When did you first hear about Nick Drake?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Brian Kelly, Mar 28, 2015.

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  1. Brian Kelly

    Brian Kelly 1964-73 rock's best decade Thread Starter

    One interesting about young people becoming fans of Nick Drake is that even though he is from the 60's/70's it isn't a case of kids"listening to their parents music" since most of their parents never heard his music at the time it came out. That makes him more appealing to the more rebellious and/or creative kids who want to forge their own path.
    The other cool thing is that his songs are starting to get radio play on a couple stations in our area. I had never heard a Nick Drake song on the radio until "Pink Moon" was in an A to Z countdown a few years back. Since then I've heard "From The Morning", "Cello Song", and a couple others.
     
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  2. Spooky

    Spooky Forum Resident

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    I will never forget the first time I heard Nick Drake. It is something that I look back on frequently and always makes me smile. It's nothing that is that exciting, but just one of those nights that was a very definitive time in my past.

    It was maybe April of 1995 and I had just moved back to Chicago from NC. I was visiting with a very close childhood friend and had just met a girl I was smitten with. My childhood buddy and I stayed up all night and drank coffee, smoked lots of cigarettes and talked about life. It was a beautiful early spring evening so we had the windows open all the way and a perfect breeze was blowing through.

    Around 3am he asks if I'd ever heard Nick Drake - which I had not. So he puts on 'Way to Blue' and I was floored. It was quite possibly the most perfect music at that very moment that I had ever heard. Was just exactly the right thing at the right time. What a cool night. EVERY time I listen to him now I can smell the spring breeze from that night 20 years ago.

    "As you can see...music can get you pretty f*cked up..." -FZ :)
     
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  3. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    Although Nick's track 'Time Has Told Me' appeared on that sampler, it went largely unnoticed as it was sandwiched between Traffic's 'Forty Thousand Headmen' and King Crimson's '20th Century Schizoid Man'. Many skipped over Nick's quiet piece or simply ignored at, sad to say.

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Guy E

    Guy E Senior Member

    Location:
    Antalya, Turkey
    Back in 70 or '71, I clearly remember picking up a copy of his first US album, the one that combined Five Leaves Left and Bryter Later, reading the song titles, admiring the photograph and then putting the LP back in the budget bin. It was priced at 49-cents.
    :realmad:
    [​IMG]

    I remembered his name, but never bought Pink Moon when it was new in 1972, although again, I admired the cover when browsing in record shops.

    I lived in Europe in '75-'76 and I was discovering some English folk and folk-rock, I became a Richard Thompson and John Martyn fan around that time. I remember buying the first reissues of Nick Drake's catalog upon my return to the US in 1976 on the Antilles label... I didn't realize Drake was dead until I got home and read the liner notes explaining that he'd been gone for about 18-months at the time. I was immediately taken with the albums.

    I've always wondered what I would have thought about that hybrid/edit album pictured above If I'd parted with that precious 49-cents back when I was in high school.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
  5. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    Unless my friends are lying it was a couple of SVA grads that worked at the agency and were Nick Drake fans. He had a nice cult following before VW but I do think that ad launched him to another level.
     
  6. Giant Hogweed

    Giant Hogweed Senior Member

    Location:
    Exeter, Devon, UK
    I remember reading an article about him in Record Collector in the early 90s, I was quite young but just used to read anything about anyone to gain knowledge and to imagine what the music would be like. Even then I didn't hear his music until 1998 when a friend gave me a comp to listen to. Nick's music now always takes me back to the summer of 98, about to leave home, lots of excitement...
     
  7. guidedbyvoices

    guidedbyvoices Old Dan's Records

    Location:
    Alpine, TX
    1997. I'd gotten into belle and Sebastian's 'if you're feeling sinister' and their reviews compared them to nick. So I found the bryter later first and then the box used and absolutely loved it. This mojo issue also was big in getting me into him.


    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
  8. veloso2

    veloso2 Forum Resident

    in les inrockuptibles, the best musical magazine ever! the worst now! i think iy was for the reissue in a box set.
     
  9. Django

    Django Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    Probably in the late 90's, He was one of the names you would hear mentioned by older music heads in Whelans & places like that. Initially it was his posh boy voice that put me off. Now I have all the albums...I'm have become one of those older music dudes standing at the bar in whelans stroking my chin.
     
  10. lightbulb

    lightbulb Not the Brightest of the Bunch

    Location:
    Smogville CA USA
    Please allow me to recant my earlier claim; the years have blurred:
    In 1985, I distinctly recall anticipating R.E.M.'s soon to be released Fables of the Reconstruction, and reading that they sought out Joe Boyd to produce it, since Pete Buck was a fan of Nick Drake's music, and the band spoke of his music enough to spark an interest. Curiousity ensued...
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
  11. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Spin reviewed the Fruit Tree reissue in 86 and it sounded interesting. Bought Five Leaves Left from the used record store across from campus later that week.
     
