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.
Black Eyed Dog
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A black eyed dog he called for more
A black eyed dog knew my name
A black eyed dog knew my name
A black eyed dog
A black eyed dog.
I'm growing old and I want to go home
I'm growing old and I want to go home.
A black eyed dog he called at my door
A black eyed dog he called for more.
The lyrics to Nick Drake’s song Black Eyed Dog are mystical, haunting, and evocative, with several possible interpretations. Some people believe that the black eyed dog represents death or depression, evidenced by the lines ‘I'm growing old and I want to go home. I'm growing old and I don't want to know'. The dog may have come to take the singer away, to put him out of his misery, or to simply remind him of the fact that death is lurking around the corner.
The black eyed dog seems to have an awareness and knowledge of the singer, who remarks, ‘a black eyed dog knew my name’. This adds to the eerie and unsettling tone of the song. There is a sense of inevitability and foreboding as the dog keeps coming back, calling for more. The acoustic guitar and Nick Drake’s ethereal voice further contribute to the melancholy and mysterious atmosphere.
Overall, Black Eyed Dog is a captivatingly cryptic expression of pain, loneliness, and existential apprehension. The song leaves a lasting impression on the listener, inviting them to contemplate life’s darker aspects and examine their own mortality.
Line by Line Meaning
A black eyed dog he called at my door
Depression is haunting the songwriter and asking for more of his attention.
A black eyed dog he called for more
Depression is persistent and keeps coming back for more of the songwriter's time and energy.
A black eyed dog knew my name
The songwriter is familiar with depression and it is a constant presence in his life.
A black eyed dog
Repetition emphasizes the persistence and haunting nature of depression.
I'm growing old and I want to go home
The songwriter feels exhausted and longing for a sense of comfort and familiarity, perhaps reflecting on life's hardships.
I'm growing old and I don't want to know
The songwriter is avoiding facing the harsh realities of life as he grows older and more weary.
I'm growing old and I want to go home
Repetition emphasizes the desire for comfort and familiarity in the face of growing old and facing life's hardships.
A black eyed dog he called at my door
Depression is still present and persistent even as the songwriter longs for a sense of peace and rest.
A black eyed dog he called for more
Depression continues to nag and demand the songwriter's attention, making it difficult to find peace.
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Nick Drake
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@geoffreylogsdon162
@Joseph Grady Yes, his 'sloppy' playing was still excellent. This song fucking scares me and will scare anyone else struggling with mental illness.
And in my opinion, Nick was very aware of the persona he was creating...that is not to say he was not suffering. He certainly was.
No one will say it outright, but in my opinion*, with absolutely NO facts to back it up, l would *allege that he may have been sexually abused...and that is the core of his psychological damage.
The kid was shy yet would happily engage with people...then suddenly there was a major personality shift. He suddenly became an extremely withdrawn pothead.
Why?
And, there is anecdotal evidence (Linda Peters Thompson, for example, who had a major crush on him), that the very idea of intimacy or sex made him incredibly uncomfortable.
So we have a young man full of life and promise, who doesn't go off the rails in a Syd sort of way, but suddenly becomes a sad withdrawn cipher.
Am l the only one willing to allege that Nick's mental issues stemmed from possible sexual abuse?
The scenario absolutely fits, and is alluded to in one of the books written about Nick. Find it yourself...and figure out who the alleged monster might possibly have been.
I would have killed myself too.
@bert.hbuysse5569
"I'm growing old and I wanna go home.."
Hope you found that place, you are one of the most underapreciated artists of your time.
@yakacm
The bit were he sing I wanna go home, reminds me of my old fella when he was in the mid period of Alzheimer's, when he could still grasp the concept of home, as it was getting dark outside he's always ask how he was getting home, despite him sitting in and arm chair in the home he'd lived in for 30 odd years. Saddest most poignant thing ever, a disease that robs you of your home, so you can never go home ever again.
@vince2533
Sometimes I'm afraid to listen to this. That is power in a song.
@MsNd4Spd
I come back to listen at a few months interval, and my heart throbs all day long afterwards.
@leesaunders1930
@loveTheBlues same here 😔🏴
@lg7879
@loveTheBlues #METOO
@patricksharp425
Love you.
@deang5214
You need to grow a set man
@xiropigado
You can tell that at this point he has had enough. Very very sad, he never got to know just how much his music was loved and appeciated.
@igorsanmartin7654
I ended a 7-year relationship that I couldn't get over, I have advanced anxiety, a little depression, this COVID-19 made things even worse, today I went for a walk in a square and just wanted to go home with my parents , then that part of the song came to mind: "I'm growing old and I wanna go home, I'm growing old and I dont wanna know".
Nick, I'll always be special to me.