History Music / NickDrake

** ''Bryter Layter'' added soem jazz textures to the arrangements.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Pink Moon'' featured none of the orchestration on his first two albums, being performed completely on acoustic guitar with the exception of an overdubbed piano on the title track.

His big sister, Gabrielle Drake, is an actress, probably best known for TV's ''Series/{{UFO}}''. (Indeed, when Nick was alive, what little attention he did get from the press often referred to him as Gabrielle's brother.) In recent years, as Nick's reputation has grown, she has devoted a considerable amount of time to managing his music and seeing to the release of recordings that never made it onto his albums. She can be heard singing on his posthumous ''Family Tree'', as can their mother, Molly. Molly Drake was a singer and songwriter as well; though she apparently never intended to release any of the recordings she made in the 1950s, in 2013 an album of her music, ''Molly Drake'', was released. Joe Boyd, Nick's producer, called Molly's music "the missing link in the Nick Drake story."

Discography:

* PerishingAltRockVoice: The TropeCodifier, if not a TropeMaker.
* RepurposedPopSong: "Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen ad, and AT&T used "From The Morning" in a 2010 commercial.
* SingleStanzaSong: "Harvest Breed"
* TheMuse: Drake is cited as an influence by a truly staggering number of musicians, when you consider how small his fanbase was when he was alive. Robert Smith of Music/TheCure, Damon Gough (AKA Badly Drawn Boy), BethOrton, and Peter Buck of Music/{{REM}} are probably the most famous. BradPitt is a fan, and narrated the documentary ''Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake'' for Creator/{{BBC}} Radio 2. "Solid Air" by John Martyn and "Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Academy were written as tributes to him.
* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Drake's music is generally quite intricate, with Baroque guitar playing techniques and often similarly competent accompaniment, so he does not really fit this trope for the most part. However, ''Pink Moon'' is a lot more stripped-back compared to the previous two albums (cf. NewSoundAlbum above). The recording of "Place To Be" on Pink Moon might be a good example of this trope. On earlier versions, he fingerpicks it intricately, but on the album, he mostly just strums it. This is sometimes said to be a sign of his lack of enthusiasm, but it is more likely just because he found it easier to play.

* TheMuse: Drake is cited as an influence by a truly staggering number of musicians, when you consider how small his fanbase was when he was alive. Robert Smith of Music/TheCure, Damon Gough (AKA Badly Drawn Boy), BethOrton, and Peter Buck of {{REM}} are probably the most famous. BradPitt is a fan, and narrated the documentary ''Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake'' for Creator/{{BBC}} Radio 2. "Solid Air" by John Martyn and "Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Academy were written as tributes to him.

* TheMuse: Drake is cited as an influence by a truly staggering number of musicians, when you consider how small his fanbase was when he was alive. Robert Smith of TheCure, Damon Gough (AKA Badly Drawn Boy), BethOrton, and Peter Buck of {{REM}} are probably the most famous. BradPitt is a fan, and narrated the documentary ''Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake'' for Creator/{{BBC}} Radio 2. "Solid Air" by John Martyn and "Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Academy were written as tributes to him.

* TheMuse: Drake is cited as an influence by a truly staggering number of musicians, when you consider how small his fanbase was when he was alive. Robert Smith of TheCure, Damon Gough (AKA Badly Drawn Boy), BethOrton, and Peter Buck of {{REM}} are probably the most famous. BradPitt is a fan, and narrated the documentary ''Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake'' for {{BBC}} Radio 2. "Solid Air" by John Martyn and "Life In A Northern Town" by The Dream Academy were written as tributes to him.

* RevivalByCommercialization: See RepurposedPopSong above.

* WordOfSaintPaul: {{Averted}} in the case of his sister, Gabrielle. She has made it clear that she does not believe she has any special insight into the meaning of Nick's work.

* CreatorBreakdown: After releasing two albums to a largely indifferent reception, Drake's despair on ''Pink Moon'' is particularly striking.

* DoingItForTheArt: The almost obsessive practice Drake put into his guitar certainly shows in his effortless playing.
* MissingEpisode:
** 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 four tracks he recorded for John Peel had the tapes officially wiped (as the BBC did at the time), but two of them were taped and bootlegged. For years, the other two tracks were thought to be lost, but it turned out another person taped them at the time. They might be released officially at some point if the appropriate release came up.

* CelibateHero: He never had a committed relationship, and he seemed to have no interest in sex, although depression may have been to blame for that. By all accounts he was something of a playboy at secondary school, but his depression completely changed his personality.
* CluelessChickMagnet: He was one according to Linda Thompson, at least until his depression caused him to neglect his hygiene.

* StarvingArtist: He saw almost no money from his records while he was alive. None of his albums sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release, and he hated performing live or giving interviews, which contributed to his lack of commerical success.

* CelibateHero: He never had a committed relationship, and he seemed to have no interest in sex, although depression may have been to blame for that.
** By all accounts he was something of a playboy at secondary school, but his depression completely changed his personality

* MissingEpisode: 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.

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Drake's music is generally quite intricate, with Baroque guitar playing techniques and often similarly competent accompaniment, so he does not really fit this trope for the most part. However, ''Pink Moon'' is a lot more stripped-back compared to the previous two albums (cf. NewSoundAlbum above).
** The recording of "Place To Be" on Pink Moon might be a good example of this trope. On earlier versions, he fingerpicks it intricately, but on the album, he mostly just strums it. This is sometimes said to be a sign of his lack of enthusiasm, but it is more likely just because he found it easier to play.

* CluelessChickMagnet: He was one according to Linda Thompson.

* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Just look at the picture above. He was a beautiful man.

One of the more influential [[FolkMusic folk singer]] song writers in recent memory. Nick was an independent British musician who died young from an apparent suicide. Never achieving popular success, [[VindicatedByHistory his reputation grew]] [[DeadArtistsAreBetter after his death]]. Some of his best-known songs include "Things Behind the Sun", "Northern Sky" and "Pink Moon" (which was [[RevivalByCommercialization used for a car commercial]]). His songwriting was of such high quality that ''everything'' in his small body of work is worth hearing.

* TheMuse: Drake is cited as an influence by a truly staggering number of musicians when you consider how small his fanbase was when he was alive. Robert Smith of TheCure, Damon Gough (AKA Badly Drawn Boy), and Peter Buck of {{REM}} are probably the most famous. BradPitt is a fan, and narrated the documentary ''Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake'' for BBC Radio 2.

One of the more influential [[FolkMusic folk singer]] song writers in recent memory. Nick was an independent British musician who died young from an apparent suicide. Never achieving popular success, [[VindicatedByHistory his reputation grew]] [[DeadArtistsAreBetter after his death]]. Some of his best-known songs include "Things Behind the Sun", "Northern Sky" and "Pink Moon" (which was [[RevivalByCommercialization used for a car commercial]]). His songwriting was of such high quality that everything in his small body of work is worth hearing.

* DeadArtistsAreBetter: Nick Drake became much better known after his death.

* StarvingArtist: He saw almost no money from his records while he was alive.

* {{Bishonen}}: Oh yeah.

* Bishonen: Oh yeah.

* TheTropeSong: "Cello Song".