On the 40th anniversary of Nick Drake‘s death, a short piece for the BBC News Magazine:
His first album, the pastoral Five Leaves Left, correspondingly begins with the lines: ‘Time has told me you’re a rare, rare find / A troubled cure for a troubled mind’.
The second, Bryter Layter, is purposefully upbeat and the last, Pink Moon, ends: ‘So look, see the sights, the endless summer nights / And go play the game that you learned from the morning’. This is music of comfort, not of despair; rebirth, not death.
Here’s the documentary mentioned, A Skin Too Few:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrmR_F5XgwQ
And there’s a John Peel version of my favourite track, Cello Song, at the Guardian.
- See also: Why does Everybody Hurt?
- A more fanciful piece on Drake, from 10 years ago
- Tree photo taken on the Thames, 3 Feb 2007
Tags: bbc, bbcnews, bbcnewsmagazine, music, nickdrake, smashedhits, writing
