Author:Richard Morton-Jack
First things first. This was always going to be about Nick Drakes tragic decline into mental illness and suicide. I nearly didn’t read it for fear of being a voyeur into a persons decline.
Howver, I’m glad I did – it is handled with exceptional deftness, detail and insight that at no point did I feel I was impinging on what should be personal grief.
The author (who also reads the audiobook version I listened too) consistently gets the balance right. His use of family insight and painstakingly researched comments from friends and musicians alike give the book a degree of celebration of not just Nick Drake’s musically legacy but also his gentleness and kindness. And his crippling social unease.
He seemed to have a thoroughly lovely family and set of friends as well as a very easy going relationship with Island and Joe Boyd. You get a sense that everyone in the story (possibly excepting John Martyn and some school teachers) really liked Nick and allowed hime the space and time to be who he wanted to be. This worked brilliantly, to a point, for his musical creativity but also contributed to his lack of recognition which seems to have contributed to his mental health challenges.
Constantly through the book, I went back to the music and listened to the songs with a different perspective. No longer just a cool, effortless and beautiful set of songs, but music where the delicate balance between creativity and self destruction just about keeps positive on the creativity side. That is, towards the end of the book, it doesn’t.
It is very well written (and read if you go for the audiobook) and It evokes the time and place of middle class, middle England brilliantly.
Length of Read:Long
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Nick Drake’s music. The struggle to be a creative soul in the business of show. And anyone who is interested in the creative process.
One thing you’ve learned
That those 3, perfect albums where still not worth what he went
I was hoping Santa would bring me this but he didn’t, despite many dropped hints. So I bought it for myself, but haven’t yet started it. It is a tome in hardback, so at the speed I read, it will be a while before I report back.
The most recent Folk on Foot episode, actually a conversation recorded at Cecil Sharp House rather than on a walk, has Joe Boyd and John Wood in conversation with Matthew Bannister. It covers quite a range, but Nick Drake gets more attention than any other individual artist.
Richard Morton-Jack has certainly been on the promo train, I’ve heard him on a Word podcast, one of Jim Irvin’s and the FoF.
One thing that shines through the book is the number of people in the biz (Joe Boyd, Chris Blackwell to name but two) that seemed unquestionabliy committed to supporting him. It is clear that Nick Drake made almost no enemies despite being incredibly awkward socially and being absolutely committed to not doing any promotion or live work beyond the occasional gig at the start.
Indeed. I’ve only just got round to reading Joe Boyd’s White Bicycles book, and he was flowing with praise over Nick’s talent, but too busy to look after him at a personal level.
Fabulous book is “White Bicycles”
Yes – Joe Boyd was full of praise for many fine artists in his White Bicycles book.
But there was one guy he did not get on with at all: John Martyn.
Not Robinson Crusoe on that
Indeed not.
Yes, he was a wife-beating bastard. And yet, I enjoy his music far more than the music of many nice, sensitive, likeable guys (f’rinstance, Nick Drake). If we stopped appreciating music because the musicians fail as decent human beings, we’d be missing out on some fantastic music. Art, not the artist, and all that.
I don’t think ND comes across as likeable. He sounds like a pain in the arse.
If you put John Martyn and Nick Drake together, you would probably get quite a well rounded human being and a hell of a singer songwriter.
And there was good relationship between the two of them – apparnetly Solid Air was written about Nick Drake. I’m not sure I like Nick Drake because he was nice and sensitive. In many ways, he was just as messed up as John Martyn. Just with less collateral damage.
” In many ways, he was just as messed up as John Martyn. Just with less collateral damage.”
Nicely put. At the time of release, his albums and his songs made nothing like the impact of John Martyn. Nobody was playing his songs at folk clubs. I remember classing him alongside Bridget St. John because a girlfriend had albums by both. His suicide lent him an attractive romantic melancholy, while Martyn’s slow and awful decline did nothing for his career. But Martyn left a bunch of peerless, adventurous albums and timeless songs.
I rather like Bridget St. John…
Is this becoming your catchphrase?
I rather like it.
Can second the recommendation. A tough story sensitively told. Sent me back to the music with an even greater appreciation than I had before which is saying a lot.
