Nick Drake

Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, where Drake was raised

Drake's father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake (1908–1988), moved to Rangoon, Burma, in the early 1930s as an engineer with the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation.[3] In 1934, Rodney met Molly Lloyd (1916–1993), the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service. Rodney proposed in 1936, though they had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry.[4] Nick was born in Burma on 19 June 1948.[5] In 1951, the family returned to England to live in Warwickshire,[6] at their home, Far Leys, in Tanworth-in-Arden, south of Birmingham. Rodney worked from 1952 as the chairman and managing director of Wolseley Engineering.[7]

Nick's older sister, Gabrielle, became a successful screen actress. Both parents wrote music. Recordings of Molly's songs, which have come to light since her death, are similar in tone and outlook to the later work of her son;[8] they shared a similar fragile vocal delivery, and Gabrielle and biographer Trevor Dann noted a parallel foreboding and fatalism in their music.[8][9] Encouraged by his mother, Drake learned to play piano at an early age and began to compose songs which he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder that she kept in the family drawing-room.[10]

In 1957, Drake was sent to Eagle House School, a preparatory boarding school near Sandhurst, Berkshire. Five years later, he went to Marlborough College, a public school in Wiltshire which had also been attended by his father and grandfather. He developed an interest in sport, becoming an accomplished 100- and 200-yard sprinter, representing the school's Open Team in 1966. He played rugby for the C1 House team and was appointed a House Captain in his last two terms.[11] School friends recall Drake as having been confident, often aloof, and "quietly authoritative".[12] His father remembered: "In one of his reports [the headmaster] said that none of us seemed to know him very well. All the way through with Nick, people didn't know him very much."[13]

Drake played piano and learned clarinet and saxophone. He formed a band, the Perfumed Gardeners, with four schoolmates in 1964 or 1965. With Drake on piano and occasional alto sax and vocals, the group performed Pye International R&B covers and jazz standards, as well as Yardbirds and Manfred Mann songs. Chris de Burgh asked to join the band, but was rejected as his taste was "too poppy".[14]

Drake's attention to his studies deteriorated and, although he had accelerated a year in Eagle House, at Marlborough he neglected his studies in favour of music. In 1963 he attained seven GCE O-Levels, fewer than his teachers had been expecting, failing "Physics with Chemistry".[15] In 1965, Drake paid £13 (equivalent to £268 in 2021[16]) for his first acoustic guitar, a Levin, and was soon experimenting with open tuning and finger-picking techniques.[17]

In 1966 Drake enrolled at a tutorial college in Five Ways, Birmingham, where he won a scholarship to study at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.[18] As his place at Cambridge was offered for September 1967 he had 10 months to fill so decided to spend six months at the University of Aix-Marseille, France, beginning in February 1967, where he began to practise guitar in earnest. To earn money, he would busk with friends in the town centre. Drake began to smoke cannabis, and he travelled with friends to Morocco; according to travelling companion Richard Charkin, "that was where you got the best pot".[19] There is some evidence that he began using LSD while in Aix although this is debated,[20] and lyrics written during this period—in particular for "Clothes of Sand"— might suggest an interest in hallucinogens.[21]

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where Drake studied English literature

Drake returned to England in 1967 and moved into his sister's flat in Hampstead, London. That October, he enrolled at Cambridge to begin his studies in English literature.[22] His tutors found him bright but unenthusiastic and unwilling to apply himself.[23] His biographer, Trevor Dann, notes that he had difficulty connecting with staff and fellow students, and that matriculation photographs from this time portray a sullen young man.[24] Cambridge placed emphasis on its rugby and cricket teams, but Drake had lost interest in sport, preferring to stay in his college room smoking cannabis and playing music. According to fellow student Brian Wells, "They were the rugger buggers and we were the cool people smoking dope."[24]

In January 1968, Drake met Robert Kirby, a music student who went on to write many of the string and woodwind arrangements for Drake's first two albums.[25] By this time, Drake had discovered the British and American folk music scenes, and was influenced by performers such as Bob Dylan, Donovan, Van Morrison, Josh White and Phil Ochs (he later cited Randy Newman and the Beach Boys as influences).[26] He began performing in local clubs and coffee houses around London, and in December 1967, while playing at a five-day event at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, made an impression on Ashley Hutchings, bass player with Fairport Convention.[27][28] Hutchings recalls being impressed by Drake's guitar skill, but even more so by his image: "He looked like a star. He looked wonderful, he seemed to be 7 ft [tall]."[29]

Hutchings introduced Drake to the 25-year-old American producer Joe Boyd, owner of the production and management company Witchseason Productions, which at the time was licensed to Island Records.[13] Boyd, who had discovered Fairport Convention and introduced John Martyn and the Incredible String Band to a mainstream audience, was a respected figure in the UK folk scene.[29] He and Drake formed an immediate bond, and Boyd acted as a mentor to Drake throughout his career. Impressed by a four-track demo recorded in Drake's college room in early 1968, Boyd offered Drake a management, publishing, and production contract. Boyd recalled listening to a reel-to-reel home recording Drake had made: "Halfway through the first song, I felt this was pretty special. And I called him up, and he came back in, and we talked, and I just said, 'I'd like to make a record.' He stammered, 'Oh, well, yeah. Okay.' Nick was a man of few words."[29] According to Drake's friend Paul Wheeler, Drake had already decided not to complete his third year at Cambridge and was excited about the contract.[29]

