Nick Dake made 3 records during his life, they, Five leavs left, Bryter layter and Pink moon, are all classic albums.  He has gotten more and more appreciation during the years. He was reacently rated number nine in the NME, where artist were asked to list their inspiration source. He has inspired artists such as Bernard Butler, Brian Molko, Robert Smith (The Cure) and Belle & Sebastian.

    Nick was born in Burma on June 19, 1948, but  the family move back to England when Nick was four years old. Nick was raised at a place called Tanworh-in-Aden (that's not very far from Stratford-on-Avon). Nick is known as a very melancholic person, and this could be traced back all the way to his childhood, when he used to walk alone by the sea.

    He seam to have been a very talented young man, he was the captain of the rugby team when he went to the local school. Later when he went to Marlborough he held the school record for the 100-yard dash (he may  still be holding it). This was the period when music came in to his life too, he played the clarinet, the flute and the saxophone. He did also conduct the school jazzband. He also started to play the guitarr then and since there we're no possibility to learn it at school, he had to learn by his own. 
    His first songs was about rain, wind, sun and the changes of the seasons, but soon the songs turned in to songs about lonelieness and unhappy love. 

   Nick went to Camebrige after winning a scholarship, there he studied English Literature. In 1967 he went to France and it was when he got back from there that he started to write a lot. 

   In 1969 the album Five leavs left came out, and Nick desided to drop out of college and moved to to London, and this was just a year from his graduation.

   The second album, Bryter Layter, was written in Hampsted, where he lived for a while. Bryter layter is a very beautiful record, with a lot of string arrangements. It was this year, 1970 that the only interview with Nick was made. It was Melody Maker that tried to interview him but it didn't turn out good at all. 
   His third album, Pink Moon, came out in 1972. The album mainly featurs Nick with an acoustic guitarr, occationally you can hear a piano. Lots of the songs are very painfull, and the album is said to be one of the most depressing records ever.

   None of his records did sell a lot, Byter Layter sold 15 000 copies and this satisfied Island records (the record company that he was on). The fact that the records sold poorly depressed Nick a lot.

  It took two years before Nick could record anything more, he then recorded his last four songs, that was all that he could manage to do. He was at this point so depressed that he told his friend: "I can't think of words. I feel no emotion about anything. I don't want to laugh or cry. I'm numb - dead inside."
   
  Nick was a very shy boy, and that's one of the reasons for him not to play hardly any gigs. The few gigs he played ended up very bad. He played some gigs at bars, but he played very quiet and he took a lot of time between the songs to tune the guitarr in different ways.This resulted in an audince that wouldn't notice himand that spoke louder than he played, so Nick got tired of playing gigs,

 
  On November 25,1974 Nick died in his parents house. He died of an overdose of antidepressant and insomniac, but weather it was suicide or not is a disputed question.  

Some interesting facts about Nick:
  Nick sufferd from a lack of self esteem and bears an almost phobiac fear of physical contact with other people. His biggest problem was girls, he's said to have dated only one girl in his lifetime.

  Nick was quite tall, and he didn't like that, he always walked with his shoulders down. He also thought that he had to big feet, so he wore to small shoes.

If you want to know more about Nick Drake you can visit these pages:
         The Nick Drake files a great page with a lot of info.
         The Nick Drake admiration page pics and other nice stuff
         Nick Drake world loads of great things