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.
Blossom
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The blossoms came and they brought you
Clouds left the sky
And I knew the reason why
They made way for you and the blossom.
The seasons cycle turned again
An april shower now and then
And the bees left their hive
They came out to see you and the blossom.
People were laughing, smiling with the sun
They knew that summer had begun.
The nights grew warm, the days grew long
Spring turned to summer and was gone
It seemed so fine
All the cider and the wine
But I knew you'd go with the blossom.
When spring returns I'll look again
To find another blossom friend
Until I do
Find something new
I'll just think of you and the blossom.
The song "Blossom" by Nick Drake talks about the arrival of spring and the joy that comes with it. The lyrics describe the transition from winter to spring, and how everything changes when the blossoms arrive. The first verse talks about the end of the dark winter days and how the blossoms came to signal the beginning of spring. The clouds clear and the singer understands why, as things are making way for the blossoms to shine.
The next verse talks about how the changes brought about by spring affect the world around the singer. Trees come alive, bees leave their hive, and people start to laugh and smile with the sun. The lyrics evoke a sense of renewal and happiness that comes with the arrival of spring.
In the final verse, the singer acknowledges that spring and summer are fleeting and that the blossoms will eventually go away. However, the memory of the blossoms and the joy they brought will remain. The singer expresses a desire to find another "blossom friend" but knows that until that happens, they will hold on to the memory of the first one.
Overall, "Blossom" is a song about the beauty and transience of springtime, and the way it can bring joy and happiness to the world. The lyrics are simple but powerful, and the song is a testament to Nick Drake's skill as a songwriter.
Line by Line Meaning
Black days of winter all were through
The dull and gloomy winter season has come to an end.
The blossoms came and they brought you
The flowers of spring brought with them the joy and happiness that you brought to my life.
Clouds left the sky
The skies cleared up and the weather got better.
And I knew the reason why
It was clear to me that the reason for the good weather was you and the flowers.
They made way for you and the blossom.
The flowers paved the way for your arrival and signified the beginning of spring.
The seasons cycle turned again
The change of season is an inevitable part of life.
An april shower now and then
Occasional rain showers are common during the start of spring.
Trees came alive
The trees sprouted new leaves and showed signs of life.
And the bees left their hive
The bees came out to collect nectar from the flowers, and pollinate them.
They came out to see you and the blossom.
The bees and other creatures of nature came out to witness the beauty of you and the flowers.
People were laughing, smiling with the sun
Everyone around was happy and joyous due to the warmth and brightness of the sun.
They knew that summer had begun.
The arrival of the sun signified that summer had officially begun.
The nights grew warm, the days grew long
As summer progressed, the temperature increased and the length of the day increased as well.
Spring turned to summer and was gone
The season of spring had ended and summer had taken its place.
It seemed so fine
Everything appeared perfect and wonderful.
All the cider and the wine
People celebrated the arrival of summer with food and drinks.
But I knew you'd go with the blossom.
I was aware that your time with me was ephemeral, just like the flowers of spring.
When spring returns I'll look again
I will wait for the season of spring to return and bring another set of beautiful flowers.
To find another blossom friend
I will look for another companion who brings the same joy and happiness to my life.
Until I do
Until I find my new companion,
Find something new
I will search for something new in life.
I'll just think of you and the blossom.
And until then, I will have you and the memory of the beautiful flowers of spring.
Contributed by Adalyn S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@strawberrylemonadekristina
A Nick Drake demo is infinitely more precious than the soulless, slick Top 40 garbage polluting the cultural landscape.
My life has had its fair share of days when I've felt totally disconnected from other people, days when I felt no one understood me or even cared. Nick Drake's music gives me strength because I can connect to it. It gives me comfort and can shine through the storm clouds in my soul. Nick's songs will always "blossom" in my heart.
Rest in peace Nick, your music and life was not in vain. We love you!!
@filthydog1220
same lol. while i don't want to be some hipster, i always find more intimacy and soul in more niche artists (not saying nick is niche, but much more compared to other musicians)
@professionalhater9
Don't care what everybody says. Nick is still nick. He sounds beautiful in this recording. Seemed to really be having a good day. I can never really know, but he sounds very happy and it makes me profoundly sad and joyful.
@mattcunningham9235
Who is everybody?
@joalco3
everybody seems to agree!
@pazeaton345
Siempre estás en mi cabeza como una canción que no recuerdo pero me sé inimaginablemente
@lancasterdodd9152
One of the greatest songs ever created.
@coddmodd
Agreed
@stevenwalden5652
Great song, interesting to hear it sung by Nicole Reynolds. Much underrated like Mayfair, Joey, Clothes of Sand and They're leaving me behind. Actually all top draw Nick Drake songs
@TheGman858
Could have been a masterpiece with strings and rythm section accompaniment not that it's lacking in anyway but I imagine nick thinking about such things when working on these rough drafts