This made me cry. A very talented and beautiful lady - describing a tortured genius (her beloved brother). Two amazing icons - that could have been so much more. The song "Way to Blue" always sums up "life" for me. The Drakes helped form a generation. Music and theatre. I am so grateful to Gabriel and Nick... and so sad that modern audiences will never experience the joy and emotional beauty they brought to the world. Gabriel is an old lady now - but I see her as Lt. Ellis still. Thank you guys for sharing this. Thank you so very much.
Full transcription, picture changes at times listed: 00:08 Dear Nick, how strange to be writing to you many years after your death, yet you're so much with me still; so much with so many people and I feel I owe you, and perhaps everybody who loves you, an explanation. Up 'til now, every decision I've taken on your behalf about your music, every decision I've been allowed to take, has been guided by what I believe might have met with your approval. I'm sure I've made glaring errors. You were too much your own person, too entire in your enigma for me to have predicted your wishes fully. Still I've done my best to put myself, inadequately, in your shoes and decide for you in your utter absence. 01:06 Of course there've been times when decisions have been out of my hands and I've stood helpless by, whilst others mauled away at your memory and your work, because it is in the public domain. That, my darling Nick, is the price of fame I'm afraid, and even your obstinate integrity couldn't have prevented it. 01:36 But now I'm endorsing the publication of an album that I'm not at all sure you would have sanctioned. Well anyway not before you'd heard the reason for it's appearance, which is what I'm now going to try to give. 01:55 When you died we reached the bottom of the abyss which to some extent we'd all been travelling down with you. We - Mum, Dad and I - knew that we were going to have to somehow climb out of it, though at the time I remember thinking that life, from now on, would be a void, that I would never laugh again, and then of course I did. Grief doesn't work like that. You do laugh, it's just that the laughter is forever altered. We laughed at the party after your funeral; such a strange affair of sharing with your friends whom we'd never met, and many of whom had never met each other, the joy at you're having been and the devastation at you're having gone. For you did bring joy to so many people during your life, but to even more since your death. 02:58 I wish you could have known. But to return to that abyss and the journey out of it, for me it was easier of course, you were my brother not my son. I had my life, my work, my man, all exciting and still different for me at the time. 03:47 The life I'd grown up with, though so much appreciated, was to be not escaped but emerged from. It was, despite everything, a launching pad. 04:05 But for Mum and Dad, I can only imagine the despair, the guilt inevitable however undeserved, the unbounded unfathomable sorrow. Though they buoyed with a sort of uncomplicated bravery, the sort of bravery I think shown by a generation that has faced the horrors of war, and which cannot allow itself the luxury of too much introspection; and so Mum could say after your funeral that she would never leave Far Leys until we had made it a happy house again. 04:44 For it had been a happy house. Which is not to say that it's inhabitants didn't experience the anguishes, the frustrations, the normal sorrows and disappointments of life, and the irritations with each other. You and I continually fought. But they took place under an umbrella of stability and normality and love and a great deal of laughter. 05:10 I'd be inclined to think that I was bathing the past in a rosy glow, if it weren't for the letters, family letters between the four of us. How have they all been preserved? I know Mum was an inveterate hoarder. I suppose we must have all taken after her. I go back to them, and I find them full of respect and affection and humour. Of course life was helped by the fact that we never really wanted for anything, which is not to say that we lived in luxury, far from it. 05:50 Indeed I imagine that after Mum and Dad bought Far Leys, they must have been somewhat strapped for cash for a time. I remember Mum telling me many years later that the price of the house had been way above their budget, but she adored Far Leys and Dad was absolutely determined to get it for her. 06:10 We more or less camped in it for awhile I seem to remember, gradually unpacking the furniture that had come over with us from India. The drawing room was quite sparse to begin with, though the piano was there from the start. I can't remember any home out East or in England where there wasn't a piano. It was as much a given as a television set became in most houses. 06:40 We never had one until long after most of our friends and neighbours, and the piano was as much a part of our entertainment as a TV set is for most families. Do you remember how Mum would sit at it in the afternoons? 06:58 Mornings were for housework and afternoons were for relaxation, which meant more often than not sitting at the piano working out harmonies to her latest song. She always seemed to be composing songs, so much so that when I was little I thought it was a natural concomitant of motherhood; indeed that you couldn't have a child if you were unable to write a song about it, for Mum was always writing songs about us. 07:28 But Dad too would sit and play the piano. Such beautiful hands he had, long strong fingers, as often as not stained with oil which no amount of soap and scrubbing could remove, witness to a Saturday morning struggle with some new gadget in the garden. 07:50 But I seem to remember that often as a little boy you would've been struggling with him, am I right? 07:57 And he'd play his own songs too, though I don't actually remember him composing anything after we came back to England, but as a young man out East he'd composed, amongst other things, a whole operetta. Set on board a ship bound for the East and peopled with the sort of characters he knew and had observed with his own brand of compassionate irony, from the 'fishing fleet' - name given to young girls who came out East to find a husband - to the weary put upon stewards to the gin-soaked old stagers, and here in Far Leys they'd all be recalled as he sang the songs he'd created for them in his fine bass voice. 08:45 And do you remember Christmas and the ritual of Christmas Eve, when in the evening before supper all tasks would be stopped and the household would gather, washed and brushed up, for carols around the piano? Mum would play, or maybe her sister Nancy, with her husband, Chris, and Dad sharing between them the baritone and bass parts, and Mum and Nancy singing soprano and contralto respectively, something they were well used to, having sung as a duo at popular concerts in Burma both before and during the war. 09:25 All of us would join in the choruses, you and me and granny, Mum's and Nancy's formidable mother, whose husband had been knighted for services to India, and who was a true woman of the British Raj; a dreadful snob, horribly prejudiced and often impossible, yet funny, generous, and entirely unself-pitying though she lived in fairly straightened circumstances. And also part of the gathering would be Nan and Naw, our Karen servants who'd come over with us to England, and were more like members of the family than servants. Naw had never been to England before she arrived at Far Leys, but Nan, who'd been nanny to several English families before she came to us, knew more about the practicalities of running a house in post-war Britain than Mummy did, and when we first arrived at Far Leys she was guide and mentor. Nan and Naw would sing their own carols, often English carols translated into Karen which they sang in harmony, unaccompanied, and their high, true, reed-like voices are woven into the very fabric of my memories of Christmas at Far Leys. 10:50 The ritual of Christmas continued pretty much unaltered into our adulthood, indeed I think 'til the year you died. How you felt about it then I don't know. I think probably you felt as much as I did the obligation to be there, yet for my part, though I always enjoyed the safe cosy link with the past, I chafed that it didn't seem to be able to incorporate new people or change. Perhaps this was our parents dilemma, they succeeded in creating children sure enough of themselves to want, and need, to fly the nest in the true sense of the word. Many of our friends continued in adulthood to replicate their parents' lives but we couldn't do that. Yet at the same time they created a bond of love that was so strong it was impossible not to feel guilty breaking away from it. 11:50 Impossible not to see the value of all they had created, impossible however much both sides might have wanted it for them to follow us into the new way of thinking that was all around us at the time. 12:46 My rebellion, if you can call it that, came in the form of the man I chose, my Louis de Wet, a South African by origin, quite removed from the stifling British class system; an artist who embodied the new ideas of the '60s. Our parents never found him a comfortable choice, and though they and he tried to bridge the gap, he did in particular, and though I mourned this, he was and is entirely necessary to me. 13:26 And you, was your escape eased by the pot that you smoked? Was it manifested in your choice to leave Cambridge early? A tough decision for you, I'm sure, knowing how much it had meant to Mum in particular, that you were following in her father's footsteps, and a decision not likely taken by you. The letters and telephone calls between you and Dad prove that, as well as your request to your tutor for a year's sabbatical. Was that Dad's idea or yours? Anyway, it was a compromise that was denied you, probably because you were honest enough to say that you wanted to use the year to try to become a professional musician. So the correspondence between you and Dad churns on until finally you write saying that you're wasting your time at Cambridge. I have your letter before me now and it brings you back to me so clearly, in all your courtesy, in all your obstinacy. 14:35 You say here, "Everything I say in this respect is likely to have a distinct air of ungratefulness about it, but I hope you realise that I am in fact very grateful for everything you've done, but to be active here in anything other than purely academic pursuits seems to involve a form of irresponsibility and amateurism which is worse than useless to me at the moment." You try so hard to explain but you are unbudgeable, and though Dad wrote back that he and Mum were bitterly disappointed, they never tried to stop you once the die was cast, never withdrew their love and support. 