Nick Drake | |
|---|---|
 Drake in 1969 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Nicholas Rodney Drake |
| Born | (1948-06-19)19 June 1948 Rangoon, Burma |
| Died | 25 November 1974(1974-11-25) (aged 26) Tanworth-in-Arden, England |
| Genres | |
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1967–1974 |
| Labels | Island |
| Website | brytermusic |
Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English musician. An accomplishedacoustic guitarist, Drake signed toIsland Records at the age of twenty while still a student at theUniversity of Cambridge. His debut album,Five Leaves Left, was released in 1969, and was followed by two more albums,Bryter Layter (1971) andPink Moon (1972). While Drake did not reach a wide audience during his brief lifetime, his music found critical acclaim and he gradually received wider recognition following his death.
Drake suffered fromdepression and was reluctant to perform in front of live audiences. Upon completion ofPink Moon, he withdrew from both performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in ruralWarwickshire. On 25 November 1974, Drake was found dead at the age of 26 due to an overdose ofantidepressants.
Drake's music remained available through the mid-1970s, but the 1979 release of the retrospective albumFruit Tree allowed his back catalogue to be reassessed. Drake has come to be credited as an influence on numerous artists, includingRobert Smith ofthe Cure,Peter Buck ofR.E.M.,Kate Bush,Paul Weller,Aimee Mann,Beck,Robyn Hitchcock andthe Black Crowes. The first Drake biography in English appeared in 1997; it was followed in 1999 by the documentary filmA Stranger Among Us.
Drake was born inBurma on 19 June 1948,[4] a few months after the independence from theBritish Empire.[5] Drake's father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake (1908–1988), had moved toRangoon, in the early 1930s as an engineer with theBombay Burmah Trading Corporation.[6] In 1934, Rodney Drake metMolly Lloyd (1915–1993), the daughter of a senior member of theIndian Civil Service. He proposed marriage in 1936, but the couple had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry.[7] In 1951, the Drake family returned to England to live inWarwickshire,[8] at their home, Far Leys, inTanworth-in-Arden. Rodney Drake worked from 1952 as the chairman and managing director ofWolseley Engineering.[9]
His older sister,Gabrielle Drake, became a successful screen actress. Both of Drake's parents wrote music. Recordings of Molly's songs, which have come to light since her death, are similar in tone and outlook to the later work of her son;[10] they shared a similar fragile vocal delivery, and Gabrielle and biographerTrevor Dann noted a parallel foreboding andfatalism in their music.[10][11] Encouraged by his mother, Drake learned to play piano at an early age and began to compose songs which he recorded on areel-to-reel tape recorder that she kept in the family drawing-room.[12] In 1957, Drake was sent toEagle House School, a preparatoryboarding school nearSandhurst, Berkshire. Five years later, he went toMarlborough College, apublic school in Wiltshire which had also been attended by his father and grandfather. He developed an interest in sport, becoming an accomplished 100- and 200-yard sprinter, representing the school's Open Team in 1966. He playedrugby for the C1 House team and was appointed a House Captain in his last two terms.[13] School friends recall Drake as having been confident, often aloof, and "quietly authoritative".[14] His father remembered: "In one of his reports [the headmaster] said that none of us seemed to know him very well. All the way through with Nick, people didn't know him very much."[15]
Drake played piano and learnedclarinet andsaxophone. He formed a band, the Perfumed Gardeners, with four schoolmates in 1964 or 1965. With Drake on piano and occasionalalto sax and vocals, the group performedPye International R&B covers and jazz standards, as well asYardbirds andManfred Mann songs.Chris de Burgh asked to join the band, but was rejected as his taste was "too poppy".[16] His attention to his studies deteriorated and, although he had accelerated a year in Eagle House, at Marlborough he neglected his studies in favour of music. In 1963 he attained sevenGCE O-Levels, fewer than his teachers had been expecting, failing "Physics with Chemistry".[17] In 1965, Drake paid £13 (equivalent to £318 in 2023[18]) for his first acoustic guitar, aLevin, and was soon experimenting withopen tuning andfinger-picking techniques.[19]
