Nick Drake

Early life

Drake was born in Rangoon, Burma, on 19 June 1948, a few months after the independence from the British Empire. Drake's father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake, had moved to Rangoon in the early 1930s as an engineer with the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. In 1934, Rodney Drake met Molly Lloyd, the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service. He proposed marriage in 1936, but the couple had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry. In 1951, the Drake family returned to England to live in Warwickshire, at their home, Far Leys, in Tanworth-in-Arden. Rodney Drake worked from 1952 as the chairman and managing director of Wolseley Engineering.

Career

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. 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). 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. Hutchings recalls being impressed by Drake's guitar skill, but even more so by his image: "He looked like a star. He...

Later career (1973–74)

In February 1973, Drake contacted John Wood, saying he was ready to begin work on a fourth album. Boyd was in England at the time and agreed to attend the recordings. The initial session was followed by recordings in July 1974. In his 2006 autobiography, Boyd recalled being taken aback at Drake's anger and bitterness: "[He said that] I had told him he was a genius, and others had concurred. Why wasn't he famous and rich? This rage must have festered beneath that inexpressive exterior for years." Boyd and Wood noticed a deterioration in Drake's performance, requiring him to overdub his voice separately over the guitar. However, the return to the Sound Techniques studio raised Drake's spirits; his mother recalled, "We were so absolutely...

Musical and lyrical style

Boyd wrote that "the roots of Nick's harmonies" were in his mother's piano playing, which drew from West End acts such as Noël Coward, Sandy Wilson, and Julian Slade. As a teenager, Drake learned songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Peter, Paul and Mary on guitar, having been particularly affected by Dylan's "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". Boyd additionally listed Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis, Bert Jansch, and Donovan as influences and speculated that Drake was familiar with bossa nova, specifically with the Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto. The string arrangement for "River Man" was done in the style of Frederick Delius and according to Kirby, the instrumental tracks on Bryter Layter were inspired by the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and the 5th...

Northern Sky

"Northern Sky" is a song from the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake's 1971 album Bryter Layter, produced by Joe Boyd. During the recording sessions for the album, the chronically shy and withdrawn songwriter formed a friendship and a mentorship of sorts with producer Joe Boyd, an early supporter of Drake.

Boyd saw commercial potential in the acoustic and unaccompanied demo version of the song, and recruited former Velvet Underground member John Cale as producer. Cale added piano, organ and celesta arrangements, initially against Drake's wishes.

Composition and arrangement

“Northern Sky” is written in Drake's favoured CGCFCE tuning with a capo on the third fret. The middle eight was composed by Cale during the recording. The accompaniment by the classically trained Cale reflects Drake's desire to move away from the pastoral sound of his 1969 debut album Five Leaves Left, which was a commercial failure. Cale's own career was similarly in tatters; he had been fired from the Velvet Underground by Lou Reed two years earlier, and was yet to re-establish his reputation as a formidable producer. Drake sought to broaden his own appeal and tentatively agreed to Boyd's suggestion to include bass and drum tracks on recordings for Bryter Layter, and to experiment with a more pop or jazzy sound, which Boyd admitted he...

Reception

Although Drake's debut album was commercially unsuccessful, Boyd was able to generate a mood of optimism around the lead-up to the release of Bryter Layter. According to Kirby, Drake was uncharacteristically upbeat. He felt Bryter Layter "was going to be the one with a single on it. I always rated "Poor Boy", but they could have gone with "Northern Sky", but nothing ever happened." Patrick Humphries wrote of the song: "The atmosphere is dense, suggesting silver moons sailing on a raven black sea, wind lightly ruffling the hair of the treetops, all stoked by a crazy kind of magic; and the alchemy is fuelled by Cale's hymnal organ and soaring piano figures." Music critic Peter Paphides described it as, "the most unabashedly joyful song in...

Legacy

The 1985 UK hit single "Life in a Northern Town" by The Dream Academy was based on and inspired by "Northern Sky", and contributed to the early to mid-80s revival of interest in the songwriter's career. Singer Nick Laird-Clowes's vocals directly echo Drake's style, while the record sleeve contains the words "Nick Drake, Steve Reich & Classics for Pleasure". Drake, then not well known in the UK, was name-checked in a Melody Maker interview with Laird-Clowes, who said his song came from a "strong connection with Nick Drake in a way I can't even explain". As a result of this, the BBC began to field requests for Drake's song, while Nick Stewart, head of A&R at Island Records, pitched to the label that the songwriter's catalogue might be...

River Man

"River Man" is the second listed song from Nick Drake's 1969 album Five Leaves Left. According to Drake's manager, Joe Boyd, Drake thought of the song as the centrepiece of the album.

In 2004, the song was remastered and released as a 7" vinyl and as enhanced CD single, including a music video by Tim Pope.

Musical structure and lyrics

The song is in a 54 time signature and is one of the few songs Drake wrote to be played in standard tuning. Boyd speculated that the composition was influenced by the Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, and the critic Ian MacDonald suggested the rhythm was developed based on Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". Although most of the arrangements on Five Leaves Left were by Drake's friend Robert Kirby, this arrangement was by Harry Robertson (aka Harry Robinson), after Kirby said he "hadn't gotten to 54 in music school yet." Drake asked Robertson to make the strings sound like Frederick Delius.