15:27 Then you rather disappear from my view despite the fact that we shared a flat in London for awhile, others knew you where I did not and it is for them to tell their story. But I must get back to the reason for this letter, and again I'll have to digress a little. 16:20 We might not have had a TV set until long after all our friends, but that didn't mean that we had set our faces against new technology. Well, Mum might have done so, she was always suspicious of change, but Dad, being an engineer, was fascinated by new gadgetry. One day he staggered into the house after work carrying what looked like an enormous green trunk. It was in fact an early reel to reel recording machine. It must have been one of the first pieces of domestic recording equipment on the market, real state of the art stuff. Certainly none of our friends had that. Dad would record us all. An early tape still exists with you speaking and singing in a high treble voice. 17:15 You too were fascinated with the machine and became almost as proficient at using it as Dad. I think you must have inherited something of his engineering ability, and you'd play tricks with it. I think you must have been about ten when we came across your recording, made presumably when everyone was out, in which you solemnly announce that you are about to perform a piece of Beethoven, and then proceeded to play your record of the Moonlight Sonata. But I think you got a bit of stick for that, because with your lengthy recording of Nick Drake alias Wilhelm Kempff, you managed to entirely wipe your sister's valuable rendition of some piece of poetry or other. 18:06 The Moonlight Sonata received a good rating in your record log. I wonder how old you were when you compiled that record log; eight, ten? Anyway even then your tastes were wide-ranging and your views definite. "Elgar - English Music For Strings, jolly good." "Padmore - Last Train To San Fernando, good guitar play." "C. Doherty (?) - Making Love To You, soppy and utterly wet." Classical music and jazz and pop, all of them interested you. At school you took up the clarinet and mastered it well enough to play Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio for clarinet, viola and piano with our aunt Nancy, a fine amateur violin and viola player, and our uncle Chris, who played classical piano but above all, jazz, with such a light touch. And yet again Dad was there to record it though by now I think the recording equipment had become somewhat smaller and more sophisticated. 19:19 Of course you taught yourself the guitar, and the saxophone. Many years after you died I came across your friend at Marlborough who taught you the basics of the guitar, and I remember him saying how frustrating it was that only six months after you took up the instrument you were playing it better than he could ever hope to. But though you played in bands and formed groups whilst you were at school, I don't remember you ever composing at the time. The songs started in Aix-en-Provence, where you were sent with some of your school friends to while away that strange interim period between school and university, in which so many middle-class children are packed off to some foreign country ostensibly to learn the local language, but in fact to emerge from the egg, dry off their feathers and learn to fly. Well you learnt to fly, Nick; but perhaps, Icarus-like, you flew too close to the sun. Nevertheless I remember vividly the evening shortly after you returned from Aix, when you took out your guitar in the sitting room at Far Leys and played for Mum, Dad and me three songs that you'd written yourself. Such a shock and a thrill it was and yet somehow entirely expected. It seemed a logical progression, something everyone in the family did except me. Princess Of The Sands is the one I remember best. That will forever be for me your Aix song. 21:20 We thought they were all beautiful, but then we would I suppose you'd say. Mum and Dad always had absolute belief in your ability. They might have distrusted the inevitable bias of their own opinions, even though they were in a better position to judge given their own musical abilities, but they never doubted your music. Who was it that made those early home recordings of your songs, Nick? Was it you or was it Dad? Perhaps it was both of you at different times. Did you remember they existed? Maybe not, for had you done so, being such a perfectionist you might well have erased them. 22:08 Or was the despairing inertia of those last years such that you no longer cared? Whatever the case, there they were after you died, a precious canon to comfort us. Then came another comfort for Mum and Dad, a steady stream of young people who turned up on the doorstep of Far Leys. They were your fans, who'd discovered your albums almost against the odds. Certainly they weren't aided by any fanfare of publicity. Your record company understandably had neither the time nor the money to promote an artist who had died in obscurity, but to their credit they never deleted your albums; and amazingly the tiny trickle of royalties showed that there were a few people out there who continued to buy your records. 23:05 I believe it is to that tiny body of early fans that you owe your increasing fame, and I try never to forget that. They must have spread the word about your music with almost missionary zeal. Such was the power of your music to touch and comfort, particularly those who were going through similar depressions to your own. That I think would have given you the greatest pleasure. These then were the people who would arrive at Far Leys having made the pilgrimage to your grave. They were not many in number but they came from all over Britain, indeed from all over the world; America, Italy, France, Holland. Often they were strange looking young people, mentally bruised and physically bedraggled from long journeys, but they'd arrived with the hope of finding you or your spirit, and our parents would welcome them into their home. 24:15 Do you remember how hopeless Mummy would be at impromptu visits? She was a superb hostess but she hated being unprepared for visitors, and we could never just turn up with our friends. Well she changed with the arrival of your fans, she became adept at improvising and adapting. Meals would be rustled up, beds made, and who cared if there were no flowers on the piano? 24:44 Dad was always interested in young people, and the journeys, actual and spiritual that they were undertaking, always enjoyed breaking the ice and getting them to talk about themselves. He'd be in his element, finding out why you and your music meant so much to his unknown visitors. 25:06 Of course he'd show them the music room, the old doctor's surgery which, when we moved in to Far Leys, had stayed for many years a lumber room. Finally it was converted into the music room, so called because it housed your upright piano, a present from granny who'd insisted on using the proceeds from some small windfall she'd had, as well as all of your and Dad's recording equipment. We'd come a long way from that old green trunk. It seemed only natural in the face of such enthusiasm for you that Dad should play your fans the tape of your home recordings … 25:50 and he was glad when they asked to make them a copy of those recordings, proud that he was able to do it, a more unusual feat in those days than it would be today, and probably comforted by the feeling that he was able to make your music better known. For you must remember, Nick, that in those days it seemed to us that your albums could all too easily drop into a vast nothingness and you be forever forgotten, and that would have made the tragedy of your death even greater. 26:42 And we were innocents, we'd never heard about bootlegs, and even if we had it would never have occurred to us that anyone would be interested in marketing those scratchy recordings. If you understand that, I think you will forgive the generous impulse that made our parents share those intimate recordings of yours, which I'm quite sure you never meant to see the light of day. Maybe you would find it less easy to forgive the opportunist who saw, as your fame started to rise, the chance to turn a generous gift into hard cash. I like to think that it was not one of the people who visited Far Leys, but perhaps a friend to whom one of them had lent a tape. Certainly the quality of these rogue CDs would lead one to believe that they're second or even third generation recordings, some of which aren't even yours. 27:44 It seemed unfair, not only to you but also to your growing number of devoted followers, not to do something to rectify as far as we could this discordant situation. And so we've taken the original home recordings, happily still in my possession, as well as miraculously preserved recordings made by a friend of yours in Aix, and also two recordings made in Cambridge by your friend and collaborator, Robert Kirby, whom you described in a letter to Mum and Dad as 28:20 "a rather splendid fellow, and looks like Haydn or Mozart or someone, being rather short and stocky with long wavy hair and rimless spectacles, however he's quite hip to my sort of music and has done a rather beautiful string arrangement of Day Is Done, and is now working on Time Of No Reply". 28:42 Anyway, Nick, we've sifted through everything, chosen the best and then with the help of your original superb sound engineer and loyal friend, John Wood, we've used all the modern technology at our disposal to make an album that you might perhaps have found acceptable. I do hope that you would also find acceptable the fact that we've included two of Mummy's songs. 29:50 I think, had you lived, you would have acknowledged your musical debt to her, and I think her songs are not unworthy company for yours. Certainly Joe Boyd, to whom you owe so much, believes this. 30:08 There's only one person in this enterprise whom you didn't know, whom I wish you could have met. He's called Cally. Fortune threw him in my path a few years ago, and de Wet, my now-husband and I, had no difficulty in recognising that he was the man to manage your increasingly active legacy. Had he been your manager, had he been able to look after you in life as he has looked after your legacy, the story of Nick Drake might have been a little different. 30:42 So there you have it, Nick … tout comprendre c'est tous pardonner … to understand all is to forgive all. I hope that in the circumstances you could have given Family Tree your blessing, or if not that you could have at least looked on with that wry smile of yours, and realised that it has come about as a result of the gradual fulfilling of your prophesy "and now we rise, and we are everywhere". 31:15 Your sister who loves you, Gabrielle :) 32:00
I didn't want this letter to Nick to end. I am so touched by your family 's profound and endless love for Nick. I am so sorry for your loss - You have done so right on behalf of Nick.
