ADRIAN MA, HOST:
What makes you consider fall? The scent of dry leaves, the sound of a crackling hearth, perhaps the style of a pumpkin spice latte? – effectively, for me, nothing makes me consider fall greater than this…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ONE OF THESE THINGS FIRST”)
NICK DRAKE: (Singing) I may have been a sailor. Might have been a cook dinner.
MA: …The music of Nick Drake. This tune is known as “One Of These Issues First.” And let me let you know that I really like this man. Or perhaps I ought to say that I really like his music as a result of actually, the person himself is a little bit of a thriller. Nick Drake died 50 years in the past this week, and the British singer/songwriter was solely 26 years outdated on the time. As an expert musician, he by no means noticed a lot success. And I won’t even be speaking to you about him proper now if it weren’t for a automobile industrial.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICK DRAKE SONG, “PINK MOON”)
MA: In 2000, Volkswagen featured Drake’s tune, “Pink Moon,” in one among its TV adverts. Since then, his songs have been featured in motion pictures and been cited as influences for lots of latest musicians. And to know extra about Drake – the person and the musician – I am joined now by Richard Morton Jack. He wrote a biography titled merely, “Nick Drake: The Life.” Richard, thanks a lot for being right here.
RICHARD MORTON JACK: Thanks for having me.
MA: Nick Drake launched three albums when he was alive, however he did not see a lot industrial success. He did not promote many information. Why did not he catch on?
JACK: I feel his music requires rather a lot from the listener. It isn’t instantly arresting and may drift previous the listener at a primary hear. I feel in an period when there was a lot materials popping out, Nick’s music was fairly self-effacing and intimate and required immersion from the listener. And he wasn’t doing promotion. He wasn’t keen to play that recreation. Not on precept – far more as a result of his character was so badly suited to the celebrity recreation.
MA: Yeah, I perceive he was simply, like, extremely shy. What do you suppose it’s about his music that makes it distinctive and attracts individuals to it?
JACK: I feel a very powerful single issue about Nick’s music is that it’s merely of very top quality. Nick’s songs are very minutely engineered. Each word is strictly the place he needed it to be. He was very strict with himself when it comes to high quality management. And actually, various songs by him have subsequently surfaced, and they’re all of commonplace. So he knew himself fairly effectively as an artist.
MA: I feel Nick Drake – if you first hear him, he does not have what I might think about as, like, a classically nice singing voice, proper? He is like, very understated. What do you suppose it was in regards to the music itself that simply hooked some individuals?
JACK: I feel Nick’s an extremely effective guitar participant. In a era that threw out a lot of actually outstanding gamers, Nick stands shoulder to shoulder with the greats. There is a tune on his first album referred to as “Three Hours” during which he, in a relatively understated trend, performs a totally outstanding sequence of figures on the guitar that counsel Arabic influences, very unique, Japanese-derived sounds. However the fingering is completely immaculate. Each word is totally, completely in place.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICK DRAKE SONG, “THREE HOURS”)
JACK: I feel the melodies that he got here up with are delicate and unique. They might not be instantly issues that you just’d whistle after one listening to, as an example, however they’re filled with sudden turns and distinctively his personal. I additionally suppose that his three albums every have a really distinct taste. The primary one is extra reflective of him as a younger man. And the string preparations by his pal at Cambridge College, Robert Kirby, with whom he collaborated on 4 songs, create the autumnal ambiance that you just described.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DAY IS DONE”)
DRAKE: (Singing) When the day is completed, hope a lot your race shall be all run.
JACK: There are clearly classical and people and blues and jazz influences. There are additionally influences from bossa nova. There’s an terrible lot occurring beneath the relatively placid floor of his work on that first album. When it did not promote, what they determined to do was to get up the sound of the file somewhat by together with electrical guitars, drums, electrical bass, to make it, maybe, one would possibly say, extra radio pleasant. So his second album, “Bryter Layter,” has extra of a pop really feel to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAZEY JANE I”)
DRAKE: (Singing) Hey, sluggish, Jane, let me show. Sluggish, sluggish, Jane, we’re on the transfer.
JACK: After which for his third file, it is simply guitar and voice. So it is a a lot plainer, easier instrumental method.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PLACE TO BE”)
DRAKE: (Singing) After I was younger, youthful than earlier than, I by no means noticed the reality hanging from the door.
JACK: So, for me, every of his information is kind of a particular, inventive musical step from the earlier one.
MA: What do you suppose Nick Drake’s musical legacy is? And, like, do you see his affect in different artists?
JACK: For me, I feel the true legacy of Nick’s life and music is that it communicates to people who find themselves maybe struggling themselves in several areas of their very own lives. Nick as soon as mentioned to his mom – she shared after his dying – that if he had the sense that his music had received via to even one individual and made a distinction, then that may give him a way of validation that he did not have. So I feel the sense that it has reached tens of millions of individuals everywhere in the world who draw energy from it and who regard it as very significant in their very own private approach, can be of big consolation and pleasure to him.
MA: We have been talking with Richard Morton Jack, author and Nick Drake’s biographer. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us, Richard.
JACK: Thanks a lot for having me on.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICK DRAKE SONG, “PINK MOON”)
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content might not be in its remaining type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability might fluctuate. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
