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.
Voice from the mountain
Nick Drake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And a voice from the sea
Voice in my neighbourhood
And a voice calling me
Tell me my friend my friend
Tell me with love where can it end it end
Voice from above
And the sound in the tree
Sound in a country lane say can you be free
Tell me you crowd you crowd tell me again
Tell me out loud out loud this sound is rain
Tune from the hillside
And tune full of light
A flute in the morning
And a chime in the night
I know the game again i know the score
I know my name my name but this tune is more
Voice from the mountain
And voice from the sea
Voice from in my neighbourhood
And a voice calling me
Tell me my friend my friend
Tell me with love where can it end it end
Voice from above
In this song, Nick Drake explores the theme of finding a voice within oneself. He refers to the different sources of sounds, such as a voice from the mountain, voice from the sea, voice in his neighborhood, and a voice calling him. These sources of sound are symbolic of the different parts of himself that he is trying to connect with in order to find his own voice. He asks his friend to guide him with love and help him find where it all ends.
Further, he talks about the power of sound to free a person. He refers to the sound on the ocean wave, sound in the tree, and sound in the country lane, which all signify natural sounds that can unchain a person from their shackles. He calls out to a crowd, urging them to tell him again, louder, that this sound is rain - meaning that it is cleansing and purifying.
Finally, he refers to the tune from the hillside and the tune full of light - both symbolic of enlightenment and spiritual awakening. A flute in the morning and a chime in the night signify the different phases of life when one can find their voice. Drake claims that he knows the game, the score, and his name, but that the tune he hears is something more than what he knows.
Overall, this song is about searching for one's inner voice and using sounds as a way to connect with different parts of the self to attain enlightenment and freedom.
Line by Line Meaning
Voice from the mountain
There is a voice that can be heard coming from the mountain
And a voice from the sea
There is another voice that can be heard coming from the sea
Voice in my neighborhood
Yet another voice can be heard in my surrounding neighborhood
And a voice calling me.
There is yet another voice that is specifically calling out to me
Tell me my friend my friend
Asking someone to share their thoughts with me
Tell me with love
Asking them to share these thoughts in a caring and compassionate way
Where can it end it end, this
Asking where these voices will eventually lead me
Voice from above.
This voice is believed to come from a higher power or authority
The sound on the ocean wave
The noise made by the movement of the ocean
And the sound in the tree
The rustling of the trees from the wind or other forces
Sound in a country lane
The ambient noise that can be heard in a quiet, rural area
Say you can be free.
This noise is telling you that you have the ability to be free from your troubles
Tell me you crowd you crowd
Asking a group of people to share their thoughts with me
Tell me again
Asking them to reiterate their thoughts
Tell me out loud out loud
Asking them to speak their thoughts loudly and clearly
This sound is rain.
The ambient sound being referred to is the sound of rain
Tune from the hillside
There is a musical melody that can be heard coming from the hills
And tune full of light
This melody is full of energy and brightness
A flute in the morning
A specific instrument can be heard in the morning
And a chime in the night.
Another specific instrument can be heard at night
I know the game again
I feel like I understand the situation once more
I know the score
I understand the situation and have a handle on what's happening
I know my name my name
I know who I am and what I stand for
But this tune is more.
This musical melody is more significant or important than my own identity
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Manuela Priolo
Absolutely perfect🙏💖🌟🧚♀️
paulph12002
This isn't the last song recorded by Nick Drake, the last one was Tow The Line.
Wandering Sailor
This melody is so unique and perfect :D
beatnick92
Wandering Sailor , a really good song here. Relaxing, yet when relaxing while listening, my curiosity still piqued. Makes me sad that he didn't wait a few years and then he would have discovered there are so many ppl that would have been long time fans. I can see him now on a stage with the greats playing and singing with others born in the 40s. To me it is a real loss that he ended his life so soon. Ppl pass the age of 25 and find it very difficult if they aren't where they want to be. If they don't have support, they can't see that there are many more years, decades, and things in life which will make them happy. Read that he and his mother sang together, both wrote music, similar styles. I find his music as worthy if not more, than some of the biggest acts who are still performing today. Such a shame he didn't hang around. Does anyone even know the basis of his depression? We can't assume it was over his music as some writers have done.
Code Blue 89
Simply beautiful 🖤
ProjectFlashlight612
The last song Drake professionally recorded
John
Tow The Line was his last song, after which we fittingly hear the woody sound of him putting his guitar down for the final time in studio.
John
Actual title is 'Voices'.
silencesfell
The title is 'Voices' on the newer Made to Love Magic recording; Time of No Reply had it as Voice from the Mountain.
islezeus
Compared with the cover by the BBC Sessions performers of this song, Nick's version sounds like a demo tape. There may be purists who prefer to just hear Nick and his guitar: acoustic... but I think some of his songs would've been a lot better just reworked a lil bit. I think thats why his music, while BEAUTIFUL never got far before OR after his death. Not many people still know about Nick Drake