For the people who are not easy with English-speaking, thank you for translate this beautiful vocal letter. Even though the English of Gabrielle Drake is quite easy to understand.
Just stumbled across this today. My God....heart wrenching stuff. I wish I could have known Nick. Such a gentle soul. If only he could have lived to see the impact he would have on people such as myself.
I totally understand this. She lost her brother. They were close. Any loss we mere fans have is insignificant compared to a family loss. Poor kid was only 26. Imagine that.
Every time I accidentally come across a video about Nick, or search one out because thoughts of it wouldn’t let me be, it always comes to tears. How is it that an artist whom I hadn’t known until after he was gone could affect me so? Obvious? Perhaps: I love him, and he’s gone. But that’s true of me and many artists. Nick is different. We all know it, don’t we? I’ve given up trying to avoid tears every time I re-encounter him, lest I avoid the lovely encounters themselves. I’ll be coming back, Nick, as long as I can. (Thank you, Gabrielle. This is wonderful.)
Me too 😢 I have felt sort of sad about other artists dying in my lifetime but it always makes me cry whenever I think about his life and its end, even though he died before my parents were born. Now I am only two years younger than he was when he died. I think when I found his music, it unknowingly shaped my poetry and the way I write. Still, I don’t just see him as an influence on my art, or my mind and heart but rather as you put it, someone I have love for that is gone.
That was lovely. There comes a time when you realise more of heroes are dead than alive. Nick is quite a new hero of mine - his fame increases and will continue to do so.
Quite beautiful... An actress of considerable renown, here, Gabrielle Drake speaks eloquently AS HERSELF and offers a unique and personal insight into The Drake Family and, particularly, her younger brother, Nick... Quite moving... (Thank You, Poster...) xx SF
This nearly brought me to tears. I discovered Nick’s music just before college and it changed my life. I can’t think of a more tragic musical story, but thank God we have the music.
I went out with a horrible guy many many years ago who resembled Nick Drake. It's frustrating at times. Luckily Drake's music transcends just about everything on this Earth. I love him very much and when I visit the UK I will visit his grave with some flowers and sit awhile.
the picture around 1m .20sec..those mournful, deeply troubled eyes, are eyes I have seen through...I know how that dark dreary place lacking in light and brightness, running from it in fact...resigned to the cave..the balance we need, in or around us, to be brought out, or bring ones self, out of...I have mourned your journey Nick..I have felt the same sense of failure and seemingly unending "mountains to climb" just to get by, battling with mental health issues..bless you all The Drake Family so much love to you all ..have listened to Mollys music..giving a sense of the jolly essence in the house hold .dependable, Father, graceful loving Mother..playful and happy Brother to a doting Sister...much love Gabrielle ❤
A beautiful means of expression, a letter written by a loving sister. This was a very emotional journey created by yet another of the very talented Drake family. Gabrielle has a real way with words. Her voice is poetic too. She should be an author she's do talented. Really she is having written what to me is a letter of such length that it could be printed into a small book. It was moving too how Mr and Mrs would open their doors to Nick's fans who ventured there, and how Mr would ask about their lives and elevate their self-esteem as it seemed the fans, a high percentage, were emotionally challenged. What a lucky guy who married Gabrielle. Thanks ginnywotsit for taking your precious time to make this video.
As a 54y Autistic, my feeling is that Nick was an Autistic but back in 1974 Autism was only known as "State Hospital flinging poop" people back then. Some of us are a bit higher functioning but still on the "Spectrum." Nick did his best to forge a his own path but back then "playing the game" doing what everyone else did was mandatory and pursuing your own path got you isolated and kept you basically broke. Nick, the world was not ready for you in 1974, we are sorry. RIP ❤
20 years ago, I was alone on stage - as my audiences would say, "channeling Nick Drake". I had put together a solo show, after decades of making a living at playing in bands, and for my "Acoustic Eclectic" show had selected a half dozen or so of Nick's haunting and challenging songs for my repertoire: "Time Of No Reply", "River Man", "Road", “Fly”, ‘Pink Moon”, "From the Morning", "Which Will"... All the different, crazy tunings, challenging guitar parts and the melodies... You kept the company of The Velvet Underground, CSNY, Jefferson Airplane, Leo Kottke, Skip James, John Fahey, Mississippi John Hurt, and so many others. Strangers would approach me on my break. look me deep in the eyes and say they felt like they were listening to 'old Nick' himself, ask questions of me like 'how did it feel to inhabit those songs'... It was always hard. It was sometimes tearful, but I didn't care; I just wanted to serve the songs, present them stripped naked and honest as they day they were written. Wishing I had written them myself, but being thankful that they were there to be covered. Most of the time I felt as if your songs were playing me... Now some time has passed, I've got old and doubt I could even play or sing those profoundly demanding pieces, but they still live inside me, close to my arthritic fingertips and now raspy voice. Though you didn't get to grow old with your songs, I did, and I'm glad of it. Thanks Nick!
Thank you you for sharing your love, sad loss, he was so brilliant, pouring your love and heart into this letter of love & memories. ♥️ bring so much more understanding too the loss.
I wasn't a fan that was immediately attracted to Nick drake he sort of grew on me then took up lodgings in my head lol maybe I should charge him rent? I found this touching and insightful the whole family were talented Thank you for this rarity xxx
This is really beautiful, I love art by Nick and Molly Drake. The citation of the song "Milk and Honey" (here starting with "gold and silver") was written by Jackson C. Frank and was first released in 1965. He also is a very underrated genius who had a cruel fate.
