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.
Rider On The Wheel
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
But I don't feel the same
But I ain't gonna blame
The rider on the wheel
And I know my song is new
I know it's new for you
I tell you, how it's true
And round and round we go
We take it, fast and slow
I must keep up a show
For the rider on the wheel
For the rider on the wheel
Know my name
But I don't feel the same
But I ain't gonna blame
The rider on the wheel
The rider on the wheel
In Nick Drake's song "Rider On The Wheel," the singer speaks about himself in the third person as a performer who is entertaining an audience. The lyrics express a sense of disillusionment with the recognition that comes with fame and also the pressure that accompanies it. The repeated reference to the "rider on the wheel" represents the singer as being controlled by external factors and being pulled in different directions.
Throughout the song, the singer acknowledges that his art is personal and new to the audience. However, instead of feeling validated by this, he remains disconnected and feels like he must keep up a façade for the audience. He is aware of the transitory nature of the relationship and feels betrayed by the expectations that accompany his fame. He tries to reserve judgment by refusing to blame "the rider on the wheel," assuming that people cannot control their reactions to his art, but he also appears to be aware that his own success is somewhat uncertain and that his popularity is fickle.
The emotions expressed in "Rider On The Wheel" reflect Nick Drake's personal struggles with his burgeoning fame and the pressure of his public performance. The song offers a glimpse into how Drake felt, both in his public life and his private life. Ultimately, the song is a commentary on the relationship between artists and their audience, the disconnection that can occur, and the internal struggles that arise when an artist is forced to commodify their art for public consumption.
Line by Line Meaning
And now you know my name
I may have introduced myself to you, but that doesn't mean you truly know me.
But I don't feel the same
Despite my appearance, I am not the same as I used to be.
But I ain't gonna blame
I have come to accept the circumstances and will not place blame on anyone.
The rider on the wheel
The forces that influence my life, like fate or destiny, are out of my control.
And I know my song is new
I understand that my perspective may be uncommon or different from what you are used to.
I know it's new for you
It is clear to me that it might take some time for you to fully grasp and appreciate my perspective.
I tell you, how it's true
I want to share with you my true thoughts and feelings, even if they are not easily understood.
For the rider on the wheel
My inner world, much like the movement of a wheel, is constantly changing and evolving.
And round and round we go
Life is a cycle of ups and downs, endlessly repeating.
We take it, fast and slow
Our journey through life is marked by times of rapid change and times of slowness or stagnation.
I must keep up a show
Despite what I may be experiencing internally, I have to maintain a certain image or facade for others to see.
For the rider on the wheel
Again, my life is constantly in motion, influenced by forces beyond my control.
For the rider on the wheel
This line is repeated for emphasis on the fact that the singer's life is essentially at the mercy of fate or destiny.
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Nick Drake
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Alejandro Gomez
"
And now you know my name
But I don't feel the same
But I ain't gonna blame
The rider on the wheel.
You know my song is new
You know it's new for you
I tell you how it's true
For the rider on the wheel.
"
It was clearly a message for his producer, his mentor and his friends. He didn't wanted to be a product, he just wanted to be himself.
Ziola Bee
I owe a great debt to the music of Nick Drake for getting me through one of the darkest times of my life. In particular, Time Of No Reply. I listened to this particular album and it meant so much to me when my Mom was in a coma. This and Pink Moon were the only albums that allowed me to fall asleep. Although Nick took his life, he will never know how important his life was for me, many years later. Thank you, Mr. Drake, wherever you are...your music is irreplaceable. <3 This song brings it back.
Øyvind Finne
He was severly depressed and at periods almost catatonic. In the book Remembered for a while there is a diary written by his father that documents the state of Nick in his last days. There is no doubt he was depressed and barely functioning in his last days. You can also hear this in his last songs (Hanging from a star and black eyed dog). I think his sister said it better than anyone else in the end of the "A stranger amongst us" documentery regarding the anti depressant". "But Im just not sure they would have killed him if he hadn't wanted to die" The question if he commited suicide or not is irrelevant and presuming that he either meant to so or not is just your personal opinion and not a fact. Any fan of Nick that is sure of one or the other doesn't have a clue. If you are truly interested in the story of Nick and doesn't take random youtube comments as facts I highly recommend the book "Remembered for a while".
Michael Jensen
@lymehausdj8 Hi! I haven't read anything about Nick, so not as informed as you. I thought he took many pills, but maybe not. How many did he take? Did they do an autopsy?
Chuck Itall
I belive after watching and reading all i can it was an accident. actually not even an accident i blame doctors for prescribing dangerous drugs just to make people feel numb and not deal with whatever was the root cause of a depression. I suffer it too and i battle with the mindset and sadness and melancholia he obviously suffered from...sometimes that melencolia is a beautiful painful thing that some people just feel life that way. You can hear it in his art. I think he was intelligent enough to see how very fleeting and hard it can be but if you don't also embrace some joy and gratitude in life you might end up so depressed you can die of a broken heart as well. I almost did once.
I doubt he tried to kill himself especially the way he was found, face down in his bed off to the side like he fell that way . or perhaps like a sparrow his heart beat to fast and strongly for this world.
honey buzzard
@lymehausdj8
It could have been an accident.
Personally when I learned of his demise,First thought was...it was an Accident. But then all this stuff came about that he was depressed, blah, blah, he looked bad, blah, blah.
That's why I'm careful about who I talk to about my depression...if anything ever happens like that...it gets Blamed, and you look Crazy...
He is so Beautiful...
honey buzzard
Thank You Mr.Drake
I know your EVERYWHERE.
Heather Autumn
What a tender, fragile song. Very much portrays the thoughts of someone who feels separate from the world. A very sensitive, pure soul.
Andrea Wagner
I can completely relate to him ....this world....... :(
Alan Edwards
Cool perspective!
Heather Autumn
DistractedByPixels hope everything is okay with you. chin up, friend.