If Nick Drake was doomed during his lifetime, how much worse that he should now be doomed again in death; his life defined not by what he was, nor even by what he achieved, but simply by the nature of the illness that cursed him.
Nick Drake remains a luminous presence – the very stuff of legend. But as is so often the case, the myth clashes with the life. Nick’s sad, solitary death, after a prolonged bout of depression, sealed his reputation as prophet of the disaffected, the outsider’s outsider. But the truth is equally that of a shy boy, popular and successful at his public school, who ran races and set records, passed exams and bunked off down to London to listen to music. He wrote songs and tried them out on friends, and he practised and practised and practised on the guitar. Such base reality humankind cannot bear.
In researching and writing this life of Nick Drake, I found myself cutting across borders and boundaries: of the English public-school system, and the freewheeling London underground scene; of a close-knit family in rural England, and a gifted golden boy who came adrift. Of an artist who never achieved commercial success in his lifetime, but won the pyrrhic prize of posthumous fame. Of gregarious survivors and a reclusive casualty, and the difficulty of telling them apart. All the strands converged in the short, bitter-sweet life of Nick Drake.
At times, though, the myth has threatened to drown out the melodies. So insubstantial are the facts of Nick’s life that his audience have imposed their own flaws and fantasies on to a virtually blank canvas. The cult of Nick Drake is, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, Narcissus glimpsing his own reflection, unable to tear himself away from the beauty he finds in the mirror. For some, the real beauty lies in the emptiness.
There are no easy answers. Perhaps in the end facts can only diminish the myth, but ultimately the life is more important. For whatever the truth about Nick Drake’s death, it remains a tragedy – just as his legacy of extraordinary songs remains a triumph, and a joyful one at that.
Discography
For all that has been written, said and sung about Nick Drake, what made him so special is to be found in the three records he wrote and recorded between 1968 and 1972. Island Records supplied the current catalogue numbers and original release dates of these albums:
FIVE LEAVES LEFT
ILPS 9105, 1 September 1969 (CD: IMCD 8, March 1987) ‘Time Has Told Me’, ‘River Man’, ‘Three Hours’, ‘Way To Blue’, ‘Day Is Done’, ‘Cello Song’, ‘The Thoughts Of Mary Jane’, ‘Man In A Shed’, ‘Fruit Tree’, ‘Saturday Sun’.
BRYTER LAYTER
ILPS 9134, 1 November 1970 (CD: IMCD 71, May 1987) ‘Introduction’, ‘Hazey Jane II, ‘At The Chime Of A City Clock’, ‘One Of These Things First’, ‘Hazey Jane I’, ‘Bryter Layter’, ‘Fly’, ‘Poor Boy’, ‘Northern Sky’, ‘Sunday’.
PINK MOON
ILPS 9184, 25 February 1972 (CD: IMCD 94, April 1990) ‘Pink Moon’, ‘Place To Be’, ‘Road’, ‘Which Will’, ‘Horn’, ‘Things Behind The Sun’, ‘Know’, ‘Parasite’, ‘Ride’, ‘Harvest Breed’, ‘From The Morning’.
FRUIT TREE
NDSP100, 9 March 1979
Island’s three-LP box set of the original albums, with Nick’s four final recordings added to the end of Pink Moon:
‘Rider On The Wheel’, ‘Black Eyed Dog’, ‘Hanging On A Star’, ‘Voice From The Mountain’.
FRUIT TREE
HNBX 5302, August 1986 (CD: HNCD 5402, December 1991 in LP-sized box; reissued August 1996 in CD-sized box, same catalogue number)
Hannibal’s revised and expanded four-LP box set, which restored Pink Moon to its original format and added the new album Time Of No Reply.
TIME OF NO REPLY
HNBL 1318 (CD: HNCD 1318, March 1987)
Posthumous fourth album including seven new songs and the four tracks from the final session, initially only available as part of the revised box set.