Nick has touched the soul of so many to the point that we try to be worthy of his precious company. Look at us Nick, your custodians. Guardian angels out of time, trying to touch back your soul.
When people ask me my favorite kind of music I kind of try saying Nick Drake is one, and I see their blank stares, and they ask about him, and I just stare ahead, as I don't have the words to explain Nick Drake, as how do you summarize Nick Drake's music to someone else. And then on very intense days when I miss my special loved one so much, I play Nick Drake's music for hours and hours, to try and capture the essence of a beautiful mind and soul, as beautifully captured by Gabrielle. Then I try to explain Sandy Denny to someone, also to blank stares, and end up listening to her music for days. Then Jackson C. Frank, then Rich Farina,...then.... then I listen to JOhn Martyn's Solid Air... thanks Gabrielle to continue to celebrate Nick Drake's existence and beautiful talents and future potential.
I know all these artists, but as a musician listened to everything, every genre , we have to find people who shared the experience of listening to these beautiful musicians. Then it is lovely to sit and listen together ❤️
He’s seen as the great forgotten artist but honestly almost all artists live their entire lives without anything gaining any notoriety and what they produce completely disappears after their death. Nick Drake did well in comparison to the vast majority of artists.
Saw your letter to Nick for the first time yesterday. It is so deeply and emotionally expressed. Beautiful. Thank you. I hope you have healed a little bit from such a great loss, though he will be in your heart until the day you hopefully meet him again. ❤
For someone who grew up in the care system,then on a council estate I find it both perplexing and sobering that someone with Nick Drakes upbringing can still struggle. I came across Nicks music in the mid -eighties when I was a callow nineteen year old ,I've played the albums right up to now(2019).They still mean so much.So I thank you Nick Drake
Circumstances aren’t quite everything in mental health my friend. He was a quiet and reserved person. For a reason unknown apart from it’s just him. He didn’t quite connect to anyone from his schools or such, just a few, but none truly knew the real nick. The definition of being depressed is that you are sad but don’t know why. Which is true in every case with nick as there was no reason or Rhyme to his depression. The unsuccessful albums at the time didn’t help with his mental state either. Nick truly felt like an outcast to everyone and thing around him but didn’t know how to talk about it. Other than on his songs. He deserved the help that was necessary, but was not common then. A truly beautiful soul and a misunderstood mind
Nothing wrong with growing up on a council estate no point in carrying a chip on your shoulder about it don't let it define you hi I'm so n so and I was in care I raised on a council estate so what?
Battle Spear- it is really sad that quite a few gifted musicians seem to really suffer from depression. My heart goes out to them - there are better treatment options now. Best wishes to you.
Having just discovered this intimate jewel ,I must confess to being emotionally spent after listening attentively to every breath . It's a heartfelt and poignant recollection from his wonderful sister whom Nick would have forgiven for any minor indiscretions .Gabrielle has been his champion since his untimely departure and through her memories we are now able to piece together a few more parts of the jigsaw puzzle that his devoted fans will have craved for. If there is an after life where those that have passed from this mortal plain can still feel love then for certain Nick Molly and Rodney will rest in the comfort that they left their mark and more importantly enriched the lives of so many .
Thanks Gabrielle to you and all the Drake family and your late brother Nick of course. This was a lovely letter and presentation. It appears the Drake family were all a creative crew. Your brother Nick certainly had a way with words and music which will hardly be forgotten. I believe you are due a big thank you. I haven't heard his music in a few years. There is no doubt that he was a fine artist.. Thanks to you and others it will not be forgotten and his short life will not have been in vain.
Thank you, Gabriella. Rest assured that we fans of Nick's recordings immensely appreciate your thoughts, feelings, and ruminations on your family life and legacy.
Gabrielle, Looked for you in Tanworth in 2012, although knew you would not be there, as I know, you did not want to take away from the festival held in honor annually for your younger brother Nick. Hope you are well....Orv
I hope Ms Gabriella is reading this. I'm sure I'm not the only one here struck by her writing talent. The written word for her is what the guitar was to her brother Nick. Ms Gabriella, please continue writing and publishing it in a book. I would read it, and I'm certain others would read it, too. You would gather a following in your own right.
❤️ to Gabrielle, through the ether. I hope this message finds you energetically: Thank You, from all of Us who Love your Brother’s Music, for taking the time to Love him as you do.
ND's description of a song as 'utterly wet' is the same condemnation used frequently by nigel molesworth in the st. custards sequence of books (by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle).
It appears to me, from the depth of perception Nick showed into other peoples' minds, that he may well have been an INFJ on the Briggs-Meyers personality scale. This may have led to the sensitivity of his lyrics, and also the inability to take criticism, whether implied or overt. Coupled with a susceptibility to marijuana's tendency to magnify mental issues, and probably a deepening reactive depression resulting from the then apparent failure of his musical career, helps to explain Nick's descent into severe depression. I'm only guessing, and it is possible his demise was inevitable, but hopefully the next tortured genius is better able to find help these days.
Marijuana was not very strong then whereas LSD, readily available at Cambridge, was much much stronger than now. A few trips could easily make one descend into madness. Five Leaves Left seems to me to have a few songs about or inspired by acid. Plus he recorded songs explicitly about cocaine and opium, each easily available in London (where she said she lived with him whilst he was absent). “Pot” was probably the least of his habits, but for a sister’s anecdotes it’s more innocent so an easy scapegoat, for mental issues and to cover for her overall ignorance of his day-to-day life.
In recent years it emerged Nick's mum Molly was a gifted singer/songwriter, a talent that went wholly unrecognised in her lifetime - as female talent is so often subjugated to the profound mediocrity of domesticity and motherhood. Nick Drake's life ended far too soon, and was unfulfilled in so many ways - but perhaps most devastatingly for him, in his private life. As mental illness took hold, he relied more and more heavily on cannabis - a deadly combination. His work lives on but it is unutterably sad he could not achieve sufficient self esteem and peace of mind to pursue his great talent, as his successful actress sister did. Had he been able to pursue his music career and ride the inevitable disappointments, everything else would surely have followed, as night follows day.
"Profound mediocrity of domesticity and motherhood."? How histrionic and demeaning. I am sure Molly valued her life as mother very much as did her children. And her husband was very supportive of her art too.
@@janetclaireSays I don't doubt Molly Drake was a wonderful, loving and much-loved wife and mother. She was also a wonderful singer, songwriter, musician and poet. But we didn't get to see it in her lifetime, because unlike her children she didn't achieve any recognition for her remarkable artistic talents at all. As I've said, it's a common story for women of her time. You'll be shocked to hear it, but not all women were or are totally fulfilled by motherhood alone. Good parents/parenting are invaluable, but today most men and women don't only want to be defined by their status as someone's father or mother. Like life itself, human beings are multi faceted, complex, and brimming with potential to be and do many different things simultaneously! That was my point. You've pulled one phrase out of context from my original post, and misrepresented it as an attack on mothers. It wasn't - and nor incidentally did I infer any criticism of Molly's husband Rodney! Molly's generation was taught marriage and motherhood were the summit of female ambition. To want more was deemed greedy - or worse, unfeminine. Girls grew up with no conception, least of all expectation, they could one day 'have it all', as boys did - ie personal AND professional fulfilment, and a positive identity and purpose in and outside of the home. A life in which that choice is denied to you, and your path limited by societal/cultural expectations based on your biology, strikes me as profoundly mediocre! It's certainly not one many people would aspire to today. Molly's musical influence on her celebrated son, is obvious. Her songs have been called 'the missing link in the Nick Drake story'. That her own music only gained recognition thanks to Nick's fame, with the album 'Molly Drake' released in 2013 - twenty years after her death - says it all! This is my right to reply to your petty, missed-the-point-by-a-mile, little post. I won't be indulging you further.