  12. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Knew nothing about him when I picked up the compilation SACD using a Barnes & Noble gift card I was given last year. Just out of curiosity. Love it and listen to it often. Sad that he wasn't more well known during his life, or even now for that matter.
     
  13. babyblue

    babyblue Patches Pal!

    Location:
    Pacific NW
    I first read about Nick Drake in Rolling Stone in the 1970s when they covered releases on the Antilles label (why and how do I remember that?!). I heard about him again in the early 1980s when Richard Thompson's albums were reissued and bought the Fruit Tree box. I just listened to all the albums recently and it's all still wonderful.
     
  14. blackdograilroad

    blackdograilroad Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon, UK

    This one, got a copy in the mid-70s. Has Time Has Told Me on it. Great sampler- look at the artists! Island was a trademark of quality then- if it was on Island it was definitely worth hearing.
     
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  15. Brother Maynard

    Brother Maynard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Whenever that VW commercial came out. 1999 or 2000. It drove me nuts at the time that I hadn't heard of him before, and it still somewhat amazes me. Pink Moon was so familiar to me, yet I had never heard it. I went out and bought his three studio albums, turned my older brothers on to him, and still listen to him today.
     
  16. oxenholme

    oxenholme Senile member

    Location:
    Knoydart
    But not by me! My favourite track on the LP...

    Have you encountered this CD? Nick is on it, track 15.

    [​IMG]
     
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  17. winojunko76

    winojunko76 Forum Resident

    My sister had the Introduction to Nick Drake cd around 10 years ago or so which introduced me to the man and his work.
     
  18. dino77

    dino77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Early 90s when some indie artists started name-dropping him. Still not a big fan, I find his singing and music rather one-dimensional.
     
  19. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    Yeah, I have that great CD. It's missing a couple of key tracks from the original albums, though. Four sides of vinyl doesn't always squeeze onto one CD.

    [Edit] It's missing Fairport Convention's 'Cajun Woman' and King Crimson's '20th Century Schizoid Man', both of which appeared on Nice Enough to Eat
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
  20. sherrill50

    sherrill50 Well-adapted Melomaniac

    Location:
    Mukilteo, WA
    After hearing the song "Pink Moon" in the movie "The Way" with Martin Sheen. Now have all of Nick's three albums.

    Being a big fan of early Al Stewart, Jackson Frank, Paul Simon, et al, how did I miss out on Nick Drake for nearly 40 years? :confused:
     
  21. ralphb

    ralphb "First they came for..."

    Location:
    Brooklyn, New York
    He was all but forgotten (or never known about) until that Nick Kent article in the NME from 1975, and then the U.S. Antilles re-issues in 1976. Even then it wasn't until the Volkswagen commercial that he got the notice a lot of people felt he deserved.
    Like Guy E posted above, I distinctly remember picking up the album that was comprised of tracks from Bryter Later and Five Leaves Left around '70 or '71, and it was going for a buck. I also put it back although the cover intrigued me.
     
  22. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    It was in 2002. I was steered toward a movie called THINGS BEHIND THE SUN, which had a lot of music in it, but no soundtrack album. My attempts to construct a soundtrack album led me to Nick Drake's track which was used for the title of the movie, "Things Behind The Sun", on the PINK MOON album.
     
  23. Nick Dunning

    Nick Dunning Forum Resident

    I think I first became aware of him from reading something in a very early 'Q' magazine, spring 1987. I think someone was talking about the track 'River Man'

    I had a long term fascination for anything produced by Joe Boyd or under the Witchseason banner, and it appeared here was something I really ought to hear.

    Typically for me I went out and bought the 'Fruit Tree' Hannibal box on vinyl before I'd heard a note of the music. Quite a shabby package actually (not the original Island issue, which was nicely done), but I don't believe it was expensive.

    However one earful of said 'River Man' and I was hooked for life. What an incredible piece.
     
  24. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    From 69-72 I was in the service returning home in late 72. I remember clearly. I was at my buddy Bill's house (who I am excited to say just moved back to the states from Manila and the plans to hook up are in the works). We were sitting at the dining table. We had Coca Cola and a bag of mushrooms. He put on an album. We started to drink coke and eat the mushrooms. I think we listened to the same album for nine hours over and over and over again. It was Nick Drake self titled on Island Records. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I learned this was a compilation of his first two albums. It was sometime in the 70’s I got all three albums but I so loved that compilation and will never forget that first time.

    P.S. I can't speak for Bill but I was up for three days after that.
     
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  25. vertigone

    vertigone Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Check out Family Tree. He covers 4 songs from Jackson C. Frank's album. Speaking of which, Jackson's legacy could certainly use a Volkswagen commercial. He's so good and I only discovered him through Nick's covers.
     
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