Hiro11

Sound Opinions just did an episode on one of my favorite musicians, Nick Drake. If you haven't heard his stuff, you should definitely check all of his work out. Anyway, for current fans, here's some interesting stuff about him:

1. He was an accomplished sprinter when he was younger, specializing in the 100 yard dash. He still holds the record at Marlborough College.

2. The Dream Academy's huge 1985 hit "Life in a Northern Town" is about Nick Drake.

3. None of his albums sold more than 5,000 copies in his lifetime and he lived on a 20 pound a week retainer in his parent's house his entire professional career. Now all of his work has gone gold or platinum and his music constantly appears in films and commercials.

4. Comtemporary critics completely misjudged him. His work got mixed reviews when it was released. Melody Maker bizarrely reviewed "Bryter Layter" as "an awkward mix of folk and cocktail jazz" when it was released. The Guardian recently named the same album the greatest alternative rock album of all time.

5. His music was heavily influenced by his own mother's songs.

6. He was 6'6" and had huge, powerful hands. His self taught guitar technique is extremely difficult to replicate because his fingers were so long and strong. He also used some very inventive alternative tunings and jazz-style cluster chords.

7. He always wanted to be a huge star and was highly ambitious, but he was his own worst enemy. He refused to play live and never did anything promotional.

In a lot of ways, he's the UK's version of Big Star: two bands from the early seventies produce 3 flawless albums and then proceed to suffer through an endlessly frustrating and misunderstood career that ends in tragedy (Chris Bell and Drake himself) and disappointment. They were ignored during their lifetime only to be later widely regarded as two of the best of their generation and inspire countless other musicians.

EddieMoney

Interesting stuff. Bryter Layter is an all-time fave for sure.

CRM114

The production of Bryter Later and the alternative tunings were part of the reason he didn't like to perform live. The former wasn't able to be pulled off and his alternative tunings resulted in long gaps between songs while he retuned. What he really wanted to sound like was Pink Moon - him and a guitar.

I think part of his sound was dead strings like he never changed them. They didn't have any brightness to them.

Hiro11

His guitar sound is instantly recognizable to me. Also, his precise timing and clean fingering is pretty amazing even to me as someone who knows nothing about guitar.

His producer (Joe Boyd) mentioned that they eventually got to the point where they just turned Nick's guitar all the way down while mixing as there was no reason to review his track: he was always perfect on the first take and only the other musicians needed to be reviewed. This is high praise considering people like Richard Thompson, Danny Thompson and John Cale were playing on those records. Almost all of Drake's stuff was recorded live in studio. Pink Moon was just Drake and an engineer in a studio for a few days.

cungar

Another Big Star parallel: There's no film of him performing. Adds to the mystery.

Ropes Pierre

i heard a story that he ran into Andre the Giant in an airport and they got into a game of "mercy". Andre the giant left, weeping.

Mordred

8. He murdered Amanda Bynes vagina.

Hiro11

I'd say he checks all the Ian Curtis mystique boxes.

Drake appeared fully formed at age 21, proceeded to drop three all-time classic albums in quick succession, essentially never performed live and was dead by 26. It's almost like he dropped out of the sky.

He remains almost a complete cypher. Few former classmates seem to remember him. Photos of him are scarce, video of him is entirely non-existant. Joe Boyd who worked with him constantly for almost 4 years saw him as a spectral figure who would just appear in his office from time to time and hand over yet another brilliant demo. Even Drake's own father says "no one ever really knew him".

That's why I find these facts about him so interesting. Who would guess that Drake was a promising athlete or that he was extremely ambititous? Seems like an interesting dude.

CRM114

Perhaps overly ambitious? He seemed to want and expect fame so badly, it drove him mad.

story

Didn't know him until Garden State and I got the digital box set from eMusic.com. It's a great listen!

I'm assuming you've listened to this wonderful National Public Radio 10-minute show on Nick Drake released around two weeks ago. If not, hop to it!

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/14/177057...cians-musician

Hokeyboy

9. He perfected the art of garroting with concertina wire as an assassination technique.

His guitar tone was unmistakable. I've been playing for 30 years and your tone begin and ends with your fingers, period, and his mammoth appendages should have been bronzed and studied for decades.

Falc04

10. I thought this thread was about Drake and Josh

RagingBull80

Just chiming in to say that I love Nick Drake. I need something more to my music than just a guitar and voice but I could listen to Pink Moon over and over again. There is something so enchanting about him.

Everyone here should check out the documentary Skin Too Few.

Hiro11, if you haven't yet (I'm assuming you have already) you need to check out Joe Boyd's book White Bicycles. Boyd was involved in a lot of great things and the section on Drake is great.

CRM114

I've had White Bicycles on my Amazon wish list for years and I'm not sure why. I guess I'll order it now.

atlantamoi

I did not know the Dream Academy song was about him. Fascinating to learn after all these years. He'd probably be blown away with what has happened to his music, but I'd guess it wouldn't be quite as popular if he had not died. Mystique and all. Love those songs. There is a doc out there with some brief interviews from his sister (pretty woman).

RagingBull80

It's really a wonderful story. That guy was involved in some amazing stuff.

cungar

The string and horn arrangements on his songs (especially on Bryter Later) would seem dated and mushy on nearly anyone else's music. I was listening to the album last night with my new Harmon Kardon headphones and the instrumentation is just perfect. Pretty sure Beck used them as the basis for Sea Change.

Guru Askew

He was a folk singer. 26 is about the life expectancy for people in that genre.

CRM114

Like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger!

cungar

For some reason I never thought of him as a folk singer.