@@glamdolly30 Molly Drake made a choice of how to live her life. Not every talented person has the urge to be public or famous. I'm sure she enjoyed her music AND her domestic life and that's why she chose to live her life the way she did and perhaps that balance was exactly what she wanted. And it has been noted by her daughter that Molly's husband was very supportive of her music. Your negative description of being a mother and housewife ON TOP OF having music in her life was demeaning to both her choice and the very existance of people who choose domesticity.
I loved your beautiful insight on Nick. Is it possible he suffered high functioning autism. It was so hard for him to make friends, he was reserved, and I could not talk to people about any feelings that were harming him. He used drugs as comfort.
Who is the musician mentioned at 18:33 in Nick's childhood music log whose song 'Making Love To You' is amusingly described by young Nick as "soppy and utterly wet"? Hilarious and precocious critique :D
Techno Demic I thought so but wasn't sure and couldn't find any further information to confirm who that was. I transcribed the whole letter so our non English speaking friends could translate the parts they couldn't understand for themselves :) it took much longer than I expected but once I started I wanted to finish the task! That was the only bit I couldn't definitely make out.
Techno Demic English! I actually googled the classical music piece for correct spelling, etc and used Google Translate for the French expression. It would have been hard work for people who don't speak fluent English though :) speaking of classical have you heard that the Brandenburg Concerto (from memory) was the last record on Nick's turntable the night he died so possibly or probably the last music he ever heard. I prefer to believe he passed away peacefully by accident rather than on purpose.
+John Arundell Me too. In fact I used to get really annoyed with people like Heath Ledger automatically assuming he'd topped himself, as that didn't tally with the Nick I knew, at all. But Gabrielle told me that she thought that, on that night, he'd just taken an extra dose - in a fit of frustrated pique - just to see what would be the result. And my personal view of allopathic medicine, prescription drugs, and the training provided for contemporary doctors, is one of disgust, in any case. I wouldn't touch any of them with a barge-pole (my doctor is the quietly brilliant Farida Sharan - who has been my personal friend for over 40 years; who just a few centuries ago would have been burnt as a witch, for displaying extra-sensory curative instincts; and who - incredibly kindly - regularly leaves me supportive comments on my YT clips). No - I didn't know about the Bach. He probably had a good idea how to play some of it, also. His knowledge of the keyboard was almost as impressive as his guitar-playing. The story of how I learnt he was no longer with us (I was in India when he died, and knew nothing of it until my return, early in the following New Year) is also quite curiously ironic - but a little long to relate here.
Ciao a tutti gli ammiratori di Nick, vi sarei grato se sapreste dirmi se c`è anche questa lettera di Gabrielle con i sottotitoli in italiano. Ci tengo molto. Vi ringrazio anticipatamente, Drake nei nostri cuori per sempre!!
Parlo piccolo Italiano - scusi. Come fai lei per comprendere li paroli di Nick? Non credo que questa lettera che verzione sottotitolado - despiace. Zero non a capito bene. Lei admiratore di Nick, no di tutti Inglese, e vero?
Someone in the comments transcribed her words. You could screen shot it and get it translates. The transcriptional nearer the newer comments. I can look for you, but I might lose your text then 😂🙌🎶🎶🎶🎶🐾
@@technodemic6258 he doesn't totally undetstand. He needs a transcription. There is one in the comment, a transcription.he could screen shot and have it transcribed. Means searching the comments, he needs an English speaker to look.❤
DL & Ploppy - if you were RADA trained and had become a Master (or, in this case, Mistress) of monologue delivery, and you had once lost a nearest and dearest, wouldn't you also use every ounce of your knowledge and experience, and every resource of vocabulary and expression available to you, to do maximum justice to an heartfelt eulogy in their memory, as, and when, you were moved so to do? You appear to be confusing superlative technique with insincerity - these are by no means mutually inclusive. If they were, none of the great orations of history would contain any meaning. As Mariel Hemingway says to Woody Allen at the end of the movie "Manhattan" - "You need to have a little faith in people".
rosecoloured glass Look out for Gabrielle's biography of him, which should be released and in bookstores around November. I've read some extracts and it will be a must for all ND fans. xx
zero Hi Chum. His sister has, this month, just released a new biography of Nick, called "Remembered for a while". A very expensive limited edition of 1000, with additional perks, but also the regular hardback copy - much, much less expensive. You can Google it. You should be able to locate it in the best bookshops. You'll also find me inside (photos and all), but not under the pseudonym "technodemic" - obviously! They have even included a short piece I wrote about him for the book. It's stuffed with bona fide info. (for a change), and I can highly recommend it. Have fun, & best wishes. P.S. Floyd, yes - Zepp, I doubt.
Gabrielle denied respected author, Patrick Humphries, the right to use Nick's lyrics in his biography of Nick in the late 90's. That was an unwise, if not downright selfish, decision. To his credit, Humphries pressed on nonetheless and he completed and published a very well-done biography. Humphries is a great fan of Nick Drake and he desired to do his part to get the word out on this rare artist. (Btw, Humphries biography on Richard Thompson is the definitive biography on RT.)
zero I think he was not too serious but very shy. Maybe his sense of humor was not understood by everyone. I don't really know, my perception comes by his morning monologue.
zero I think he was funny in a special way, like the english comedy (ha, ha) Well his first album is called "five leaves left" and in this album there is a song called "The Thoughts of MARY JANE" You need a bit of sense of humor, very elegant if you want it, to make something like this
May I remind you both that Gabrielle is Nick's sister. He means far more to her than to any of us. What sounds like egotism to you would likely sound very different to Nick - to whom this letter is addressed. You should try to respect that and not be so cynical.
+ginnyxwotsit You said it absolutely resolutely CORRECT!! BTW; No offense but listen to Nick play that song that originated from the American South, "Old Black Mountain Come and Let Me Spit In Your Face" That is a 1940's or 1950's whiskey, song. I wish Nick would have not played and sung that song. I dunno- but that song is the opposite of the arcane, archaic, medieval , ancient, dark age, aristocratic, Old English, Anglo-Saxon*** style that Nick Drake is known for. I like to think of Nick as an Al Stewart type singer guitarist. Back in the 1970's me and my cousin used to call the best songs, the British bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin; we used to call it; "British Castle" or "Old British Castle" songs.
Nick Drake Mmmm was he really “all That”?? Compared to say,,,Murray Head,,?? Tim or Jeff Buckley’?? Or John Martyn,, I mean no disrespect but just felt it needed to be said,🇬🇧
Music, like all art, is subjective. If you don't like his music then don't listen to it. But why come to a video memorial for the man and shit on his work? Does it make you feel good?
Видеоклипы
This made me cry. A very talented and beautiful lady - describing a tortured genius (her beloved brother). Two amazing icons - that could have been so much more. The song "Way to Blue" always sums up "life" for me. The Drakes helped form a generation. Music and theatre. I am so grateful to Gabriel and Nick... and so sad that modern audiences will never experience the joy and emotional beauty they brought to the world. Gabriel is an old lady now - but I see her as Lt. Ellis still. Thank you guys for sharing this. Thank you so very much.
hi Chester - ME TOO
its so sad, suicide is so hard on familys
Altogether a very artistic family. I have a painting of daffodils painted by Nick's great-grandmother who was my paternal grandpa's sister.
