Nick Drake

Starred review from October 9, 2023
Morton Jack (Psychedelia), cofounder of the reissue label Sunbeam Records, delivers the definitive biography of English folk singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948–1974), who died from an overdose on antidepressants at 26 following a protracted struggle with mental illness. Mining interviews with friends and family, Morton Jack paints a tender portrait of a musician known for his “husky, resonant” voice, “intricate” guitar playing, and a deep introversion that belied his “ambitious streak” and desire for commercial success. His albums—the lovingly orchestrated Five Leaves Left (1969), pop-influenced Bryter Layter (1971), and spare Pink Moon (1972)—initially failed to gain traction, however, and by the time Drake began to garner international recognition in 1973, he’d started to spiral into probable psychosis, according to Morton Jack. His work was later repackaged and released in several album compilations from the 1980s to the 2000s and has “never lost momentum since.” Drake’s longtime producer, Joe Boyd, attributes the music’s continued relevance to “the fact that... it’s not identified with a particular time and place, which allows each generation to create its own connection.” While Morton Jack sometimes makes too much of certain aspects of the artist’s life (including Drake’s apparent lack of academic motivation in secondary school), he sets out an engrossing and ultimately heartwrenching account. (The sections on Drake’s steady descent into depression are especially affecting.) The result is a worthy tribute to a talented artist gone too soon.

October 15, 2023
Thorough account of the all-too-short life of the brilliant British singer-songwriter. Nick Drake (1948-1974) was an enigmatic figure during his brief career. His three albums sold poorly during his lifetime, and his resistance to self-promotion left even his enthusiasts bemused ("Forgive me please for being so rude in asking, but who are you?" read one fan letter). Music journalist Jack demystifies Drake's life without presuming to understand the psychic storms that led to an overdose at age 26. Born in Burma to British expats, Drake took to music early; an indifferent student, he was more inclined to smoke marijuana and travel with friends to Marrakesh or Saint-Tropez. His gorgeous, precise guitar style caught the attention of a member of one of the preeminent British folk-rock bands, Fairport Convention, who connected Drake with producer Joe Boyd. Despite supportive friends and collaborators, his career never took flight. He had a timid stage presence and was demoralized by gigs in loud, boozy venues paired with ill-suited acts like flamboyant progressive rock band Genesis, which prompted him to avoid touring. Jack interviewed most of the available key figures in Drake's life, most notably Boyd and Drake's sister, Gabrielle (who contributes a foreword); letters from Drake's father expose the depths of compassion and despair the musician's worsening depression provoked. Drake's slow decline makes for melancholy reading, and the text could have been trimmed significantly. Curiously, his remarkable posthumous acclaim merits only a handful of pages; an appendix detailing his guitar collection is almost as long. Jack's biography is nearly as inward-looking at Drake seemed to be; more context about his music's place in the larger world, before and after his death, would be welcome. Nonetheless, this will deservedly stand as the definitive account of his life. Somber by necessity, but passionately engaged with its subject.

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Starred review from October 15, 2023
While not an authorized biography, Jack's portrait did receive the blessing of the late Nick Drake's sister, Gabrielle. The enigmatic English singer-songwriter suffered from schizophrenia and took his own life at 26 in 1974. He recorded three albums--Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, and Pink Moon--none of which sold well during his lifetime. And yet people found and continue to discover his music. Drake grew up as "a rather dreamy, artistic type of boy," one observer noted. He seemed to be good at everything without being ambitious. Reserved, he was hard to get to know; he stood apart from others and the world. It was this sense of poetic isolation that informed his songs. In this meticulous and lovingly detailed account of Drake's work and too-short life, Jack succeeds in bringing to life a brilliant if oblique figure, a diffident singer who wanted to create music but did little to support it. Other important figures on the British folk scene at the time, especially the Scottish singer-songwriter John Martyn and members of the English folk-rock band Fairport Convention, hover around his life, but Drake remains elusive and ethereal, much like his music. As sometimes happens with misunderstood or neglected artists, Drake found an audience after his death. Now his story will be better known.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.