In 1966, Drake enrolled at atutorial college inFive Ways, Birmingham, where he won a scholarship to study atFitzwilliam College, Cambridge.[20] As his place at Cambridge was offered for September 1967, he had 10 months to fill, so he decided to spend six months at theUniversity of Aix-Marseille, France, beginning in February 1967. There, he began to practise guitar in earnest. To earn money, he wouldbusk with friends in the town centre. Drake began to smokecannabis, and he travelled with friends to Morocco; according to travelling companion Richard Charkin, "that was where you got the best pot".[21] There is some evidence that he began usingLSD while in Aix, although this is debated.[22]
Drake returned to England in 1967 and moved into his sister's flat inHampstead, London. That October, he enrolled at Cambridge to begin his studies inEnglish literature.[23] His tutors found him bright but unenthusiastic and unwilling to apply himself.[24] One of his biographers,Trevor Dann, notes that he had difficulty connecting with staff and fellow students, and that matriculation photographs from this time portray a sullen young man.[25] Cambridge placed emphasis on its rugby and cricket teams, but Drake had lost interest in sport, preferring to stay in his college room smoking cannabis and playing music. According to fellow student Brian Wells, "They were the rugger buggers and we were the cool people smoking dope."[25]
In January 1968, Drake metRobert Kirby, a music student who went on to write many of the string and woodwind arrangements for Drake's first two albums.[26] By this time, Drake had discovered the British and Americanfolk music scenes, and was influenced by performers such asBob Dylan,Donovan,Van Morrison,Josh White andPhil Ochs (he later citedRandy Newman andthe Beach Boys as influences).[27] He began performing in local clubs and coffee houses around London, and in December 1967, while playing at a five-day event atthe Roundhouse inCamden Town, made an impression onAshley Hutchings, bass player withFairport Convention.[28][29] Hutchings recalls being impressed by Drake's guitar skill, but even more so by his image: "He looked like a star. He looked wonderful, he seemed to be 7 ft [tall]."[30]
Hutchings introduced Drake to the 25-year-old American producerJoe Boyd, owner of the production and management companyWitchseason Productions, which at the time was licensed toIsland Records.[15] Boyd, who had discovered Fairport Convention and introducedJohn Martyn and theIncredible String Band to a mainstream audience, was a respected figure in the UK folk scene.[30] He and Drake formed an immediate bond, and Boyd acted as a mentor to Drake throughout his career. Impressed by afour-track demo recorded in Drake's college room in early 1968, Boyd offered Drake a management, publishing, and production contract. Boyd recalled listening to areel-to-reel home recording Drake had made: "Halfway through the first song, I felt this was pretty special. And I called him up, and he came back in, and we talked, and I just said, 'I'd like to make a record.' He stammered, 'Oh, well, yeah. Okay.' Nick was a man of few words."[30] According to Drake's friend Paul Wheeler, Drake had already decided not to complete his third year at Cambridge and was excited about the contract.[30]
Drake recorded his debut albumFive Leaves Left later in 1968, with Boyd as producer. He had to skip lectures to travel by train to the sessions inSound Techniques studio, London. Inspired byJohn Simon's production ofLeonard Cohen's 1967 albumSongs of Leonard Cohen, Boyd was keen to record Drake's voice in a similar close and intimate style, "with no shiny popreverb".[31] He sought to include a string arrangement similar to Simon's, "without overwhelming ... or sounding cheesy".[31] To provide backing, Boyd enlisted contacts from the Londonfolk rock scene, including Fairport Convention guitaristRichard Thompson andPentangle bassistDanny Thompson (no relation).[32]
Initial recordings did not go well: the sessions were irregular and rushed, taking place during studio downtime borrowed from Fairport Convention's production of theirUnhalfbricking album. Tension arose as to the direction of the album: Boyd was an advocate ofGeorge Martin's approach of using thestudio as an instrument, while Drake preferred a more organic sound. Dann observed that Drake appears "tight and anxious" on bootleg recordings from the sessions, and notes a number of Boyd's unsuccessful attempts at instrumentation.[33] Both were unhappy with arrangerRichard Anthony Hewson's contribution, which they felt was too mainstream for Drake's songs.[34] Drake suggested his college friend Robert Kirby as a replacement. Though Boyd was sceptical about taking on an inexperienced amateur music student, he was impressed by Drake's uncharacteristic assertiveness and agreed to a trial.[35] Kirby had previously presented Drake with some arrangements for his songs.[15] While Kirby provided most arrangements for the album, its centrepiece, "River Man", which echoed the tone ofFrederick Delius, was orchestrated by the veteran composerHarry Robertson.[36]
