Nick Drake: The Life

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Firstly, he had been led to believe by all of those on the inside of his career, and with all the right motives, that he was going to be very successful. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. It’s a terrible tragedy, and I think it’s nice to think of ways in which Nick’s life could have turned out differently. While Drake’s career as a musician was characterised by diffidence, his youth wasn’t entirely devoid of high jinks.

I got them out and had a look at which issue it would have been – and it had Nico and John Cale on the cover [with Brian Eno and Kevin Ayers]. I hope you can perhaps appreciate that the idea of having my music as a ‘vacation hobby’ for another year-and-a-half is not a particularly happy one. On the second aspect – what advantages unconnected with your career may you be throwing away – there is not a great deal to say except that it is a rounded personality which is most likely to lead its owner on a happy and full road though life.

There’s a sweet letter from October 1967 where his father says, ‘We opened a bottle of wine to celebrate’ when they heard some good news about one of his early demo tapes making a mark, and so on. Richard Morton Jack has reconstructed Nick's life with great sensitivity and care, and in remarkable detail. Blackwell ploughed ahead with his most mysterious charge’s release, even though Drake had no interest in artwork or press. but he loved the Beatles and George Martin, and understood the difference between writing classical music and pop arrangements, and that you had to have a pop sensibility.

RU: Going back to Nick Drake’s early years, which you document extensively, I think a key point is that not just his parents but other people, like teachers, were almost trying to herd him onto a specific track: going to Cambridge, probably training to be a professional of some sorts. RU: Another one – which appeared in the most unlikely place, a teen-oriented magazine, and contained some useful information. It was like a scene from The Decameron, with food everywhere, which they invited us to help ourselves to. Having established that they were staying in an old French colonial hotel, La Mamounia, they went there that evening.We in fact got quite chatty with them, and it was quite interesting learning all the inside stories. But I think what’s fundamentally important to remember about Nick’s own musical taste is that he came from a classical place as a child, and classical music was very much his companion in his illness – more, I infer (I don’t know for sure) than pop or rock. RMJ makes the point that everyone - absolutely everyone - adored him and did their best to help him, including high-profile people such as Chris Blackwell and, of course, Joe Boyd. I think it would have gratified him if his records had sold better, but I don’t think it would have helped him be creative in his illness.

Drake is now ensconced in myth as a doomed poet whose life ended at 26 through an overdose of antidepressants.This was unfortunately refused in a similar fashion, and it was decided that my fortune should be made elsewhere. He had qualities that were obviously likely to make him into a useful and helpful member of society as an adult. Do you think it’s a reflection of the open-mindedness of that time that producers and artists were willing to bring in ingredients that might not have seemed sensible or logical on paper? Joe’s memory is that Nick’s vision for Bryter Layter was that both sides should be bookended by instrumentals (although what the fourth one would have been is a mystery – there’s no evidence that one was ever either written or recorded). There was no suggestion by anyone that he was marginal, that he should have low expectations of his sales and the take-up of his work.

Instead, it pivots into a story about mental health and a family, a dynamic in a family, which doesn’t lend itself to mythologising and to funny anecdotes, for obvious reasons. Although he was an English singer-guitarist whose unconventional tunings and numinous lyrics set him apart, even in a crowded folk revival field, a chasm had opened up between the promise of his talent and his meagre public profile. There’s plenty of amusing facts and details that can be brought into play without having to repeat myths and glorify bad behaviour and so on. I actually think one could almost say it was generous of Nick to give Robert the arrangement credit, because the arrangements were by the two of them.

Because of the access I’ve had and the material his sister has already shared, there’s an awful lot of forensic information that you normally wouldn’t come close to with a major artist. The entire book is a revelation including his detailed descriptions of Nick's amazing talent as guitarist, and the descriptions of the very different techniques employed in the studio to best showcase that. It’s not an easy read, especially towards the end, but it puts into perspective not just the genius of the music but how it came to be, and sadly, the destructive nature of poor mental health. I think he always knew that Pink Moonwas what he wanted to do – not as a reaction to Bryter Layter, as is often assumed, but just as the next step he wanted to take.