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.
Time of No Reply
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And Autumn reached for her golden crown
I looked behind as I heard a sigh
But this was the time of no reply.
The sun went down and the crowd went home
I was left by the roadside all alone
I turned to speak as they went by
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There is no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way.
The trees on the hill had nothing to say
They would keep their dreams till another day
So they stood and thought and wondered why
For this was the time of no reply.
Time goes by from year to year
And no one asks why I am standing here
But I have my answer as I look to the sky
This is the time of no reply.
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There's no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way
Summer was gone and the heat died down
And Autumn reached for her golden crown
I looked behind as I heard a sigh
But this was the time of no reply.
The lyrics of the song "Time of no Reply" by Nick Drake depict a time of loneliness and isolation. The opening lines describe the changing of seasons, from the end of summer to the beginning of autumn, and the singer's awareness of this transition. The sigh heard by the singer could be interpreted as a metaphor for the melancholic feelings that arise with the coming of autumn, and the realization that time has passed.
The second stanza paints a picture of the singer being left alone by a passing crowd. This could represent the feeling of being left behind by society, or possibly abandoned by friends and loved ones. The phrase "time of no reply" is repeated throughout the song, and seems to emphasize the singer's sense of being trapped in a moment without any clear direction or means of escape.
The final stanza further emphasizes the singer's isolation, as they remark on the passing of time with no questions or concern from others. The conclusion of the song suggests a resignation to this state of being, with the phrase "there's no hello and no goodbye, to leave there is no way". Overall, the lyrics of "Time of no Reply" suggest a sense of ennui and existential contemplation, as the singer reflects on their place in the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Summer was gone and the heat died down
The season changed and the warmth disappeared
And Autumn reached for her golden crown
The next season arrived and brought its own beauty
I looked behind as I heard a sigh
I glanced back and noticed a sound of sadness
But this was the time of no reply.
However, it was a period where no one would answer back
The sun went down and the crowd went home
The day ended and people dispersed
I was left by the roadside all alone
I remained behind, with no companionship
I turned to speak as they went by
I attempted to communicate as they departed
But this was the time of no reply.
But it was still a moment where no response was given
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
A period of solitude is summoning me to persist
There is no hello and no goodbye
There are no greetings or farewells
To leave there is no way.
There's no escape, I must stay in this state
The trees on the hill had nothing to say
The foliage on the hill remained silent
They would keep their dreams till another day
They would continue to harbor aspirations, awaiting a better time
So they stood and thought and wondered why
Therefore, they just stood, contemplating and curious
For this was the time of no reply.
Because it was a moment when nobody would correspond back
Time goes by from year to year
Time continues to pass, from one year to the next
And no one asks why I am standing here
No one inquires as to why I remain in this spot
But I have my answer as I look to the sky
But I understand why, as I gaze upwards
This is the time of no reply.
This is an occasion where there are no answers
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
A phase where there are no responses beckons me to endure
There's no hello and no goodbye
There are no greetings or farewells
To leave there is no way
To depart is not a possibility
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Nick Drake
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ufohstarseed
Summer was gone and the heat died down
And Autumn reached for her golden crown
I looked behind as I heard a sigh
But this was the time of no reply.
The sun went down and the crowd went home
I was left by the roadside all alone
I turned to speak as they went by
But this was the time of no reply.
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There is no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way.
The trees on the hill had nothing to say
They would keep their dreams till another day
So they stood and thought and wondered why
For this was the time of no reply.
Time goes by from year to year
sponsored links
And no one asks why I am standing here
But I have my answer as I look to the sky
This is the time of no reply.
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There`s no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way.
Isabel Archer
L'estate è andata via e il caldo è morto
E l'Autunno ci ha raggiunti, con la sua corona dorata
Mi sono guardato indietro e ho sentito un sospiro
Ma era un tempo senza risposta
Il sole è tramontato e la folla è andata a casa
Sono rimasto da solo sul bordo della strada
Mi sono messo a parlare a chi andava via
Ma era un tempo senza risposta
Il tempo senza risposta mi dice di restare
Non c'è nessun ciao e nessun addio
Non c'è modo di andarsene
Gli alberi sulla collina non avevano niente da dire
Essi conservano i loro sogni per un altro giorno
Così stavano fermi, pensavano domandandosi perché
Perché è un tempo senza risposta
Il tempo passa di anno in anno
E nessuno chiede perché mi trovo qui
Ma ho la mia risposta, guardando il cielo
Questo è il tempo senza risposta
Il tempo senza risposta mi dice di restare
Non c'è nessun ciao e nessun addio
Non c'è modo di andarsene
Cern Green
El Momento de No Respuesta
El verano se fue y el calor se calmó
Y otoño su corona dorada alcanzó
Miré hacia atrás y un suspiro escuchaba
Pero este fue el momento de no respuesta.
El sol se puso y la multitud se fue a casa
Me dejaron solo al borde de la carretera
Me volví para hablar mientras pasaban
Pero este fue el momento de no respuesta.
Me llama a quedarme el momento de no respuesta
No hay hola y no hay adiós. Para irse no hay manera.
Los árboles en la colina no tenían nada que decir
Hasta otro día sus sueños mantendrían
Así que se pararon y pensaron y se preguntaron porqué
Para este fue el momento de no respuesta.
El tiempo pasa de año en año
Y nadie pregunta porqué estoy aquí parado
Pero tengo mi respuesta cuando miro hacia el cielo
Este es el momento de no respuesta.
Me llama a quedarme el momento de no respuesta
No hay hola y no hay adiós. Para irse no hay manera.
El verano se fue y el calor se calmó
Y otoño su corona dorada alcanzó
Miré hacia atrás y un suspiro escuchaba
Pero este fue el momento de no respuesta.
ufohstarseed
Summer was gone and the heat died down
And Autumn reached for her golden crown
I looked behind as I heard a sigh
But this was the time of no reply.
The sun went down and the crowd went home
I was left by the roadside all alone
I turned to speak as they went by
But this was the time of no reply.
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There is no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way.
The trees on the hill had nothing to say
They would keep their dreams till another day
So they stood and thought and wondered why
For this was the time of no reply.
Time goes by from year to year
sponsored links
And no one asks why I am standing here
But I have my answer as I look to the sky
This is the time of no reply.
The time of no reply is calling me to stay
There`s no hello and no goodbye
To leave there is no way.
Yosef
Thank you dude
Bj l M
For a second I thought, "I don't remember Nick singing "sponsored links", then I realized what happened. Thank you for posting these beautiful lyrics.
LibbyRoseITM
Thanks Charlie for having such a good taste in music and thanks Stephen Chbosky for writing him that way :')
Sarah Al-Refai
Thank you Charlie for having the BEST taste in music!
katebailey
charlie's mixtape was fire
Me myself and I
So true
Levi Ackerman
@Myah Issley LMFAOAO BC IT SAID IN THE BOOK 😭😭😭
Melek Naz
yep
Myah Issley
How did u know???????