Post-production difficulties delayed the release by several months, and the album was poorly marketed and supported.[38] In July,Melody Maker describedFive Leaves Left as "poetic" and "interesting", thoughNME wrote in October that there was "not nearly enough variety to make it entertaining".[39] It received little radio play outside shows by more progressive BBC DJs such asJohn Peel[40] andBob Harris. Drake was unhappy with the inlay sleeve, which printed songs in the wrong running order and reproduced verses omitted from the recorded versions.[41] In an interview, his sister Gabrielle said: "He was very secretive. I knew he was making an album but I didn't know what stage of completion it was at until he walked into my room and said, 'There you are.' He threw it onto the bed and walked out!"[15]
Drake ended his studies at Cambridge nine months before graduation and in late 1969 moved to London. His father remembered "writing him long letters, pointing out the disadvantages of going away from Cambridge ... a degree was a safety net, if you manage to get a degree, at least you have something to fall back on; his reply to that was that a safety net was the one thing he did not want."[10] Drake spent his first few months in London drifting from place to place, occasionally staying at his sister'sKensington flat but usually sleeping on friends' sofas and floors.[42] Eventually, in an attempt to bring some stability and a telephone into Drake's life, Boyd organised and paid for a ground floorbedsit inBelsize Park,Camden.[43]
On 5 August 1969, Drake pre-recorded four songs for theBBC'sNight Ride show presented byJohn Peel ("Cello Song", "Three Hours", "River Man" and "Time of No Reply" ), which were broadcast after midnight on 6 August. Nick subsequently recorded "Bryter Layter" for another BBC radio broadcast, in April 1970. A month after the initial BBC recordings, on 24 September, he opened for Fairport Convention at theRoyal Festival Hall in London, followed by appearances at folk clubs in Birmingham and Hull. According to the folk singerMichael Chapman, the audiences did not appreciate Drake and wanted "songs with choruses". Chapman said: "They completely missed the point. He didn't say a word the entire evening. It was actually quite painful to watch. I don't know what the audience expected, I mean, they must have known they weren't going to get sea-shanties and sing-alongs at a Nick Drake gig!"[29]
The experience reinforced Drake's decision to retreat from live appearances; the few concerts he did play were usually brief, awkward, and poorly attended. Drake seemed reluctant to perform and rarely addressed his audience. As many of his songs were played in different tunings, he frequently paused to retune between numbers.[44] AlthoughFive Leaves Left attracted little publicity, Boyd was keen to build on what momentum there was. Drake's second album,Bryter Layter (1971),[45] again produced by Boyd and engineered byJohn Wood, introduced a more upbeat, jazzier sound.[3][46] Disappointed by his debut's poor sales, Drake sought to move away from hispastoral sound and agreed to Boyd's suggestions to include bass and drum tracks. "It was more of a pop sound, I suppose," Boyd later said. "I imagined it as more commercial."[47] Like its predecessor, the album featured musicians from Fairport Convention, as well as contributions fromJohn Cale on two songs: "Northern Sky" and "Fly". Trevor Dann noted that while sections of "Northern Sky" sound more characteristic of Cale, the song was the closest Drake came to a release with chart potential.[48]
Bryter Layter was a commercial failure, and reviews were again mixed;Record Mirror praised Drake as a "beautiful guitarist—clean and with perfect timing, [and] accompanied by soft, beautiful arrangements", butMelody Maker described the album as "an awkward mix of folk and cocktail jazz".[44] Soon after its release, Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to Los Angeles to work withWarner Brothers to develop film soundtracks. The loss of his mentor, coupled with the album's poor sales, led Drake into furtherdepression. His attitude to London had changed: he was unhappy living alone, and visibly nervous and uncomfortable performing at a series of concerts in early 1970. In June, Drake gave one of his final live appearances atEwell Technical College, Surrey.Ralph McTell, who also performed that night, remembered: "Nick was monosyllabic. At that particular gig he was very shy. He did the first set and something awful must have happened. He was doing his song 'Fruit Tree' and walked off halfway through it."[49]