The grave where Drake's ashes are buried with those of his parents.[76] The gravestone is inscribed with the epitaph "Now we rise / And we are everywhere", taken from the lyrics of "From the Morning", the final song on Drake's final album, Pink Moon.[76]

During the early hours of 25 November 1974, Drake died in his bedroom at Far Leys. According to his death certificate, issued on 24 December, he died after taking an overdose of amitriptyline, an antidepressant. He had gone to bed early after spending the afternoon visiting a friend. His mother said that around dawn he left his room for the kitchen. His family had heard him do this many times before, and presumed he was eating cereal. He returned to his room a short while later, where it is believed that he took an overdose of amitriptyline.[77] The precise cause of death is unknown as no post-mortem examination was carried out.[78]

Drake had been accustomed to keeping his own hours; he frequently had difficulty sleeping and often stayed up through the night playing and listening to music, then slept late into the following morning. His mother later said: "I never used to disturb him at all. But it was about 12 o'clock, and I went in, because really it seemed it was time he got up. And he was lying across the bed. The first thing I saw was his long, long legs."[79] According to Rodney Drake's personal diary, Nick's body was first discovered by their housemaid who looked in on Drake around 11.45 and called out to Molly who went in to discover he was dead.[71] There was no suicide note, although a letter addressed to Ryde was found close to his bed.[80]

At the inquest on 18 December, the coroner stated that the cause of death was "Acute amitriptyline poisoning—self-administered when suffering from a depressive illness", and concluded a verdict of suicide. Although the verdict has been disputed by some of his friends and members of his family,[5][22] there is a widely held view that, accidental or not, Drake had by then "given up on life".[42] Rodney described his son's death as unexpected and extraordinary; however, in a 1979 interview he said he had been worried about Drake's depression, and that the family hid painkillers from him.[75]

Boyd recalled that Drake's parents had described his mood in the preceding weeks as positive and that he had planned to move back to London to restart his music career. Boyd believes that this uplift in spirits was followed by a "crash back into despair". Reasoning that Drake may have taken a high dosage of antidepressants to recapture this sense of optimism, he said he prefers to imagine Drake "making a desperate lunge for life rather than a calculated surrender to death".[81] In 1975, the NME journalist Nick Kent wrote of the irony of Drake's death when he had begun to regain a sense of "personal balance".[65] In contrast, Gabrielle said she would "rather he died because he wanted to end it than it to be the result of a tragic mistake. That would seem to me to be terrible: for it to be a plea for help that nobody hears."[75]

On 2 December 1974, after a service in the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Tanworth-in-Arden, Drake's remains were cremated at Solihull Crematorium and his ashes interred under an oak tree in the church's graveyard.[82] The funeral was attended by around fifty mourners, including friends from Marlborough, Aix, Cambridge, London, Witchseason, and Tanworth.[83] Referring to Drake's tendency to compartmentalise relationships, Brian Wells observed that many met each other for the first time that morning.[84] His mother recalled "a lot of his young friends came up here. We'd never met many of them."[83]

There were no documentaries or compilation albums in the wake of Drake's death.[83] His public profile remained low throughout the 1970s, although his name appeared occasionally in the music press. By this time, his parents were receiving an increasing number of fans at the family home. Following a 1975 NME article by Nick Kent, Island Records said they had no plans to reissue Drake's albums,[85] but in 1979 Rob Partridge joined Island Records as press officer and commissioned the release of the Fruit Tree box set. The release compiled Drake's three studio albums, the four tracks he recorded with Wood in 1974 and an extensive biography written by the American journalist Arthur Lubow. Although sales were poor, Island Records did not delete the albums from its catalogue.[85]

By the mid-1980s, Drake was being cited as an influence by musicians such as Kate Bush, Paul Weller, the Black Crowes,[86] Peter Buck of R.E.M. and Robert Smith of the Cure. The Cure's name derives from Drake's song "Time Has Told Me", which includes the line "a troubled cure for a troubled mind".[87] Drake gained further exposure in 1985 when The Dream Academy included a dedication to Drake on the sleeve of its hit single "Life in a Northern Town".[88] In 1986, a biography of Drake was published in Danish;[89] an updated version with new interviews was published in English in 2012.[90] By the end of the 1980s his name was appearing regularly in newspapers and music magazines in the UK,[91] where he frequently was cast in the role of the "doomed romantic hero".[92]

