Thanks to a record store owner who hipped me to Nick while I was in-store. Vinyl Fruit Tree box was just new/out and he played a little for me. It was an easy instant purchase.
I credit the RS 500 greatest album list for alerting me to Nick. They included all three of his albums in their list.
The critics' favourite tag might put quite a few people off, so it's if anything more heartening to see how highly placed the albums are on RYM's all-time chart. Pink Moon #20 Five leaves left #91 Bryter Layter #181.
That's the order I have for the number of plays. Since I started tracking play counts five months ago: FLL 18 times PM 11 BL 10 MTLM 10 FT 5
The observation in the last sentence above was beautifully captured in the sleeves of the Fruit Tree - 3 LP set. Each sleeve is a portrait drawing of Nick showing a deeper descent into darkness, with each album. I have linked the relevant page at Discogs as have no other way of showing the sleeves. (Click on 'More Images'). Nick Drake - Fruit Tree · The Complete Recorded Works
Yes. Have that, sounds superb. Prefer the Hannibal cover Beach/ciggie..though unsure of the vinyl mastering of that one. Well into the digital domain by then methinks.
These are plays of the 2013 Back to black vinyl releases or the 96/24 Res files Dubbed from Disc that came with them. I don't play CDs, let alone SACDs!
Well, I've heard FLL's original master tape couldn't be used anymore when John Wood came to the remastering project. He used the original master on the other albums but FLL's was lost / too degraded. So it sounds like this video has the best sounding version from the original masters. It purports to be the UK 1st pressing, but is it really?
I have this Antilles from '76 that sounds very nice. The originals or even later Islands were a good bit more pricy.
Nick Drake fans who have not heard Jackson C. Frank should check him out. Nick covered four of Jackson's song in his early home recordings that were released on the "Family Tree" set. You can really hear his influence in "Milk and Honey" one of the songs that Nick recorded. If you are not familiar with Jackson's back story, you should google him and read about the horribly tragic life he led. He was an American that appeared in England just as the Brit folk scene was forming and had a significant influence on his friends at the time: Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Sandy Denny, Al Stewart, Roy Harper & Paul Simon. He then disappeared and his one album was his only legacy until archival releases unearthed more. Obviously a young Nick Drake must have played his eponymous album many times.
Horribly tragic indeed. I thought Roy Orbison or Woody Guthrie had the saddest stories but his is like a combination of the two plus a final sick twist.
Many years after ingesting a couple little square pieces of paper and listening to Chime Of A City Clock, I'm still not sure I've ever had a more profound musical experience.