How special xx ❤
Full transcription, picture changes at times listed:
00:08 Dear Nick, how strange to be writing to you many years after your death, yet you're so much with me still; so much with so many people and I feel I owe you, and perhaps everybody who loves you, an explanation. Up 'til now, every decision I've taken on your behalf about your music, every decision I've been allowed to take, has been guided by what I believe might have met with your approval. I'm sure I've made glaring errors. You were too much your own person, too entire in your enigma for me to have predicted your wishes fully. Still I've done my best to put myself, inadequately, in your shoes and decide for you in your utter absence. 01:06 Of course there've been times when decisions have been out of my hands and I've stood helpless by, whilst others mauled away at your memory and your work, because it is in the public domain. That, my darling Nick, is the price of fame I'm afraid, and even your obstinate integrity couldn't have prevented it. 01:36 But now I'm endorsing the publication of an album that I'm not at all sure you would have sanctioned. Well anyway not before you'd heard the reason for it's appearance, which is what I'm now going to try to give.
01:55 When you died we reached the bottom of the abyss which to some extent we'd all been travelling down with you. We - Mum, Dad and I - knew that we were going to have to somehow climb out of it, though at the time I remember thinking that life, from now on, would be a void, that I would never laugh again, and then of course I did. Grief doesn't work like that. You do laugh, it's just that the laughter is forever altered. We laughed at the party after your funeral; such a strange affair of sharing with your friends whom we'd never met, and many of whom had never met each other, the joy at you're having been and the devastation at you're having gone. For you did bring joy to so many people during your life, but to even more since your death. 02:58 I wish you could have known.
But to return to that abyss and the journey out of it, for me it was easier of course, you were my brother not my son. I had my life, my work, my man, all exciting and still different for me at the time. 03:47 The life I'd grown up with, though so much appreciated, was to be not escaped but emerged from. It was, despite everything, a launching pad. 04:05 But for Mum and Dad, I can only imagine the despair, the guilt inevitable however undeserved, the unbounded unfathomable sorrow. Though they buoyed with a sort of uncomplicated bravery, the sort of bravery I think shown by a generation that has faced the horrors of war, and which cannot allow itself the luxury of too much introspection; and so Mum could say after your funeral that she would never leave Far Leys until we had made it a happy house again. 04:44 For it had been a happy house. Which is not to say that it's inhabitants didn't experience the anguishes, the frustrations, the normal sorrows and disappointments of life, and the irritations with each other. You and I continually fought. But they took place under an umbrella of stability and normality and love and a great deal of laughter.
05:10 I'd be inclined to think that I was bathing the past in a rosy glow, if it weren't for the letters, family letters between the four of us. How have they all been preserved? I know Mum was an inveterate hoarder. I suppose we must have all taken after her. I go back to them, and I find them full of respect and affection and humour.
Of course life was helped by the fact that we never really wanted for anything, which is not to say that we lived in luxury, far from it. 05:50 Indeed I imagine that after Mum and Dad bought Far Leys, they must have been somewhat strapped for cash for a time. I remember Mum telling me many years later that the price of the house had been way above their budget, but she adored Far Leys and Dad was absolutely determined to get it for her. 06:10 We more or less camped in it for awhile I seem to remember, gradually unpacking the furniture that had come over with us from India.
The drawing room was quite sparse to begin with, though the piano was there from the start. I can't remember any home out East or in England where there wasn't a piano. It was as much a given as a television set became in most houses. 06:40 We never had one until long after most of our friends and neighbours, and the piano was as much a part of our entertainment as a TV set is for most families. Do you remember how Mum would sit at it in the afternoons? 06:58 Mornings were for housework and afternoons were for relaxation, which meant more often than not sitting at the piano working out harmonies to her latest song.
She always seemed to be composing songs, so much so that when I was little I thought it was a natural concomitant of motherhood; indeed that you couldn't have a child if you were unable to write a song about it, for Mum was always writing songs about us. 07:28 But Dad too would sit and play the piano. Such beautiful hands he had, long strong fingers, as often as not stained with oil which no amount of soap and scrubbing could remove, witness to a Saturday morning struggle with some new gadget in the garden. 07:50 But I seem to remember that often as a little boy you would've been struggling with him, am I right? 07:57 And he'd play his own songs too, though I don't actually remember him composing anything after we came back to England, but as a young man out East he'd composed, amongst other things, a whole operetta. Set on board a ship bound for the East and peopled with the sort of characters he knew and had observed with his own brand of compassionate irony, from the 'fishing fleet' - name given to young girls who came out East to find a husband - to the weary put upon stewards to the gin-soaked old stagers, and here in Far Leys they'd all be recalled as he sang the songs he'd created for them in his fine bass voice.
08:45 And do you remember Christmas and the ritual of Christmas Eve, when in the evening before supper all tasks would be stopped and the household would gather, washed and brushed up, for carols around the piano? Mum would play, or maybe her sister Nancy, with her husband, Chris, and Dad sharing between them the baritone and bass parts, and Mum and Nancy singing soprano and contralto respectively, something they were well used to, having sung as a duo at popular concerts in Burma both before and during the war. 09:25 All of us would join in the choruses, you and me and granny, Mum's and Nancy's formidable mother, whose husband had been knighted for services to India, and who was a true woman of the British Raj; a dreadful snob, horribly prejudiced and often impossible, yet funny, generous, and entirely unself-pitying though she lived in fairly straightened circumstances.
And also part of the gathering would be Nan and Naw, our Karen servants who'd come over with us to England, and were more like members of the family than servants. Naw had never been to England before she arrived at Far Leys, but Nan, who'd been nanny to several English families before she came to us, knew more about the practicalities of running a house in post-war Britain than Mummy did, and when we first arrived at Far Leys she was guide and mentor. Nan and Naw would sing their own carols, often English carols translated into Karen which they sang in harmony, unaccompanied, and their high, true, reed-like voices are woven into the very fabric of my memories of Christmas at Far Leys.
10:50 The ritual of Christmas continued pretty much unaltered into our adulthood, indeed I think 'til the year you died. How you felt about it then I don't know. I think probably you felt as much as I did the obligation to be there, yet for my part, though I always enjoyed the safe cosy link with the past, I chafed that it didn't seem to be able to incorporate new people or change.
Perhaps this was our parents dilemma, they succeeded in creating children sure enough of themselves to want, and need, to fly the nest in the true sense of the word. Many of our friends continued in adulthood to replicate their parents' lives but we couldn't do that. Yet at the same time they created a bond of love that was so strong it was impossible not to feel guilty breaking away from it. 11:50 Impossible not to see the value of all they had created, impossible however much both sides might have wanted it for them to follow us into the new way of thinking that was all around us at the time.
12:46 My rebellion, if you can call it that, came in the form of the man I chose, my Louis de Wet, a South African by origin, quite removed from the stifling British class system; an artist who embodied the new ideas of the '60s. Our parents never found him a comfortable choice, and though they and he tried to bridge the gap, he did in particular, and though I mourned this, he was and is entirely necessary to me.
