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 Mountain
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Tried to spit in your face
Old black mountain
Tried to spit in your face
Babys grubbing whiskey
Oh she's practising ???
Old black mountain
Old black mountain
Mean as they can be
They use ground butter
Just to sweeten the tea
Had a girl in black mountain
Sweetest girl in town
Had a girl in black mountain
Sweetest girl in town
But she met a sweet black man
Then she threw me down
Well, old black mountain
Can't keep man in jail
Well, old black mountain
Can't keep man in jail
Sure to call him guilty
Judge will cry and bail
I'm bound for black mountain
Me and my razor and my gun
I'm bound for black mountain
Me and my razor and my gun
Gonna cut her if she stands there
And shoot her if she runs
The song "Black Mountain" by Nick Drake is a lyrical exploration of the titular mountain and the community that surrounds it. The repetitive verses capture the menacing nature of the mountain with lines like "Old black mountain, tried to spit in your face" and "Old black mountain, mean as they can be". The personification of the mountain as a living entity that holds power over the people in the area resonates with the theme of nature's dominion over humanity.
The song also touches on the complex dynamics of the community with lyrics like "Babys grubbing whiskey, oh she's practising???" and "They use ground butter just to sweeten the tea". These lines depict the poverty and desperation that can exist in communities with limited resources. With the lyric "Had a girl in black mountain...but she met a sweet black man/then she threw me down", there is a conversation about race and prejudice within the community.
The final verse of the song, "Well, old black mountain can't keep man in jail/sure to call him guilty/judge will cry and bail" touches on the theme of accountability and the flaws in the justice system. The idea that the mountain is symbolic of power and control is reinforced by the final lines of the song, "I'm bound for black mountain/me and my razor and my gun/gonna cut her if she stands there/and shoot her if she runs". It is a bleak and violent statement that speaks to the pervasive sense of hopelessness and despair that can exist in communities that are oppressed and marginalized.
Line by Line Meaning
Old black mountain
The mountain named 'Black Mountain'
Tried to spit in your face
The environment may not be welcoming
Babys grubbing whiskey
People around the area consume alcohol, even at an early age
Oh she's practising ???
People are engaged in some activities which are not clear from the given lyrics
Mean as they can be
The people in Black Mountain are vicious
They use ground butter
They try to make their tea sweet by adding butter
Just to sweeten the tea
As they don't have any other sweeteners, they replace sugar with butter
Had a girl in black mountain
The artist had a girlfriend from Black Mountain
Sweetest girl in town
The artist's girlfriend was considered the sweetest in the town
But she met a sweet black man
His girlfriend met a black man whom she found sweet
Then she threw me down
His girlfriend left him for the black man she found sweet
Can't keep man in jail
Black Mountain's justice system is ineffective
Sure to call him guilty
The justice system always labels people as guilty
Judge will cry and bail
No matter who is guilty, the judge will show compassion and let him go free
Bound for black mountain
The singer is heading toward Black Mountain
Me and my razor and my gun
The artist's intention is to hurt his ex-girlfriend
Gonna cut her if she stands there
The artist plans to attack his ex-girlfriend with his razor
And shoot her if she runs
If she tries to escape, the singer plans to shoot her
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@IlSuddenDeathIl
This guy is a legend, a real genius!
@danbs07
How can you not like this guys music!
@VivaLaVideoz
No one puts you in a certain mood like Nick Drake.
@lanabanana68
aint that the truth sister .
@Gonzalo_Sala
The best blues ever heard
@123viveleheavy9
excelent blues Nick Drake played
@jaydeebee69
THIS IS FRIED GOLD. Sorry for shouting, but Nick + the blues = happy Louisiana girl.
@poppyallgood6918
What size ring do you wear? Asking for a Louisiana boy friend.
@Maggie9244
I just love him !
@Melanie-qx4hj
Wow that was brilliant!