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.
Must Have Been Smoking Too Long
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Look at my clock
Its way past noon time
Now Im late for work.
Tell me, tell me
What have I done wrong?
Aint nothing go right with me
Well I go to find me some breakfast
But I aint got no food
Take me a shower
But the water dont feel no good.
Tell me
Ive got opium in my chimney
No other life to choose
Nightmare made of hash dreams.
Got the devil in my shoes
Tell me
Well when Im smoking
Put my worries on a shelf
Dont think about nothin
Try not to see myself.
Tell me
Well in this blues Im singin
Theres a lesson to be learned
Dont go around smokin
Unless you want to get burned.
Tell me
The lyrics of Nick Drake's song "Must Have Been Smoking Too Long" describe the struggles and consequences of addiction. The first verse begins with the singer waking up late for work, indicating that they are not fulfilling their responsibilities. The repetition of the question "What have I done wrong?" suggests self-awareness and guilt, but the singer also acknowledges that "Ain't nothing go right with me," indicating that their addiction is affecting their entire life, not just their job.
The second verse describes the physical effects of the addiction, including hunger and discomfort during a routine shower. The following lines, "I've got opium in my chimney / No other life to choose / Nightmare made of hash dreams / Got the devil in my shoes," suggest that the addiction has taken over the singer's entire existence. The use of vivid imagery reinforces the sense of being trapped and powerless.
The third verse describes how smoking temporarily relieves the singer's worries and allows them to escape from themselves. However, the final verse delivers the message of the song: the "blues" the singer is singing is a cautionary tale, warning listeners not to follow the same path of addiction and self-destruction.
Overall, the song's lyrics are raw and honest, conveying the physical and emotional toll of drug addiction. While Drake's haunting melody and melancholic guitar playing contribute to the song's somber tone, it is the honesty and vulnerability of the lyrics that make "Must Have Been Smoking Too Long" a timeless classic.
Line by Line Meaning
Well I wake up in the morning
I start my day.
Look at my clock
Check the time in order to make plans for the day.
Its way past noon time
I woke up late and it's already afternoon.
Now Im late for work.
I missed the time for going to work.
Tell me, tell me
Asking someone to explain what is happening.
What have I done wrong?
Why is everything going wrong with me?
Aint nothing go right with me
Nothing seems to be working correctly for me.
Must be Ive been smoking too long.
Smoking has been affecting my life negatively.
Well I go to find me some breakfast
I am hungry and trying to find something to eat.
But I aint got no food
I do not have any food to eat.
Take me a shower
I need to clean myself up.
But the water dont feel no good.
The water does not seem to be enjoyable or refreshing.
Ive got opium in my chimney
I have been burning opium in my home.
No other life to choose
I do not have any other options than the life I am living.
Nightmare made of hash dreams.
The dreams I have been having are causing havoc in my life.
Got the devil in my shoes
I am feeling as if something evil is following me.
Well when Im smoking
When I am smoking tobacco or other substances.
Put my worries on a shelf
When I am smoking, it seems as if my problems go away for a while.
Dont think about nothin
I am not focused on anything while smoking.
Try not to see myself.
I try to avoid looking at myself or my life while smoking.
Well in this blues Im singin
I am singing about feeling sad.
Theres a lesson to be learned
There is something to learn from this situation.
Dont go around smokin
Do not smoke tobacco or other substances.
Unless you want to get burned.
Unless you want to suffer the negative consequences of smoking.
Lyrics © SONGS ON THE WING
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Wladeyyy _
Lyrics. Well I wake up in the morning
Look at my clock
Its way past noon time
Now Im late for work.
Tell me, tell me
What have I done wrong?
Aint nothing go right with me
Must be Ive been smoking too long.
Well I go to find me some breakfast
But I aint got no food
Take me a shower
But the water dont feel no good.
Tell me
Ive got opium in my chimney
No other life to choose
Nightmare made of hash dreams.
Got the devil in my shoes
Tell me
Well when Im smoking
Put my worries on a shelf
Dont think about nothin
Try not to see myself.
Tell me
Well in this blues Im singin
Theres a lesson to be learned
Dont go around smokin
Unless you want to get burned.
Tell me
DOKE
This guy is amazing, try to hear all the versions and covers of this song and they dont have this magic. Drake is singing with so much swing
Texas Chainsaw
Do listen, Arthur Gunn Performs with joe Henry. (cover of this song)
Ryan Elliott
Listen to Dax Riggs version!
packt
@Ryan Elliott I second this. Amazing cover (pretty much everything Dax Riggs does is amazing though to be fair).
SaveState
Cause his version was from his eyes. Nick Drake told his mom “I’m all out of songs” while talking with his mother right before his death. That should sum it up
Stoker Films
Bless you Nick. An artist way too intelligent and sensitive to exist on this plain. For as long as you breathed air in this mortal coil you left a legacy of song and haunted melody that transcends like a “spiritual sound”. You went home my friend, thank you for your song and and may you rest in peace.
❤️🙏.x
Thomas Whelan-Murray
So this is one of the greatest works of music/poetry ever made. What a dude.
Wladeyyy _
Lyrics. Well I wake up in the morning
Look at my clock
Its way past noon time
Now Im late for work.
Tell me, tell me
What have I done wrong?
Aint nothing go right with me
Must be Ive been smoking too long.
Well I go to find me some breakfast
But I aint got no food
Take me a shower
But the water dont feel no good.
Tell me
Ive got opium in my chimney
No other life to choose
Nightmare made of hash dreams.
Got the devil in my shoes
Tell me
Well when Im smoking
Put my worries on a shelf
Dont think about nothin
Try not to see myself.
Tell me
Well in this blues Im singin
Theres a lesson to be learned
Dont go around smokin
Unless you want to get burned.
Tell me
Lawrence Seiji Abbott
Wow, dude, this is seriously so fucking good!!... Nick Drake man...
Such good melodies and lyrics!!! I swear this totally surprised me, so original compared to his other works, or should I say stand-outish
Jolene DeLilys
xXBlinDXx12 Nick did not write this song. "Been Smokin' Too Long" is by Robin Frederick.