13:26 And you, was your escape eased by the pot that you smoked? Was it manifested in your choice to leave Cambridge early? A tough decision for you, I'm sure, knowing how much it had meant to Mum in particular, that you were following in her father's footsteps, and a decision not likely taken by you. The letters and telephone calls between you and Dad prove that, as well as your request to your tutor for a year's sabbatical. Was that Dad's idea or yours? Anyway, it was a compromise that was denied you, probably because you were honest enough to say that you wanted to use the year to try to become a professional musician. So the correspondence between you and Dad churns on until finally you write saying that you're wasting your time at Cambridge. I have your letter before me now and it brings you back to me so clearly, in all your courtesy, in all your obstinacy.
14:35 You say here, "Everything I say in this respect is likely to have a distinct air of ungratefulness about it, but I hope you realise that I am in fact very grateful for everything you've done, but to be active here in anything other than purely academic pursuits seems to involve a form of irresponsibility and amateurism which is worse than useless to me at the moment."
You try so hard to explain but you are unbudgeable, and though Dad wrote back that he and Mum were bitterly disappointed, they never tried to stop you once the die was cast, never withdrew their love and support. 15:27 Then you rather disappear from my view despite the fact that we shared a flat in London for awhile, others knew you where I did not and it is for them to tell their story.
But I must get back to the reason for this letter, and again I'll have to digress a little. 16:20 We might not have had a TV set until long after all our friends, but that didn't mean that we had set our faces against new technology. Well, Mum might have done so, she was always suspicious of change, but Dad, being an engineer, was fascinated by new gadgetry. One day he staggered into the house after work carrying what looked like an enormous green trunk. It was in fact an early reel to reel recording machine. It must have been one of the first pieces of domestic recording equipment on the market, real state of the art stuff. Certainly none of our friends had that.
Dad would record us all. An early tape still exists with you speaking and singing in a high treble voice. 17:15 You too were fascinated with the machine and became almost as proficient at using it as Dad. I think you must have inherited something of his engineering ability, and you'd play tricks with it. I think you must have been about ten when we came across your recording, made presumably when everyone was out, in which you solemnly announce that you are about to perform a piece of Beethoven, and then proceeded to play your record of the Moonlight Sonata. But I think you got a bit of stick for that, because with your lengthy recording of Nick Drake alias Wilhelm Kempff, you managed to entirely wipe your sister's valuable rendition of some piece of poetry or other.
18:06 The Moonlight Sonata received a good rating in your record log. I wonder how old you were when you compiled that record log; eight, ten? Anyway even then your tastes were wide-ranging and your views definite.
"Elgar - English Music For Strings, jolly good."
"Padmore - Last Train To San Fernando, good guitar play."
"C. Doherty (?) - Making Love To You, soppy and utterly wet."
Classical music and jazz and pop, all of them interested you. At school you took up the clarinet and mastered it well enough to play Mozart's Kegelstatt Trio for clarinet, viola and piano with our aunt Nancy, a fine amateur violin and viola player, and our uncle Chris, who played classical piano but above all, jazz, with such a light touch. And yet again Dad was there to record it though by now I think the recording equipment had become somewhat smaller and more sophisticated.
19:19 Of course you taught yourself the guitar, and the saxophone. Many years after you died I came across your friend at Marlborough who taught you the basics of the guitar, and I remember him saying how frustrating it was that only six months after you took up the instrument you were playing it better than he could ever hope to. But though you played in bands and formed groups whilst you were at school, I don't remember you ever composing at the time.
The songs started in Aix-en-Provence, where you were sent with some of your school friends to while away that strange interim period between school and university, in which so many middle-class children are packed off to some foreign country ostensibly to learn the local language, but in fact to emerge from the egg, dry off their feathers and learn to fly. Well you learnt to fly, Nick; but perhaps, Icarus-like, you flew too close to the sun.
Nevertheless I remember vividly the evening shortly after you returned from Aix, when you took out your guitar in the sitting room at Far Leys and played for Mum, Dad and me three songs that you'd written yourself. Such a shock and a thrill it was and yet somehow entirely expected. It seemed a logical progression, something everyone in the family did except me. Princess Of The Sands is the one I remember best. That will forever be for me your Aix song. 21:20 We thought they were all beautiful, but then we would I suppose you'd say. Mum and Dad always had absolute belief in your ability. They might have distrusted the inevitable bias of their own opinions, even though they were in a better position to judge given their own musical abilities, but they never doubted your music.
Who was it that made those early home recordings of your songs, Nick? Was it you or was it Dad? Perhaps it was both of you at different times. Did you remember they existed? Maybe not, for had you done so, being such a perfectionist you might well have erased them. 22:08 Or was the despairing inertia of those last years such that you no longer cared?
Whatever the case, there they were after you died, a precious canon to comfort us. Then came another comfort for Mum and Dad, a steady stream of young people who turned up on the doorstep of Far Leys. They were your fans, who'd discovered your albums almost against the odds. Certainly they weren't aided by any fanfare of publicity. Your record company understandably had neither the time nor the money to promote an artist who had died in obscurity, but to their credit they never deleted your albums; and amazingly the tiny trickle of royalties showed that there were a few people out there who continued to buy your records. 23:05 I believe it is to that tiny body of early fans that you owe your increasing fame, and I try never to forget that.
They must have spread the word about your music with almost missionary zeal. Such was the power of your music to touch and comfort, particularly those who were going through similar depressions to your own. That I think would have given you the greatest pleasure. These then were the people who would arrive at Far Leys having made the pilgrimage to your grave. They were not many in number but they came from all over Britain, indeed from all over the world; America, Italy, France, Holland. Often they were strange looking young people, mentally bruised and physically bedraggled from long journeys, but they'd arrived with the hope of finding you or your spirit, and our parents would welcome them into their home.
24:15 Do you remember how hopeless Mummy would be at impromptu visits? She was a superb hostess but she hated being unprepared for visitors, and we could never just turn up with our friends. Well she changed with the arrival of your fans, she became adept at improvising and adapting. Meals would be rustled up, beds made, and who cared if there were no flowers on the piano? 24:44 Dad was always interested in young people, and the journeys, actual and spiritual that they were undertaking, always enjoyed breaking the ice and getting them to talk about themselves. He'd be in his element, finding out why you and your music meant so much to his unknown visitors.
25:06 Of course he'd show them the music room, the old doctor's surgery which, when we moved in to Far Leys, had stayed for many years a lumber room. Finally it was converted into the music room, so called because it housed your upright piano, a present from granny who'd insisted on using the proceeds from some small windfall she'd had, as well as all of your and Dad's recording equipment. We'd come a long way from that old green trunk.
It seemed only natural in the face of such enthusiasm for you that Dad should play your fans the tape of your home recordings … 25:50 and he was glad when they asked to make them a copy of those recordings, proud that he was able to do it, a more unusual feat in those days than it would be today, and probably comforted by the feeling that he was able to make your music better known. For you must remember, Nick, that in those days it seemed to us that your albums could all too easily drop into a vast nothingness and you be forever forgotten, and that would have made the tragedy of your death even greater. 26:42 And we were innocents, we'd never heard about bootlegs, and even if we had it would never have occurred to us that anyone would be interested in marketing those scratchy recordings.
If you understand that, I think you will forgive the generous impulse that made our parents share those intimate recordings of yours, which I'm quite sure you never meant to see the light of day. Maybe you would find it less easy to forgive the opportunist who saw, as your fame started to rise, the chance to turn a generous gift into hard cash. I like to think that it was not one of the people who visited Far Leys, but perhaps a friend to whom one of them had lent a tape. Certainly the quality of these rogue CDs would lead one to believe that they're second or even third generation recordings, some of which aren't even yours.