Island Records urged Drake to promoteBryter Layter through interviews, radio sessions, and live appearances. Drake refused. Disappointed by the reaction toBryter Layter, he turned inwards and withdrew from family and friends.[50]
Although Island had not expected a third album,[51] Drake approached Wood in October 1971 to begin work on what would be his final release. Sessions took place over two nights, with only Drake and Wood in the studio.[12] The bleak songs ofPink Moon are short, and the eleven-track album lasts only 28 minutes, a length described by Wood as "just about right. You really wouldn't want it to be any longer."[30] Drake had expressed dissatisfaction with the sound ofBryter Layter, and believed that the string, brass, and saxophone arrangements resulted in a sound that was "too full, too elaborate".[52] Drake appears onPink Moon accompanied only by his own carefully recorded guitar save for a pianooverdub on the title track. Wood later said: "He was very determined to make this very stark, bare record. He definitely wanted it to be him more than anything. And I think, in some ways,Pink Moon is probably more like Nick is than the other two records."[53]
Drake delivered the tapes ofPink Moon toChris Blackwell at Island Records, contrary to a popular legend which claims that he dropped them off at the receptionist's desk without saying a word.[55] An advertisement for the album inMelody Maker in February opened with "Pink Moon—Nick Drake's latest album: the first we heard of it was when it was finished."[56]Pink Moon sold fewer copies than its predecessors, although it received some favourable reviews. InZigzag, Connor McKnight wrote: "Nick Drake is an artist who never fakes. The album makes no concession to the theory that music should be escapist. It's simply one musician's view of life at the time, and you can't ask for more than that."[57]
Blackwell feltPink Moon had the potential to bring Drake to a mainstream audience; however, his staff were disappointed by Drake's unwillingness to promote it.A&R managerMuff Winwood recalled "tearing his hair out" in frustration and said that without Blackwell's enthusiastic support "the rest of us would have given him the boot".[58] At Boyd's insistence, Drake agreed to an interview with Jerry Gilbert ofSounds Magazine.[59] The "shy and introverted" Drake spoke of his dislike of live appearances and little else.[60] "There wasn't any connection whatsoever," Gilbert said. "I don't think he made eye contact with me once."[60] Disheartened and convinced he would be unable to write again, Drake retired from music. He toyed with the idea of a different career and considered the army.[61] His three albums had together sold fewer than 4,000 copies.[44]
In February 1973, Drake contacted John Wood, saying he was ready to begin work on a fourth album.[45] Boyd was in England at the time and agreed to attend the recordings. The initial session was followed by recordings in July 1974. In his 2006 autobiography, Boyd recalled being taken aback at Drake's anger and bitterness: "[He said that] I had told him he was a genius, and others had concurred. Why wasn't he famous and rich? This rage must have festered beneath that inexpressive exterior for years."[62] Boyd and Wood noticed a deterioration in Drake's performance, requiring him to overdub his voice separately over the guitar. However, the return to the Sound Techniques studio raised Drake's spirits; his mother recalled, "We were so absolutely thrilled to think that Nick was happy because there hadn't been any happiness in Nick's life for years."[63]
In 1971 Drake's family persuaded him to visit a psychiatrist atSt Thomas' Hospital in London. He was prescribedantidepressants, but felt uncomfortable and embarrassed about taking them, and tried to hide the fact from his friends.[64] He worried about their side effects and was concerned that they would react with his regular cannabis use.[65] By this time, Drake was smoking what Kirby described as "unbelievable amounts" of cannabis[66] and exhibiting "the first signs ofpsychosis". He rarely left his flat, and then only to play an occasional concert or to buy drugs.[50] According to photographer Keith Morris, by 1971 Drake was a "hunched, dishevelled figure, staring vacantly...ignoring the overtures of a friendly labrador or gazing blankly overHampstead Heath."[67] His sister recalled: "This was a very bad time. He once said to me that everything started to go wrong from [this] time on, and I think that was when things started to go wrong."[50]
In the months followingPink Moon's release, Drake became increasingly asocial and distant.[68] He returned to live at his parents' home inTanworth-in-Arden, and while he resented the regression, he accepted that it was necessary. "I don't like it at home," he told his mother, "but I can't bear it anywhere else."[10] His return was often difficult for his family, as Gabrielle said: "Good days in my parents' home were good days for Nick, and bad days were bad days for Nick. And that was what their life revolved around, really."[30]