‘Time Of No Reply’, ‘I Was Made To Love Magic’, ‘Joey’, ‘Clothes Of Sand’, ‘Man In A Shed’, ‘Mayfair’, ‘Fly’, ‘The Thoughts Of Mary Jane’, ‘Been Smoking Too Long’, ‘Strange Meeting II, ‘Rider On The Wheel’, ‘Black Eyed Dog’, ‘Hanging On A Star’, ‘Voice From The Mountain’.
NICK DRAKE COMPILATIONS
HEAVEN IN A WILD FLOWER
ILPS 9826, 28 May 1985 (CD: IMCD 91, April 1990) Compiled by Trevor Dann from Nick’s three original albums. ‘Fruit Tree’, ‘Cello Song’, ‘Thoughts Of Mary Jane’, ‘Northern Sky’, ‘River Man’, ‘At The Chime Of A City Clock’, ‘Introduction’, ‘Hazey Jane I’, ‘Hazey Jane II,’ ‘Pink Moon’, ‘Road’, ‘Which Will’, ‘Things Behind The Sun’, ‘Time Has Told Me’.
WAY TO BLUE
(IMCD 196, 31 May 1994).
Compiled by Joe Boyd from original three albums plus Time Of No Reply.
‘Cello Song’, ‘Hazey Jane I’, ‘Way To Blue’, ‘Things Behind The Sun’, ‘River Man’, ‘Poor Boy’, ‘Time Of No Reply’, ‘From The Morning’, ‘One Of These Things First’, ‘Northern Sky’, ‘Which Will’, ‘Hazey Jane II, ‘Time Has Told Me’, ‘Pink Moon’, ‘Black Eyed Dog’, ‘Fruit Tree’.
MULTI-ARTIST COMPILATIONS
NICE ENOUGH TO EAT (IWPS6, 1969) Includes ‘Time Has Told Me’.
BUMPERS (IDP1, 1970) Includes ‘Hazey Jane I’.
EL PEA (IDLP1, 1971) Includes ‘One Of These Things First’.
VOICES (HNCD 8301, 1990) Includes ‘Black Eyed Dog’.
FOLK ROUTES (IMCD 197, 1994) Includes ‘Road’.
Latterly two compilations appeared within weeks of each other, each featuring a Nick Drake track:
AND I WRITE THE SONGS: 34 SINGER/SONGWRITER CLASSICS
(Debutante 553 062-2, 1996)
Chris De Burgh finally appears on disc with Nick, alongside Richard Thompson, Tim Hardin, Sandy Denny and John Martyn. Nick is rather bafflingly represented by the instrumental ‘Bryter Layter’.
HEARTBEAT: NUMBER ONE LOVE SONGS OF THE SIXTIES (RADCD 46, 1996)
CD spin-off from enormously popular TV series. This forty-four-track double CD sold over 250,000 copies in the UK, thereby allowing Nick Drake to reach his widest-ever audience. ‘Fruit Tree’ was included (along with Jim Croce’s ‘Time In A Bottle’) as ‘the music featured in the episode where Nick lost Kate’. Thirty-nine of the tracks were number-one hits – in the column for highest chart position, alongside ‘Fruit Tree’ stands the legend ‘N/A’, indicating ‘not applicable’.
RELATED RELEASES
NINE OF SWORDS by Scott Appel
(Schoolkids’ Records, SKR 1521, 1995)
Includes four instrumentals, ‘Bird Flew By’, ‘Blossom’, ‘Our Season’, ‘Place To Be’, which Nick never released; ‘Parasite’, which appeared on Pink Moon, and ‘Nearly/Far Leys’, Appel’s reworking of a Nick Drake original.
BRITTLE DAYS: A TRIBUTE TO NICK DRAKE
(Imaginary Records ILLCD 026, September 1992) Deleted. ‘River Man’ (The Changelings), ‘At The Chime Of A City Clock’ (The High Llamas), ‘Pink Moon’ (Loop), ‘Road’ (No Man), ‘Cello Song’ (The Walkabouts), ‘Joey’ (Shellyann Orphan), ‘From The Morning’ (Scott Appel), ‘Fruit Tree’ (The Times), ‘Know’ (Martyn Bates), ‘Voice From The Mountain’ (The Swinging Swine), ‘Time Has Told Me’ (Nikki Sudden & The French Revolution), ‘Fly’ (Tracy Santa), ‘Northern Sky’ (Clive Gregson), ‘Hazey Jane’ (Scott Appel), ‘River Man’ (R. Stevie Moore)
Nick Drake and associated CDs can be obtained from: Rock Relics, PO Box 50, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear DH4 5YP, UK.