Brilliant book, brilliantly written. Possibly the best music biography I’ve ever read.
That thought occured to me. I really enjoyed the Peter Guralnick books on Elvis. This is absolutely up there with them.
Lewisohn Tune in for me, but I will certainly give this one a go (may wait for paperback though). thanks for review
Talking of Lewisohn, are we ever likely to see volume 2? Or is he going to become the George RR Martin of music biographers?
I am sure someone is going to break into his house, hack into his computer and find he’s still working on the first paragraph of volume 2 😉
I might be able to read volume 2but I doubt I’ll be able to read volume 3.how long has it been since the first book,?
I doubt it’s going to happen. The access that he had to Apple that made Vol 1 possible has been closed off – principally after Neil Aspinall died I think. Someone in the Macca camp doesn’t like him. He’s not the kind of guy who will go, “OK, I don’t have absolutely all the stuff I wanted to put in there, but it’ll do”.
Maybe I’m wrong and he’s just the George RR Martin of rock writers. Which would be ironic.
I think he was already ostracised in the 90s. George apparently the reason for that. I think this is a key reason why he is writing these books. He can now do it
unauthorized. Some speculation he might be waiting for certain people to pass on, but if that was, say, Yoko it would only really affect volume 3 surely.
It’s been more than a decade, but I think it will come out, maybe next year? He has said that volume 3 would be quicker as he has already done most of that research
Another terrific biographical series that will probably never get finished is Robert A Caro’s magnificent (and very, very readable) Years of Lyndon Johnson
Vol IV, The Passage of Power covered the 1960 election, JFK’s assassination and LBJ’s first days as President in 764 pages packed with astonishing detail.
The 600 pages Caro has written of Vol V in the 12 years since Passage came out apparently only take the story into early 1965.
… he hasn’t even got as far as Ticket to Ride??
Great review. Sold.
Currently sitting in my ‘waiting to be read’ pile. I already have 7 previous biogs so intrigued as to
what this one will bring to the party. Will it be the last word ? I very much doubt it.
I think there is a very real chance it is the last word. As Guiri says, the access to family diaries, letters and documents adds so much to the book.
The access to letters and family papers is a huge difference. Reading about his parents reaching out and trying to help and understand across generations and the well known mental health issues is very moving.
I’ve just discovered that an old colleague of mine, one Richard Charkin (later head of OUP), was Nick Drake’s travelling companion in France and Morocco in 1967. I’m pumping him for more detail.
Was that the guy who was mentioned on the Radio 4 programme at the end of last year? Annoyingly, I can’t find a link to it.
Quite likely. He was mentioned in Trevor Dann’s biography (Wikipedia).
I can add my endorsement to this. I don’t think I’ve read a biography as thoroughly researched, and a tragic and complex individual is deftly drawn. It reinvigorated the music for me.
I forwarded this to Mojo / Concheroo who had read it. He linked me to this interesting anecdote from his blog.
https://andnowitsallthis.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-ultimate-nick-drake-rarity.html?m=1
Gosh…
That’s a story and a half @Junior. Old Concheroo certainly tells them well!
Great book. Weirdly it’s a bit of a page turner. I couldn’t put it down. Beautifully written and very sad.
I read Patrick Humphries’ biography of Nick Drake back in about 1999.
Do I need to read the Richard Morton Jack book, too?
Judging by the comments on this thread, maybe I do …
As I recall some important people including Joe Boyd and Gabrielle Drake chose not to cooperate with Humphries.
Edit: A curious quote from Gabrielle here: “I have not got anything against Mr Humphries. But I think it’s best, for his sake and for mine, if I don’t say anything.”
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/TV+star+Gabrielle+snubs+book+on+tragic+brother.-a060746510
@duco01 indeed you do, an excellent read.
I’ve just bought it. Usual problem – do I finish the book I’m reading or do I just jump right in?
I read it too and wondered the same thing. I thought the PH was good actually.
Mmmm…neutral…
The Trevor Dann book was quite an eye-opener as it revealed that Nick’s lodgings in Cambridge were on a main road and far from the image of dreaming spires and punting on a river.