Drake lived a frugal existence; his only income was a £20-a-week retainer from Island Records (equivalent to £306 in 2023[18]). At one point he could not afford a new pair of shoes.[70] He would disappear for days, sometimes arriving unannounced at friends' houses, uncommunicative and withdrawn. Robert Kirby described a typical visit: "He would arrive and not talk, sit down, listen to music, have a smoke, have a drink, sleep there the night, and two or three days later he wasn't there, he'd be gone. And three months later he'd be back."[71] Nick's supervision partner at Cambridge, John Venning, saw him on an underground train in London and felt he was seriously depressed: "There was something about him which suggested that he would have looked straight through me and not registered me at all. So I turned around."[72]
Drake was a close personal friend of fellow folk musiciansJohn andBeverley Martyn, and visited them regularly when they lived in London and subsequentlyHastings. Martyn later wrote the title song of his 1973 albumSolid Air about Drake and described him, in this period, as the most withdrawn person he had ever met.[73] Drake would borrow his mother's car and drive for hours without purpose, until he ran out of petrol and had to ring his parents to ask to be collected. Friends recalled the extent to which his appearance had changed.[74] During particularly bleak periods, he refused to wash his hair or cut his nails.[61] Early in 1972, Drake had anervous breakdown, and was hospitalised for five weeks.[63] He was initially believed to havemajor depression, although his former therapist suggested he hadschizophrenia.[75]
By late 1974, Drake's weekly retainer from Island had ceased, and his depression meant that he remained in contact with only a few close friends. He had tried to stay in touch with Sophia Ryde, whom he had met in London in 1968.[76] Ryde has been described by Drake's biographers as "the nearest thing" to a girlfriend in his life, but she used the description "best (girl) friend".[77] In a 2005 interview, Ryde said that a week before he died, she had sought to end the relationship: "I couldn't cope with it. I asked him for some time. And I never saw him again."[78] As with the relationship he had shared with fellow folk musicianLinda Thompson, it appears that Drake's relationship with Ryde was not consummated.[78] John Martyn claimed to have had a heated argument with Drake around a month before the latter's death which was never reconciled.Phill Brown later said that this "destroyed" Martyn.[79]
Drake's perceived inability to connect has led to speculation about his sexuality.[80] Boyd detected avirginal quality in Drake's lyrics and music and notes that he never knew of him behaving in a sexual way with anyone, male or female.[81]Ian MacDonald, who was distantly acquainted with Drake at Cambridge, wrote that he "was probably fonder of sex than has been suggested so far, but otherwise he held aloof from worldly attachment".[12] The claim that Drake died a virgin has been falsely attributed to his sister Gabrielle, who responded that "I never said any such thing because I don't know! I have no idea. And I don't mind what he was."[82]
During the early hours of 25 November 1974, Drake died in his bedroom at Far Leys. He had gone to bed early after spending the afternoon visiting a friend. His mother said that around dawn he left his room for the kitchen. His family had heard him do this many times before, and presumed he was eating cereal. He returned to his room a short while later, where it is believed that he took an overdose ofamitriptyline, anantidepressant.[84]
Drake had been accustomed to keeping his own hours; he frequently had difficulty sleeping and often stayed up through the night playing and listening to music, then slept late into the following morning. His mother later said: "I never used to disturb him at all. But it was about 12 o'clock, and I went in, because really it seemed it was time he got up. And he was lying across the bed. The first thing I saw was his long, long legs."[85] According to Rodney Drake's personal diary, Nick's body was first discovered by their housemaid who looked in on Drake around 11:45 and called out to Molly who went in to discover he was dead.[75] There was nosuicide note, although a letter addressed to Ryde was found close to his bed.[86] At the inquest on 18 December, the coroner stated that the cause of death was "Acute amitriptyline poisoning—self-administered when suffering from a depressive illness" and concluded a verdict of suicide.[4][23] The inquest revealed "a minimum of 35 [amitriptyline] pills' worth from stomach samples and up to a further 50 from blood samples".[87]
