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.
Man in a Shed
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Spent most of his days out of his head
For his shed was rotten let in the rain
Said it was enough to drive any man insane
When it rained
He felt so bad
When it snowed he felt just simply sad.
Whenever he saw her he could only simply sigh
But she lived in a house so very big and grand
For him it seemed like some very distant land
So when he called her
His shed to mend,
She said I'm sorry you'll just have to find a friend.
Well this story is not so very new
But the man is me, yes and the girl is you
So leave your house come into my shed
Please stop my world from raining through my head
Please don't think
I'm not your sort
You'll find that sheds are nicer than you thought.
"Man in a Shed" by Nick Drake is a poignant song that describes a man's bleak and solitary existence in a run-down shed. The song's lyrics suggest that the man is suffering from some form of mental or emotional distress, most likely caused by his prolonged isolation and exposure to the elements. The shed itself becomes a metaphor for the man's deteriorating mental health, as he is unable to keep out the rain and snow that penetrate the ceiling and walls.
The song also explores the man's unrequited love for a girl who lives in a nearby grand house. He is unable to express his feelings to her directly, and instead asks for her help in fixing his dilapidated shed. The girl's rejection represents his inability to connect with the outside world, further contributing to his sense of desperation and isolation.
Drake's lyrics are introspective and deeply personal, drawing on his own struggles with depression and feelings of alienation. The song's spare and haunting melody underscores the melancholic tone of the words, creating a sense of emotional rawness and vulnerability.
Overall, "Man in a Shed" is a hauntingly beautiful meditation on isolation, mental illness, and the transformative power of human connection.
Line by Line Meaning
Well there was a man who lived in a shed
There was a man who lived in a shed.
Spent most of his days out of his head
He spent most of his days lost in thought and not fully present.
For his shed was rotten let in the rain
The shed he lived in was in poor condition and allowed rain to leak in.
Said it was enough to drive any man insane
He believed that the living conditions in his shed were enough to drive anyone crazy.
When it rained
When it rained, it made him feel worse.
He felt so bad
The rain made him feel terrible.
When it snowed he felt just simply sad.
Even when it snowed, he still felt down and bleak.
Well there was a girl who lived nearby
There was a girl who lived close by.
Whenever he saw her he could only simply sigh
Whenever he saw her, she took his breath away and made him feel hopeless.
But she lived in a house so very big and grand
The girl he liked lived in a very large, impressive house.
For him it seemed like some very distant land
Her world and social standing seemed completely out of his reach and impossible to attain.
So when he called her
When he reached out to her.
His shed to mend,
To ask her to help him fix his shed.
She said I'm sorry you'll just have to find a friend.
She turned him down and suggested that he find another person to help him.
Well this story is not so very new
This story is not unique or unheard of.
But the man is me, yes and the girl is you
The man in the story is the singer himself, and the girl is the listener.
So leave your house come into my shed
The singer is inviting the listener to come into his world and experience his life.
Please stop my world from raining through my head
He wants the listener to help him stop his thoughts from drowning him and to bring some joy into his life.
Please don't think
He pleads with the listener not to judge him.
I'm not your sort
He wants the listener to know that he's not what they might expect or be used to.
You'll find that sheds are nicer than you thought.
He wants the listener to know that there is beauty in his world, even if it's not apparent on the surface.
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Nick Drake
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@tayloratkinsmusic
Well there was a man who lived in a shed
Spent most of his days out of his head
For his shed was rotten let in the rain
Said it was enough to drive any man insane
When it rained
He felt so bad
When it snowed he felt just simply sad.
Well there was a girl who lived nearby
Whenever he saw her he could only simply sigh
But she lived in a house so very big and grand
For him it seemed like some very distant land
So when he called her
His shed to mend,
She said I'm sorry you'll just have to find a friend.
Well this story is not so very new
But the man is me, yes and the girl is you
So leave your house come into my shed
Please stop my world from raining through my head
Please don't think
I'm not your sort
You'll find that sheds are nicer than you thought.
@Miche-
After all of these years having social anxiety and depression I can say Nick was the only one who saved me 💚
@luisalfredoacostaurgelles940
Cheers for the Video clip! Apologies for chiming in, I would love your thoughts. Have you ever tried - Mahorrla Wooden Paradise Method (probably on Google)? It is an awesome one off guide for building better sheds and woodworking minus the headache. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my friend Sam got great success with it.
@salvadorolate257
Sadly he couldn't save from himself.
@frankcohen4669
❤️ 😪u said it x
@frankcohen4669
He is a ghost of love an meloncollie,no trace of him in terms of live performance or any interviews.Only sold I hear an average of 9 thousand albums in his very short life time.People caught up too late ain't that always the way ✌️❤️xx
@lukaskubinec9608
I'm surprised how so many beautiful people can be in so much psychical pain 😞
@Blondejam
A national treasure indeed and needs to be recognised as such. A wonderful and gentle journey. Thank you for eternity...
@raincats2011
You'll find that sheds are nicer than you thought.
@kevinhegg259
How the hell does he get this to blend into such pure genius??
@johnnybrace
the bend at the end of "when it rained...he felt so bad..." hits me like a hammer