A reason for moving to Hampstead, alongside Oxbridge in the late 60s being significantly less interesting than London.
Fitzwilliam College is set back from Madingley Road, which is my main road into town. The accomodation blocks are fairly hideous three-storey brown-brick 1960s and really not at all what you might expect of a city of dreaming spires. The college itself is much nicer (I’ve been to some seminars there).
Take a look at Storey’s Way on Google streetview if you want the full horror.
Suppose it will come as no surprise to all on here that I’ve never quite got the adoration/reverence for Nick Drake.
Tortured soul, angst ridden, all that. Sixth form lyrics, “I’m a poet and don’t you know it.” Oh, and I died young, all that.
First two Loudon Wainwright lPs knock anything the poor wee bastard did into a cul de sac entitled
“Interesting asides from when we all should have known better”.
You can reach me in Bunker 215.
I am sure I speak for all Nick Drake fans saying I am devastated to hear this. If Loudon ever came up with anything as profound and moving as this then he’s a great songwriter
Loudon has put out 26 albums. There are many great songs in his pantheon. Just coz he likes to flick the switch to vaudeville doesn’t mean he is not a fine songwriter.
One last one
I never said he wasn’t. I do know his wife and sister in law wrote incredible songs also.
Ah Dai, the guy who thinks Fernando is poetry (tried to insert smiley face but new tablet proving a tricky little possum)
One can like all sorts of different types of music you know. It’s not a competition. Your blind spot regarding Abba is your own problem. You seem to have an issue that I love them, but I guess I can live with that 😉
No issue whatsoever – just tickling your ribs with a sharp stick🙂
Come on, guys! You’re both proud Taylor Swift Tinfoil Hat wearers – kiss and make up!
Or tinfoil leotard wearers perhaps.
Chafing problem?
I suspect there’d be squeaking noises when they walked too.
Christmas turkeys on the move. 🤢
…And You Will Know Us By The Creaking, Rustling And Muttered Oaths.
That comment really made me laugh! You like to live dangerously, @Lodestone of Wrongness.
It’s wonderful that Nick Drake has become so greatly appreciated since his death.
But there is a certain over-reverence. He’s been canonised. Heaven help the heretic who dares to be critical of his lyrics!
Nobody knows
(tiddely pom)
How cold it grows
I’m really chuffed for Richard MJ that his diligent work on ND is being appreciated, but I share the view, Fatz, that he has been, given the circumstances (dying young, mythologised, finite canon, air of mystery etc.), overrated or at least made to seem more exceptional than he really was. There were a fair number of British singer-songwriters and deft guitarists making poetic, pastoral records a year or two either side of 1970 – many of them employing Robert Kirby as orchestral arranger, and using the same pool of players as appeared on ND’s albums. These people tend to be forgotten these days – or, at least, Nick’s records now exist outside of the context/soundworld of that time, hence the danger is that people *think* they sound more unique than is the case.
Then again, if people like his music they like his music.
If anyone would like to hear some of the people/music I’m referring to as part of the ecosystem of ‘English pastoral’ singer-songwriters – Al Jones, Steve Tilston, Andy Roberts, Dave Evans for instance – I’ll post good examples below.
Andy Roberts – ‘I’ve Seen the Movie’ (1971)
Andy Roberts was LETHAl versus England at the Headingly test in 1976. [Are you sure about this – Ed.]
Dave Evans – ‘Grey Lady Morning’ (1971)
I love, Love, Love Dave Evans’s “The Words In Between” album.
Gold. Pure gold.
Steve Tilston – ‘Reaching Out’ (1972)
Al Jones – ‘Come Join My Orchestra’ (1969)
If I might add another to your list, Colin,
Shelagh McDonald – Stargazer (1971)
Oh yes. Shelagh McDonald. Excellent suggestion, Mr Stoke.
Didn’t Ms McDonald, like … disappear for decades and decades .. and then suddenly materialise again?
Yes, Shelagh would be another on my list. One might also add Lesley Duncan.
Lesley Duncan .. oh yes, absolutely.