Scott Appel’s Nine of Swords available from: Glassfinger Inc, PO Box 141, Lincoln Park, New Jersey, 07035-1217, USA.
Pink Moon is a quarterly Nick Drake fanzine. Details from: Jason Creed, 34 Kingsbridge Road, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey KT12 2BZ, UK.
Plate Section
Marlborough College, C1 House Relay Team, 1965; Nick Drake is standing third from left.
Marlborough College, Cl House Lowers Rugby XV, 1964; Nick Drake is seated far right. Nick’s Housem
aster Dennis Silk is standing far left.
Marlborough College House photograph, Summer term 1965. Nick is standing 2nd row, centre, directly behind his Housemaster.
Nick’s parents, Rodney and Molly Drake, at Far Leys.
The Drake family home at Tanworth-in-Arden, photographed from the garden.
Nick’s first photo session for Island Records, just prior to the release of Five Leaves Left in 1969.
A 1967 lino cut of Nick playing the guitar in Aix-en-Provence.
The boxes of three of the original master tapes of Nick’s albums for Island Records.
Regent’s Park, 1969.
Seated at the photographer Keith Morris’s table at the time of Five Leaves Left.
The final photo session on Hampstead Heath, 1971.
Nick’s music room at Far Leys with the original artwork for Pink Moon framed on the wall.
An early sketch of Nick in Aix-en-Provence, 1967.
Acknowledgements
First of all, Penny Phillips at Bloomsbury had the kind imagination to commission this book, so thanks to her for the start, and to Peter Hogan for the end.
Along the way, a great many people helped shape this book. Will Bennett, the intrepid ‘Bennett of the Telegraph’, and Mark Seaman provided illumination and encouragement when all around was darkness.
Thanks to the Freewheelin’ Jeremy Mason for the first step on a great journey and Robert Kirby for the last piece of the jigsaw; to Paul Wheeler for his memories and introducing me to Nick’s Cambridge; and to Brian Wells, who took the time for repeated consultations above and beyond the call of duty.
Françoise Hardy spoke for the first time to me about her memories of Nick. Merci bien. Merci, aussi to Juliet Love for her translation, and to Kelly Pike and Romain Vivien at Virgin records for making the connection.
For the background to the Drake family in Burma and Tanworth, I would like to thank Steven Button of Churchill & Sim, Mr James of The Timber Trade Federation, R.W. Samuel of Wallace Brothers & Co., Walter Snadden, Mr Stanbridge of the British Library, John Maloney, Revd. Canon M.W. Tunnicliffe, Johan Asherton and invaluable transatlantic allies T.J. McGrath, Larry Ayres and Scott Appel.
Information about Nick’s prep-school days was kindly supplied by Maxine Craig, who had gone down this road a decade before. Johnny Black, David and Jean Allen, John Uzielli, E.J.H. Gould, and particularly Marlborough College archivist Terry Rogers, provided the Marlborough connection. Dennis Silk was Nick’s housemaster, and to him I extend warmest thanks for finding time in his hectic timetable to meet me and share his fond memories of a former C1 House pupil.
The following Old Marlburians were generous in sharing their memories of N.R. Drake during the time he spent at the college between 1962 and 1966: Simon Crocker, Arthur Packard, and David Wright, who dipped back over thirty years to recall the first guitar chords he taught the teenage Nick. Thanks also to Michael Maclaran, who shared memories of his trip to France with Nick in 1967, and to Richard Charkin in London 1997, for Morocco 1967.
For Nick’s university career at Cambridge, sincere thanks to Christopher Pratt, Roger Brown, Iain Cameron, Iain Dunn, Ian MacDonald, and Trevor Dann, who, in between running Radio 1, provided revealing insights into Cambridge in the late sixties.