On 2 December 1974, after a service in theChurch of St Mary Magdalene, Tanworth-in-Arden, Drake's remains were cremated atSolihull Crematorium and his ashes interred under an oak tree in the church's graveyard.[88] The funeral was attended by around fifty mourners, including friends from Marlborough, Aix, Cambridge, London, Witchseason, and Tanworth.[89] Referring to Drake's tendency to compartmentalise relationships, Brian Wells observed that many met each other for the first time that morning.[90] His mother recalled "a lot of his young friends came up here. We'd never met many of them."[89]
Boyd wrote that "the roots of Nick's harmonies" were in his mother's piano playing,[91] which drew fromWest End acts such asNoël Coward,Sandy Wilson, andJulian Slade.[12] As a teenager, Drake learned songs byBob Dylan,Paul Simon, andPeter, Paul and Mary on guitar, having been particularly affected by Dylan's "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".[91][12] Boyd additionally listedDjango Reinhardt,Miles Davis,Bert Jansch, andDonovan as influences and speculated that he was familiar withbossa nova, specifically with the Brazilian guitaristJoão Gilberto. Drake asked Robertson to write an arrangement for "River Man" in the vein ofFrederick Delius.[92] According to Kirby, the instrumental tracks onBryter Layter were inspired bythe Beach Boys'Pet Sounds andthe 5th Dimension'sThe Magic Garden.[93] Similarities have been noted between Drake's compositions and the work ofJohann Sebastian Bach;[12] Drake was listening to Bach'sBrandenburg Concertos on the night he died.[91]
Drake was obsessive about practising his guitar technique and would stay up through the night writing and experimenting withalternative tunings. His mother remembered hearing him "bumping around at all hours. I think he wrote his nicest melodies in the early morning hours."[19] Self-taught,[94] he achieved his guitar style through the use of alternative tunings to createcluster chords,[95] which are difficult to achieve on a guitar usingstandard tuning. Similarly, many of his vocal melodies rest on theextensions of chords, not just on notes of the triad.[95] He sang in thebaritone range, often quietly and with little projection.[96]
Drake was drawn to the works ofWilliam Blake,William Butler Yeats, andHenry Vaughan, whose influences are reflected in his lyrics.[12] He also employed a series of elemental[97] symbols and codes, largely drawn from nature. The moon, stars, sea, rain, trees, sky, mist, and seasons are all commonly used, influenced in part by his rural upbringing. Images related to summer figure centrally in his early work; fromBryter Layter on, his language is more autumnal, evoking a season commonly used to convey senses of loss and sorrow.[12] Throughout, Drake writes with detachment, more as an observer than a participant, a point of viewRolling Stone'sAnthony DeCurtis described "as if he were viewing his life from a great, unbridgeable distance".[97] Kirby described Drake's lyrics as a "series of extremely vivid, complete observations, almost like a series ofepigrammatic proverbs", though he doubts that Drake saw himself as "any sort of poet". Instead, Kirby believes that Drake's lyrics were crafted to "complement and compound a mood that the melody dictates in the first place".[70]
There were no documentaries or compilation albums in the wake of Drake's death.[89] His public profile remained low throughout the 1970s, although his name appeared occasionally in the music press. By this time, his parents were receiving an increasing number of fans at the family home. Following a 1975NME article by Nick Kent, Island Records said they had no plans to reissue Drake's albums,[98] but in 1979 Rob Partridge joined Island Records as press officer and commissioned the release of theFruit Tree box set. The release compiled Drake's three studio albums, the four tracks he recorded with Wood in 1974 and an extensive biography written by the American journalistArthur Lubow. Although sales were poor, Island Records did not delete the albums from its catalogue.[98]
By the mid-1980s, Drake was being cited as an influence by musicians such asKate Bush,Paul Weller, theBlack Crowes,[99]Peter Buck ofR.E.M. andRobert Smith of theCure. Drake gained further exposure in 1985 whenthe Dream Academy included a dedication to Drake on the sleeve of its hit single "Life in a Northern Town".[100] In 1986 a biography of Drake, byGorm Henrik Rasmussen, was published inDanish;[101] an updated version with new interviews was published in English in 2012.[102] By the end of the 1980s his name was appearing regularly in newspapers and music magazines in the UK,[103] where he frequently was cast in the role of the "doomedromantic hero".[104] The earliest Drake profile in a U.S. magazine was the article "Hanging On A Star" by theAllMusic critic Peter Kurtz, which appeared in the 3 September 1993 issue ofGoldmine.[105]
