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Nick Drake

martin dawson

pfm Member
Any fans out there ?

Just picked up this month’s copy of Mojo Magazine it contains a15 page article on him its a really good read. Richard Thompson has added a page as they were connected by Joe Boyd.

Regards,

Martin
 
Yes love a bit of Nick. Went to visit his grave in Tanworth-in-Arden the other month - lovely Village.

Have been into him since I read an article in Strange Things magazine in 1990. Still have all the original Island CDs but "Pink Moon" is bronzing badly (PDO Blackburn pressing you see).

Was amused when I bought the Pink Moon Vinyl Box Set. The card with the set gave me 24-96 Hi-Res Flacs of not only Pink Moon but Bryter Layter and Five Leaves Left. Bet there were slapped wrists at Island over that little cock up. I never did get round to buying the Bryter or FLL boxes !
 
Nick has a substantial following amongst audiophiles, including me.
His music is dated and timeless at the same time and I am unsure why he seems to have far less of a following outside of us music nuts.
 
Huge fan. I find his music incredibly soothing, almost go so far as to say it is therapeutic. Last year when my Dad was dying of cancer, Pink Moon and Five Leaves kept me sane listening in my headphones at night.
I never seem to get bored of his playing.
Personally I find Bryter Later a bit too forced, as in the producers trying to over decorate it. Saying that, Northern Sky is one of my favourite tracks.
Mojo ordered, thanks for that.
 
I find Bryter Later a little variable and don’t like Poor Boy. Northern Sky is wonderful though.
If I had to choose, I’d vote for Five Leaves Left in spite of its weaker tracks.
Day is Done must be my absolute favourite Nick Drake song...
 
First came across him via Northern Sky on the Island El Pea sampler and fell in love with his voice and guitar playing. I still have the LPs, but I don’t think the intervening 45 years will have been kind to them. A cracking sampler by the way - up there with Fill Your Head With Rock which I bought around the same time.
 
I got into Nick's music in the late 80's via a friend's Hannibal Fruit Tree box set. I bought the Heaven in a Wildflower comp. and then the albums on CD.
We went to see the Way to Blue concert a few year's back. It was moving to hear his music played live and mostly sympathetically.
If you want to read more I'd highly recommend the Remembered for a While book.
 
Is the story that Chris Blackwell wrote in a condition that Nick's work should never go out of print when he sold Island apocryphal ?
 
I found ( on You Tube ) Scott Matthews singing Day is Done at the Way to Blue concert.
What a fantastic interpretation.
The whole CD is as good and ND fans don't own it, then put that right straight off! Navigator 080, 'Way to Blue', presented by Joe Boyd.
First heard him in 71 when someone played me 5 leaves, but didn't really GET him until 10 years later, but now have all he ever did on CD and Vinyl. I think his music has been used in so many films...can't believe anyone does not now know the name. I always thought that he was too lonely and introspective...If he had some of Cohen's sense of humour, he might still be around?
 
Have just bought the 3 shm-cd japanese releases of Nicks,and they sound very nice, 2013 mastering that was used for the vinyl releases.
 
Is the story that Chris Blackwell wrote in a condition that Nick's work should never go out of print when he sold Island apocryphal ?

That CB insisted Nick's catalogue would not be deleted, is true.

Tracked down his photographer, the late Keith Morris, who had some very forthright views that most people air brush out when they recall ND.
Keith had a retrospective of his 3, ND photo sessions at Redferns Music Gallery in the early 2000s.
Missed the Private View, attended by Paul Weller, Graham Coxon, etc so was a bit gutted.
But after I went to see Keith to collect my "Running Man" photo (see back of 5 Leaves Left) we went on to Redferns. Keith was interviewed for a ND documentary and so talked about ND & his very obvious visual decline over the period of just a few years.

Harrowing stuff.

http://www.keithmorrisphoto.co.uk/


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Keith Morris pic from the 3rd & final ND photo session, December 1971

Keith remembered of the sessions for Nick’s last album, Pink Moon:
“It was a bleak, grey day… Nick was totally cooperative but said very little, couldn’t interact and found it difficult to look towards the camera. It was like I was intruding on private grief.”



zz261.jpg
 
Does anyone know of a defenitive account of his life? Some kind of 'what occurred'? I know about his mum, his musical influences but nothing about his thinking, other than trying to de code the songs ofc.
 
Well the Remembered for a While book is comprehensive but may avoid some of the more controversial elements e.g. alleged heroin use towards the end.
Trevor Dann's book is pretty complete:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0749951338/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
As to what occurred that is pretty straightforward...shy loner with no aptitude for grinding out live performances produces some of the greatest popular music ever and is crushed by its commercial failure. Add in industrial quantities of marijuana, the loss of Joe Boyd who had moved back to the US and he suffers a mental collapse from which he does not recover. Suicide (if it was such; some argue accidental overdose) may have been prompted by loss of long term friend Sophia Ryde who could no longer cope with him. A letter to her was at his bedside but the contents have never been revealed.
 
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Just listen to the lyrics of the title track of John Martyn's "Solid Air" which he wrote about Nick and his mental health.

He overdosed on his medication for his depressive illness
 


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