And so to London … In the beginning there was and always shall be Ashley Hutchings. Anthea Joseph and Nick’s press officer at Island, David Sandison, were enormously helpful and generous – someone should get them to write their memoirs. Jerry Gilbert, Chris Carr and Pete Frame, all of whose enthusiasm oils the dry wheels of nineties rock ‘n’ roll. For memories of photo sessions, long ago and far away, and for support today, many thanks, Keith Morris.
Fly-on-the-studio-wall stuff came courtesy of Mike Kowalski, Dave Pegg and Danny Thompson; and invaluable background on Island Records in the early 1970s from David Betteridge, Tim Clark, Martin Satterthwaite, Annie Sullivan and, in memoriam, Gus the Dog.
Deep in his basement, Phil Lawton is the Radio 1 archivist; thanks to him, Pete Ritzema, Jonathan Dann, Alec Reid and Garrell Redfearn for radio waves.
Thanks to Mojo’s Jim Irvin for commissioning the feature which was my first foray into Nick Drake waters, and to Mat Snow for making it Nick’s first appearance on a magazine cover. Post-publication, Dave Burrows, Dave Crewe, Paul Cullum, Paul Donnelly, Steve Aparicio and Mick Stannard were kind enough to write in with their memories of seeing Nick perform; Alex Skorecki shed valuable light on the origin of Five Leaves Left, with a little thanks to O. Henry; and Brian Cullman was particularly evocative of times long gone.
For help, information, advice, cuttings, contacts, clarification, amplification and encouragement, grateful thanks to Ian Burgess, Peter Doggett, Johnny Rogan, Paddy Forwood, Dave Gardner, Bernard Doherty, Pippa at Go! Discs, Mark Jones, Mark Perry, Dylan Winter, Chas Keep, Jason Creed, Alan Robinson, Greg Van Dike, Levent Varlik, Alannah Hopkin, Luca Ferrari, Andy Robson, Koen Hottentot, Mike King, Wesley McDowell, Alan Hewitt, Dave Brown, Peter Curd, Yoshifumi Yakiyama, Maurice Shannon, Mark Rogers, George Taylor, Barry Lazell, Anthony Trotter, Tony Reif, Mikael Ledin, Liz Thompson, Chris Groom, Richard Prout, Rupert Hunt, Kevin Howlett, Colin Harper, Jeremy Harmer – sorry we never got to meet, Allan Jones, Maggie Simpson, Justin Bairamian, Fred Dellar – ever a font, Paula Shutkever, Annie Cleghorn and Lawrence Morphet for surfing the net, and special thanks to Kevin O’Neil and Paolo Hewitt – we’ll always have Sorrento.
It’s good to talk. Many thanks to Linda Thompson, who always finds time to chat; and also to Jeroen Berkvens, Nick Kent and Rob Partridge.
For first-hand memories of the hurly-burly folk scene of the late 1960s, Michael Chapman, Bruce ‘Brewster’ Fursman, Steve Tilston, Bridget St John and Ralph McTell. And for the genesis of Genesis, Anthony Phillips.
Chris Blackwell spoke for the first time about his memories of Nick Drake; for this and for his pioneering work at Island Records over the years – and to Cathy Snipper and Trevor Wyatt – thank you.
To the indefatigable Mark Lewisohn, thanks, and for the future, nothing but the best. John Martyn for ringing to tell me he’d said everything he had to say about Nick, but wishing me good luck. Jonathan Morrish, for exemplary contacts and unflagging enthusiasm over the years.
To Martin and the little Loves – Liberty and Rufus – for reasons to be cheerful. Sue Parr for sorting the wheat from the chaff, fifty thousand thank yous; and Richard Dawes for his sense and sensitivity in turning that into this.
Finally, Paul Weller, Peter Buck, Clive Gregson, Matt Johnson and Donovan all talked about why they felt Nick’s music was so special to them. For their time and enthusiasm, I say thank you. To those I might have missed, apologies, and thanks all the same. As the Master once wrote: Take care of your memories, said Nick, for you cannot relive them …
Copyright © 1997 by Patrick Humphries
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney
First published in Great Britain in 1997 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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eISBN 978-1-4088-4144-0
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