Trivia / Nick Drake

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• Adored by the Network: When he sold his Witchseason Productions to Island Records, producer Joe Boyd stipulated that Nick's albums remain in print. The arrangement apparently carried over when Island was bought by Polygram, despite the low sales figures. His albums remaining in print is cited as one reason Nick built up his cult following over the years.
• All-Star Cast: His first two albums feature members of Pentangle and Fairport Convention, two leading British folk rock groups of the era. Bryter Layter also has John Cale guesting on several tracks, as well as Beach Boys drummer Mike Kowalski.
• Creator Breakdown: After releasing two albums to a largely indifferent reception, Drake's despair on Pink Moon is particularly striking.
• Cut Song:
  • A short instrumental "Plaisir D'Amour" appears at the start of the Pink Moon Side B master tape with explicit notes not to release. It eventually appeared as a hidden track on A Treasury.
  • Five Leaves Left has "I Was Made To Love Magic" (cut because it was too similar to "Way To Blue") "Time Of No Reply" (cut because it was too similar to "The Thoughts Of Mary Jane"), as well as "Joey", "Clothes Of Sand" and "Mayfair" from the sessions.
  • Bryter Layter's outtakes included "Things Behind The Sun", "Parasite", "Place To Be" and "Voices / Voice From A Mountain". The first three were later recorded for Pink Moon, and "Voice From A Mountain" was recorded for the unreleased fourth album. Particularly, "Things Behind The Sun" was frequently played live on the Five Leaves Left tour, leading to a lot of confusion when he didn't include it on Bryter Layter.
• Gentleman Snarker: A frequent part of Nick's letters to his parents whilst at boarding school(reprinted in Remembered For A While). His friends have spoken of this too, noting that he was an extremely funny and witty person to be around, and that the public image of him as depressed and withdrawn was not how they knew him.
• Missing Episode:
  • For many years the five tracks he recorded in 1969 for a John Peel session were thought lost, but in 2014 it was found someone connected to the broadcast had kept a copy of the master tape ever since, with no idea of its rarity, and they were finally officially released in 2014.
  • Or a variant thereof: While we have three albums, several bootleg albums, pictures and some home footage from his childhood, no moving footage of an adult Nick Drake exists anywhere.
  • The five tracks he wrote but didn't record for his fourth LP, "Saw You On A Starship", "Old Fairytale", "Even Now", "On This Day" and "Long Way To Town". At this point he wasn't making home demos, so we have no idea what they sounded like, but fortunately he had the lyrics typed up. These lyrics survive in print in the book "Remembered For A While".
• Reclusive Artist: Drake was never completely comfortable with the attention he received, but as his depression spiralled in the early 70s, he started withdrawing from the public eye, and after finishing Pink Moon more or less gave up recording and live performance, spending the last few years of his life holed up in his parents' house in Warwickshire.
• Revival by Commercialization: "Pink Moon" and "From the Morning" were used in Volkswagen and AT&T ads, respectively. In particular, that Volkswagen commercial made Drake's US sales increase from 6,000 in 1999 to 54,000 in 2000.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: He grew up in the countryside with a rich family who he was very close to, went to a very highly regarded boarding school where he doesn't seem to have had trouble with anybody, and the people around him were supportive of his abilities. So when he failed to get the success in music he was convinced he would get, he took it far more harshly than a lot of people would.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: Died at 26 after only releasing 3 albums. His songwriting, lyrics, and guitar playing are all still influential on many musicians to this day.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A young Elton John demoed some of Drake's songs. While John was very impressed with Drake's songwriting, he eventually started composing his own material with his friend Bernie Taupin writing lyrics.
  • Shortly before his death, there were plans for French singer Françoise Hardy to record some of his songs.
  • John Martyn and his then-wife Beverley had talked to Nick about forming a supergroup, which he liked the idea of and was writing songs for, but ultimately was too withdrawn to pursue.
  • Some months prior to his death, Nick read an article in Zig Zag magazine urging him to return to music, which lifted his spirits somewhat and made him want to pursue his fourth record. He had recorded five tracks some months prior, but wasn't happy with his playing, and the engineers urged him to come back when he felt better. Although he wrote five further tracks with a view to making a whole LP, he never arranged any further sessions prior to his death, and wasn't making home demos at the time. As a result the tracks from the earlier session got released after his death. If he had lived, there's a chance he'd have remade them, as well as recording the other five tracks.

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