life
Oh poor boy
So keen to take a wife.
He's a mess but he'll say yes
If you just dress in white.
Nobody knows
How cold it blows
And nobody sees
How shaky my knees
Nobody cares
How steep my stairs
And nobody smiles
If you cross their stiles.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health.
You may say every day
Where will he stay tonight.
Oh poor boy
So worried for his life
Oh poor boy
So keen to take a wife.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health
Oh poor boy.
The lyrics of Nick Drake's song "Poor Boy" reflect the thoughts and feelings of a man who has little to his name and is struggling to make ends meet. The singer seems to have a disdain for societal norms and expectations in terms of singing for his supper or helping his neighbor. He acknowledges that he is a poor boy and a rover, unable to count on anyone for help or support. He also seems to be resigned to his fate, accepting that no one sees, cares or smiles at him, and that he is just a passing thought in the minds of those around him.
In the second verse, the singer talks about his forgotten past and ambiguous future, using the analogy of a ranger who says things that may seem stranger on Sundays but change to the mundane on Mondays. He is clearly lost and wandering, with nobody to guide him or offer him any support. The final verse reveals his desire to take a wife, but at the same time, he is not sure if he is ready for the commitment and responsibility that it entails.
Line by Line Meaning
Never sing for my supper
I never do anything in exchange for food.
I never help my neighbor
I don't do anything to help those around me.
Never do what is proper
I don't follow social norms or expected behavior.
For my fair share of labor.
I don't do anything unless it's directly benefiting me.
I'm a poor boy
I am a poverty-stricken person.
And I'm a rover
I am a wanderer or a traveler.
Count your coins and
You can throw your money at me.
Throw them over my shoulder
Give me everything you have and forget about me.
I may grow older
I may not die, but age like everyone else.
Nobody knows
No one understands.
How cold it grows
How isolated and uncomfortable my life is.
And nobody sees
No one pays attention to me.
How shaky my knees
I am physically and emotionally weak.
Nobody cares
No one feels any sympathy for me.
How steep my stairs
The obstacles in my life are nearly insurmountable.
And nobody smiles
No one is happy for me.
If I cross their stiles.
If I enter their world.
Oh poor boy
Feeling sorry for himself.
So sorry for himself
Depressed and unhappy with his current situation.
So worried for his health
Concerned about his well-being.
You may say every day
People wonder every day.
Where will he stay tonight.
Where he will find shelter and how he will survive.
Never know what I came for
I don't remember why I am doing anything.
Seems that I've forgotten
I've lost my sense of direction or purpose.
Never ask what I came for
I don't question my own intentions.
Or how I was begotten.
I don't know anything about my own birth or family history.
And I'm a ranger
Continuing to wander and roam.
Things I say
The words that come out of my mouth.
May seem stranger than Sunday
My thoughts and actions might not make sense to others.
Changing to Monday.
But they will continue regardless of the day.
Nobody feels
No one can understand my pain.
The worn-down heels
My physical and emotional exhaustion from the constant struggle.
Nobody's eyes
Nobody's gaze or attention.
Make the skies
Understand the vastness of my life that seems meaningless.
Nobody spreads
No one cares enough.
Their aching heads.
To alleviate the pain in my head.
So worried for his life
Fearing death or the continuation of his difficult existence.
So keen to take a wife.
Longing for love or companionship.
He's a mess but he'll say yes
Despite being a broken or unwell person, he will still agree to what is offered.
If you just dress in white.
As long as you make yourself look good and desirable.
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Nick Drake
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Pete Moore
His gorgeous music, his beautiful guitar playing, and his wonderful voice. Stunning. And moves me to tears at every listen ❤
Rick Oneill
Remember listening to this when it was broadcast. I was high and got quite emotional (it was the weed...mostly!) Thanks for uploading.
steve sandford
THANK YOU POSTER!!! Nick Drake, for those of us who've discovered him, is a real 'Love At First Sight (Listen) kinda thing... Literally NOTHING ELSE sounds like Nick Drake... (His TRAGEDY is that he passed away before his music was accessed and understood...) How HE would have coped with the ADULATION is anyone's guess... xx SF
HaFannyHa
I've loved Nick's music since the mid-eighties, and it never ages. It is beautiful, timeless. 'Bryter Layter' is my favourite Drake album - 'City Clock' and 'Northern Sky' are simply manna.
clinchee
His was such a talent... there's not many people who inspire... and WOW is his work
Sophie W
Thank you ever so much for uploading this ,I was upset that I'd missed it..Big thanks and hugs too 😊
musicisbrilliant
THANK YOU So much for this Pete!!!!!
Stephen Gray
it's Amazing that there are very few artists about today and in history that whenever you introduce a friend they become hooked ... Nick was definately one of them. Fragile, beautiful and life changing... brilliant
nick260682
I was on a boozy holiday with friends once, and one of them got so drunk the night before he couldn’t get out of bed to go to the beach, so I put on Five Leaves Left for him as we went out, as I thought it not too loud and hectic for a hungover guy. When we came back from the beach about 7 hours later he had simply sat there drinking water and listening to the album on repeat for the whole time. He was completely hooked.
relicofgold
Thanks for uploading this gem of the legend ND. One of the saddest stories in rock/folk. I wonder what might've been had he not passed. He barely whet our appetites before he left us.