I think there’s a song of hers on the Elton John album that’s just called “Elton John”.
“Love Song”. I think it’s on Tumbleweed Connection. Nice version of that recorded by Olivia Newton-John as well…
There’s a live version on Elton’s Here and There, with Lesley Duncan.
If we’re listing: Keith Christmas, Bill Fay, Marc Brierley, Tim Hollier …
…to starboard, maybe…
Weren’t Keith Christmas and Shelagh McDonald “an item”, romantically speaking?
If only he’d married the guest vocalist from Gimme Shelter…
Keith Clayton.
Yes, as HP says, Tim Hollier certainly. Keith Christmas, to my ears, was rubbish.
Olivia, and the Lesley Duncan song in question:
Thanks for such a wonderful response to my comment @Colin_H!
Once again, your encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of British folk music has brightened our lives
So interesting to listen to some of the other fine musicians of that period and get a broader picture.
Just to make things very clear. I am not a Nick-Nocker! Mr Drake was a very talented musician whose music I have enjoyed for many years.
But the only Saint Nick for me is Rudolf’s pal, the geezer in the flying sleigh who comes every Xmas.
Those other singer songwriters don’t sound as unique as Nick Drake. Whether it is his almost whispering singing, the consumate guitar playing or the melodies and arrangements, there is a uniqueness to Nick Drake. I suspect the tragic ending adds depth to the lyrics and feel but it’s also possible that the depth was always there because he really meant it.
I first heard Saturday Sun and, shortly after, Riverman. I was unaware of the story behind Nick Drake but both songs really resonated with me because they are simply sublime bits of music.
Fair enough. One singer/writer/guitarist I left out of the examples – because his work is not as vaguely forgotten as others from that era – is Bert Jansch. Here’s an example of what Bert was writing / recording in 1971 (very different to his more forthright, bluesy sound of the mid 60s). I think it provides an obvious sign of where Nick’s musical inspiration – one source, at least – was coming from:
Made with Michael Nesmith not long afterwards, LA Turnaround is another fabulous BJ record
Bert Jansch was cited as a big influence on Nick Drake in the book. I will definitely have a deeper look.
Rosemary Lane is a great place to start. Something very special about that album.
Absolutely. For people coming to Bert from Drake, RL is the one to begin with.
The great missing Holy Grail of Bert at the BBC only turned up after the Bert BBC 8CD set had been released. It’s Bert on Bob Harris’ show in 1971 playing mostly songs from RL that he would never play again. Here it is.
If only we had someone we knew who could be regarded as a SME on Bert…
A Small or Medium Enterprise…?
Scale Model Equipment…?
You beat me to it.
Meanwhile, in the SME factory, earlier today…
I wouldn’t like to make personal comments like that!
None of these songs are as good as Jump by Van Halen, he interjected, sensing that this would not go down well, but the hour was late, and a second negroni had brought on a certain wrecklessness. His attention returned to the athletics on TV. The Austalian womens high jumper’s antics were intriguing. Another Friday night. Over so soon.
peeple shud be aloud to like what they like thats what i think its all subjektiv innit i mean nuthings beter than evrything else its just opinion innit an if someone likes say woody woodmanseys uboat more than say nick drake thats there perogative innit dosent make them a bad person or thick or anything thats just waht i think anyway thanks for listnin have a fantastic day
The real question at this late hour that we are not really facing is are we human or are we dancer? Such existential torment can drive the sensitive artist to either depression or wild rage but we are the winners in the end for we are left with the art. If music be the food of love…
No no no no no no no no no no no no there’s no limit.
It’s past midnight. Time for a Nick Drake vs Big Shaq mash up!
Or why not Nick Drake and Marvin Gaye?
I was just having a browse on YouTube and I was amazed how many Nick Drake documentaries there are. The Enigma of ND, The Mystery of ND, A Stranger Among us: Searching for Nick Drake etc
Yikes! It’s a small industry.
There is no way to deny that his tragic story and hus music have captured the imagination of millions. There is something rather special about his voice.
Here’s a ensemble of Canadians, including Ron Sexsmith doing a ND tribute concert.
They also performed Bryter Later n its entirety.