So we have this nice little bloggity blog that we rarely ever use so I’m gonna make use of it.
Once a week-I think every Friday-I will post a new artist that you may or may not have heard of and that I think you should check out. It’ll make your weekend better.
First artist is……….
Who-Nick Drake.
What-Sombre folk. One of the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years.
When-1968-1974
Where-England
Why-Because his birth name was Nick Drake and that’s a pretty cool name anyways.
1.The first time I ever heard Nick drake was in the Wes Anderson movie Royal Tenenbaums. It’s when Richie comes home from the hospital and finds Margot sitting in his room-in his tent- listening to records. The song is ‘Fly’. It’s only plays for about a minute but the song stuck with me.
2.There is no recorded footage of an adult Nick Drake. He suffered from deep depression and insomnia which affected his ability to perform live or even do interviews-hence zero footage of him.
3. Drake’s first album ‘Five Leaves Left’ is a reference to Rizla cigarette papers packet – which when you got near the end of the pack a note informed you that there were “only five leaves left”
4.Nick Drake sold more albums in the year 2000 than in the previous 30 years thanks to his song ‘Pink Moon’ being featured in a Volkswagen commercial
5.After Pink Moon was released he fell into a deep depression and checked himself into a psychiatric hospital. “I can’t cope, all the defences are gone. All the nerves are exposed.” “I can’t think of words. I feel no emotion about anything. I don’t want to laugh or cry. I’m numb-dead inside.”-Nick Drake
6.Was born in Rangoon, Burma and moved back to England. Well he didn’t. His parents did. He didn’t really have a choice because he was 2 at the time. I bet if he was a bit older he would have said “No MOM!! All my friends live in RAAAAAANGOOOOOOON!!!!!! I’m not going!!!”"
7. Apparantly Heath Ledger was obsessed with Nick Drake and wanted to do a movie about his life. Ahhhh-what could have been. So sad.
8. I think the count is 17 movies which have featured a Nick Drake song. I would say Royal Tenenbaums and Garden State being 2 of the more popular movies. Actually ‘Fly’ in Royal Tenenbaums was the first time I had heard him.
9. Dropped out of college after his second year to focus on music. Good choice on his part.
10. Nick Drake died on November 25, 1974, from an overdose of amitriptyline, an antidepressant. He was only 26 years old. He had started to write music again and seemed happier in his life so nobody actually knows if it was a suicide or not.
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Nice blog Trev. Both Five Leaves Left and Pink Moon are amazing albums and have been my collection for many years now. Alot of recent folk owe a lot to him. Sun Kill Moon owes his whole career.