The first biography of Drake in English was published in November 1997 by Patrick Humphries. On 20 June 1998, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a documentary, Fruit Tree: The Nick Drake Story, featuring interviews with Boyd, Wood, Gabrielle and Molly Drake, Paul Wheeler, Robert Kirby, and Ashley Hutchings, and narrated by Danny Thompson.[93][94] In early 1999, BBC Two broadcast a 40-minute documentary, A Stranger Among Us—In Search of Nick Drake. The following year, Dutch director Jeroen Berkvens released the documentary A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, featuring interviews with Boyd, Gabrielle Drake, Wood and Kirby. Later that year, The Guardian named Bryter Layter the best alternative album of all time.[68]

In 1999, "Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen commercial, boosting Drake's US album sales from about 6,000 copies in 1999 to 74,000 in 2000.[87][95] The LA Times saw it as an example of how, following the consolidation of US radio stations, previously unknown music was finding audiences through advertising.[96] Fans used the filesharing software Napster to circulate digital copies of Drake's music; according to The Atlantic, "The chronic shyness and mental illness that made it hard for Drake to compete with 1970s showmen like Elton John and David Bowie didn't matter when his songs were being pulled one by one out of the ether and played late at night in a dorm room."[87] In November 2014, Gabrielle Drake published a companion to her brother's music.[97] An authorised biography by Richard Morton Jack was published in June 2023, with a foreword by Gabrielle Drake.[98]

Over the following years, Drake's songs appeared in soundtracks of "quirky, youthful" films such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Serendipity and Garden State.[87] Made to Love Magic, an album of outtakes and remixes released by Island Records in 2004, far exceeded Drake's lifetime sales.[87] American musician Duncan Sheik released an album of songs inspired by Drake, Phantom Moon, in 2001. In 2017, Kele Okereke cited Pink Moon as an influence on his third solo album, Fatherland.[99] Other contemporary artists influenced by Drake include José González,[100] Bon Iver,[100] Iron & Wine,[100] Alexi Murdoch[100] and Philip Selway of Radiohead.[101]

Drake was obsessive about practising his guitar technique, and would stay up through the night writing and experimenting with alternative tunings. His mother remembered hearing him "bumping around at all hours. I think he wrote his nicest melodies in the early morning hours."[17] Self-taught,[102] he achieved his guitar style through the use of alternative tunings to create cluster chords,[103] which are difficult to achieve on a guitar using standard tuning. Similarly, many of his vocal melodies rest on the extensions of chords, not just on notes of the triad.[103] He sang in the baritone range, often quietly and with little projection.[104]

Drake was drawn to the works of William Blake, William Butler Yeats, and Henry Vaughan, whose influences are reflected in his lyrics.[10] He also employed a series of elemental[105] symbols and codes, largely drawn from nature. The moon, stars, sea, rain, trees, sky, mist, and seasons are all commonly used, influenced in part by his rural upbringing. Images related to summer figure centrally in his early work; from Bryter Layter on, his language is more autumnal, evoking a season commonly used to convey senses of loss and sorrow.[10] Throughout, Drake writes with detachment, more as an observer than a participant, a point of view Rolling Stone's Anthony DeCurtis described "as if he were viewing his life from a great, unbridgeable distance".[105]

This perceived inability to connect has caused speculation about Drake's sexuality.[106] Boyd has said he detects a virginal quality in Drake's lyrics and music, and notes that he never knew of him behaving in a sexual way with anyone, male or female.[107] Kirby described Drake's lyrics as a "series of extremely vivid, complete observations, almost like a series of epigrammatic proverbs", though he doubts that Drake saw himself as "any sort of poet". Instead, Kirby believes that Drake's lyrics were crafted to "complement and compound a mood that the melody dictates in the first place".[65]

Drake received little critical success during his lifetime, but has since been widely acclaimed.[2] Based on professional rankings of his albums and songs, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists him as the 102nd most acclaimed recording artist in history.[108] Rolling Stone included all three of his albums on its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[109] On 4 April 2018, he was inducted into the Folk Hall of Fame at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.[110]

In 1994, Rolling Stone journalist Paul Evans said Drake's music "throbs with [an] aching beauty" similar to the 1968 Van Morrison album Astral Weeks.[111] According to AllMusic critic Richie Unterberger, Drake was a "singular talent" who "produced several albums of chilling, somber beauty", now "recognized as peak achievements of both the British folk-rock scene and the entire rock singer/songwriter genre". Unterberger felt that Drake's following spanned generations "in the manner of the young Romantic poets of the 19th century who died before their time ... Baby boomers who missed him the first time around found much to revisit once they discovered him, and his pensive loneliness speaks directly to contemporary alternative rockers who share his sense of morose alienation."[44] The American critic Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): "Drake's jazzy folk-pop is admired by a lot of people who have no use for Kenny Rankin, and I prefer to leave open the possibility that he's yet another English mystic (romantic?) I'm too set in my ways to hear."[2]

• Five Leaves Left (1969)
• Bryter Layter (1971)
• Pink Moon (1972)

• Bryter Music: The Estate of Nick Drake
• Gabrielle Drake (Nick's sister) interviewed on BBC Radio (2005)
• "Three Records From Sundown" - documentary by Charles Maynes w interviews of Joe Boyd - via 99% Invisible (18 November 2014)