The first biography of Drake in English was published in November 1997 by Patrick Humphries. On 20 June 1998,BBC Radio 2 broadcast a documentary,Fruit Tree: The Nick Drake Story, featuring interviews with Boyd, Wood, Gabrielle and Molly Drake, Paul Wheeler, Robert Kirby, and Ashley Hutchings, and narrated by Danny Thompson.[106][107] In early 1999,BBC Two broadcast a 40-minute documentary,A Stranger Among Us—In Search of Nick Drake. The following year, Dutch director Jeroen Berkvens released the documentaryA Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, featuring interviews with Boyd, Gabrielle Drake, Wood and Kirby. Later that year,The Guardian namedBryter Layter the best alternative album of all time.[73]
In 1999, "Pink Moon" was used in aVolkswagen commercial, boosting Drake's US album sales from about 6,000 copies in 1999 to 74,000 in 2000.[108][109] TheLos Angeles Times saw this as an example of how, following the consolidation of US radio stations, previously unknown music was finding audiences through advertising.[110] Fans used thefilesharing softwareNapster to circulate digital copies of Drake's music. According toThe Atlantic, "The chronic shyness and mental illness that made it hard for Drake to compete with 1970s showmen likeElton John andDavid Bowie didn't matter when his songs were being pulled one by one out of the ether and played late at night in a dorm room."[108]
Over the following years, Drake's songs appeared in soundtracks of "quirky, youthful" films such asThe Royal Tenenbaums,Serendipity andGarden State.[108]Made to Love Magic, an album of outtakes and remixes released by Island Records in 2004, far exceeded Drake's lifetime sales.[108] The American musicianDuncan Sheik released an album of songs inspired by Drake,Phantom Moon, in 2001. In 2017,Kele Okereke citedPink Moon as an influence on his third solo album,Fatherland.[111] In November 2014, Gabrielle Drake published a companion to her brother's music.[112] An authorised biography by Richard Morton Jack was published in June 2023, with a foreword by Gabrielle Drake.[113] Other contemporary artists influenced by Drake includeJosé González,[114]Bon Iver,[114]Iron & Wine,[114]Alexi Murdoch,[114]Steven Wilson[115] andPhilip Selway ofRadiohead.[116]
In 2023,Chrysalis Records releasedThe Endless Coloured Ways – The Songs of Nick Drake, a tribute album featuring artists including Selway,Liz Phair andFeist.[117] In 1994, theRolling Stone journalist Paul Evans said Drake's music "throbs with [an] aching beauty" similar to the 1968Van Morrison albumAstral Weeks.[118] According to theAllMusic criticRichie Unterberger, Drake was a "singular talent" who "produced several albums of chilling, somber beauty", now "recognized as peak achievements of both the British folk-rock scene and the entire rock singer/songwriter genre". Unterberger felt that Drake's following spanned generations "in the manner of the youngRomantic poets of the 19th century who died before their time ...Baby boomers who missed him the first time around found much to revisit once they discovered him, and his pensive loneliness speaks directly to contemporaryalternative rockers who share his sense of morose alienation."[3]
The American criticRobert Christgau wrote inChristgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): "Drake's jazzy folk-pop is admired by a lot of people who have no use forKenny Rankin, and I prefer to leave open the possibility that he's yet another English mystic (romantic?) I'm too set in my ways to hear."[2] In 2000, the British criticIan MacDonald wrote that "the mantle of romance shrouding Nick Drake's story in retrospect is undeniably alluring. But its attraction wouldn't survive scrutiny if the work didn't hold up: if fellow songwriters weren't so intrigued by the forms and changes, if admiring fellow guitarists didn't puzzle at the strange tunings and extraordinary finger-picking techniques, if singers weren't drawn to the sighing melodies and cryptic lyrics."[12]
Drake's music featured in aBBC Prom concert titled "Nick Drake: an Orchestral Celebration", at theRoyal Albert Hall, on 24 July 2024 when some of his songs were performed by a selection of artists;Olivia Chaney,B.C. Camplight,Marika Hackman,Scott Matthews,The Unthanks joining theBBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted byJules Buckley. The concert – which also featured Drake's sister, Gabrielle on stage reading lines composed by their mother – commemorated the 50th anniversary year of Drake's death.[119]
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