Nick Drake
Nick Drake
I have been listening to his music for quite a while now. I am not going to write a biographical article about him but rather tell you a few of my interpretations about him and his music.
Nick Drake was an unrecognized genius in his own times(late 60s period). His music and lyrics were way ahead of that period of Rock n Roll era. Probably, thats one of the reasons why he never got his due because people were crazy about Rock n Roll stuff in that period (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin , Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix etc).
His music has a pure almost innocent quality in it. His songs lyrics are subtle but have great depths. Often, they reflect his own life and the lives around him as he saw them. And not to mention his voice which I can describe as haunting, reflecting and having a rare quality to spring up any mood with utmost ease.
The only two bands which come to my mind when listening to his songs are Pink Floyd and Nirvana. However, Drake was an individual songwriter, musician(guitar) and gave vocals in his own songs. A dream combination I can think of would be Nick Drake and Roger Waters(Pink Floyd) at vocals and Dave Gilmour(Pink Floyd) at the guitars.
Sadly, Drake’s genius was never recognized during his times. However, the past few decades have seen a cult growing over his music (owing largely to a television commercial in 2000s which used one of the soundtracks of his album). Its good to see his music being appreciated and recognized in our times. You can even hear some of the soundtracks in the film ‘Serendipity’.
One of the incidents that I would quote and his manager reveals in a documentary(‘A skin too few – youtube’) on him is where Drake comes to him, looking bad and dirty and asks him: ‘Everybody tells me I am great but I am broke. Why?’. In short, it was the manifestation of anger of a musician who thought he had something to give to the world by his music, yet felt like he failed in doing so. It was probably this feeling that saw him become isolated and recluse in his last years when he had given up on the world and rejected it.
Nick Drake passed away in 1974 at the age of 26 having recorded three albums in his lifetime. He is survived by his music which will always keep him alive in the memories of his fans.
*Here’s a list of some soundtracks to hear:
Time has told me, Cello Song, Fruit Tree, Northern Sky, Black Eyed Dog, Fly, Hazey Jane I and II, Pink Moon …