27:44 It seemed unfair, not only to you but also to your growing number of devoted followers, not to do something to rectify as far as we could this discordant situation. And so we've taken the original home recordings, happily still in my possession, as well as miraculously preserved recordings made by a friend of yours in Aix, and also two recordings made in Cambridge by your friend and collaborator, Robert Kirby, whom you described in a letter to Mum and Dad as 28:20 "a rather splendid fellow, and looks like Haydn or Mozart or someone, being rather short and stocky with long wavy hair and rimless spectacles, however he's quite hip to my sort of music and has done a rather beautiful string arrangement of Day Is Done, and is now working on Time Of No Reply".
28:42 Anyway, Nick, we've sifted through everything, chosen the best and then with the help of your original superb sound engineer and loyal friend, John Wood, we've used all the modern technology at our disposal to make an album that you might perhaps have found acceptable.
I do hope that you would also find acceptable the fact that we've included two of Mummy's songs. 29:50 I think, had you lived, you would have acknowledged your musical debt to her, and I think her songs are not unworthy company for yours. Certainly Joe Boyd, to whom you owe so much, believes this.
30:08 There's only one person in this enterprise whom you didn't know, whom I wish you could have met. He's called Cally. Fortune threw him in my path a few years ago, and de Wet, my now-husband and I, had no difficulty in recognising that he was the man to manage your increasingly active legacy. Had he been your manager, had he been able to look after you in life as he has looked after your legacy, the story of Nick Drake might have been a little different.
30:42 So there you have it, Nick … tout comprendre c'est tous pardonner … to understand all is to forgive all. I hope that in the circumstances you could have given Family Tree your blessing, or if not that you could have at least looked on with that wry smile of yours, and realised that it has come about as a result of the gradual fulfilling of your prophesy "and now we rise, and we are everywhere".
31:15 Your sister who loves you, Gabrielle :)
32:00
I didn't want this letter to Nick to end. I am so touched by your family 's profound and endless love for Nick. I am so sorry for your loss - You have done so right on behalf of Nick.
Wine from the crushed juices of heart-strings. Had to end on Way to blue...
Beautiful
For the people who are not easy with English-speaking, thank you for translate this beautiful vocal letter. Even though the English of Gabrielle Drake is quite easy to understand.
wow beautiful from start to end..thankyou
Just stumbled across this today. My God....heart wrenching stuff. I wish I could have known Nick. Such a gentle soul. If only he could have lived to see the impact he would have on people such as myself.
I totally understand this. She lost her brother. They were close. Any loss we mere fans have is insignificant compared to a family loss. Poor kid was only 26. Imagine that.
+MrRalphsi I can't imagine that, I know that. My dearest cousin was 26 when he died... He was not sick. I want to play football with him again.
He was only a fucking kid tragic stuff
Such a beautiful letter. Nick Drake's music touches my soul quite unlike any other
The hairs stand on my neck when I hear his guitar and that beautiful voice
Every time I accidentally come across a video about Nick, or search one out because thoughts of it wouldn’t let me be, it always comes to tears. How is it that an artist whom I hadn’t known until after he was gone could affect me so? Obvious? Perhaps: I love him, and he’s gone. But that’s true of me and many artists. Nick is different. We all know it, don’t we? I’ve given up trying to avoid tears every time I re-encounter him, lest I avoid the lovely encounters themselves. I’ll be coming back, Nick, as long as I can.
(Thank you, Gabrielle. This is wonderful.)
You put this perfectly. It does feel different with Nick. I feel like I love him too, and miss him so much
There is an unexplainable connection to him and his music. I guess "love" perfectly describes it. I love him too.
I love this thread!
Me too 😢 I have felt sort of sad about other artists dying in my lifetime but it always makes me cry whenever I think about his life and its end, even though he died before my parents were born. Now I am only two years younger than he was when he died. I think when I found his music, it unknowingly shaped my poetry and the way I write. Still, I don’t just see him as an influence on my art, or my mind and heart but rather as you put it, someone I have love for that is gone.
...a short life.. but knowing Nick had such a wonderful family warms the heart .. thank you Gabrielle..
That was lovely. There comes a time when you realise more of heroes are dead than alive. Nick is quite a new hero of mine - his fame increases and will continue to do so.
The boy was a genius his sister knew that so did his mam and dad
Thanks for making this available. And may I say, I think the people who suggested this was an ego trip haven't a clue.
Stiamh Ionas this was not an ego trip at all - this was closure
so beautiful - so delicate - so respectful
Quite beautiful... An actress of considerable renown, here, Gabrielle Drake speaks eloquently AS HERSELF and offers a unique and personal insight into The Drake Family and, particularly, her younger brother, Nick... Quite moving... (Thank You, Poster...) xx SF
Wonderful Gabrielle, simply wonderful 🙏🏾
This nearly brought me to tears. I discovered Nick’s music just before college and it changed my life. I can’t think of a more tragic musical story, but thank God we have the music.
Jackson C Frank.
No videos no footage the only person who comes close to his enigmatic persona is Ian Curtis
@@dermot51Stroll On. Curtis had no support at all.
I went out with a horrible guy many many years ago who resembled Nick Drake.
It's frustrating at times.
Luckily Drake's music transcends just about everything on this Earth.
I love him very much and when I visit the UK I will visit his grave with some flowers and sit awhile.
Resembled him in looks, or in character?
Looks only- and only a very slight resemblance.
Absolutely beautiful - thank you Gabrielle. Both you and Nick are/were special people...
A brilliant family, imagine how his mam and dad felt after his demise and his older sister Gabrielle
Nick Drake, deeply missed, thank you for your music ❤
the picture around 1m .20sec..those mournful, deeply troubled eyes, are eyes I have seen through...I know how that dark dreary place lacking in light and brightness, running from it in fact...resigned to the cave..the balance we need, in or around us, to be brought out, or bring ones self, out of...I have mourned your journey Nick..I have felt the same sense of failure and seemingly unending "mountains to climb" just to get by, battling with mental health issues..bless you all The Drake Family so much love to you all ..have listened to Mollys music..giving a sense of the jolly essence in the house hold .dependable, Father, graceful loving Mother..playful and happy Brother to a doting Sister...much love Gabrielle ❤
Very heartfelt. Poor Mum and Way To Blue hit like a ton of bricks at the end. Tragic but beautiful.
A beautiful means of expression, a letter written by a loving sister. This was a very emotional journey created by yet another of the very talented Drake family. Gabrielle has a real way with words. Her voice is poetic too. She should be an author she's do talented. Really she is having written what to me is a letter of such length that it could be printed into a small book. It was moving too how Mr and Mrs would open their doors to Nick's fans who ventured there, and how Mr would ask about their lives and elevate their self-esteem as it seemed the fans, a high percentage, were emotionally challenged. What a lucky guy who married Gabrielle. Thanks ginnywotsit for taking your precious time to make this video.
As a 54y Autistic, my feeling is that Nick was an Autistic but back in 1974 Autism was only known as "State Hospital flinging poop" people back then. Some of us are a bit higher functioning but still on the "Spectrum." Nick did his best to forge a his own path but back then "playing the game" doing what everyone else did was mandatory and pursuing your own path got you isolated and kept you basically broke.
Nick, the world was not ready for you in 1974, we are sorry.
RIP
❤
Maybe yes...Good point. 😢
Totally agree
20 years ago, I was alone on stage - as my audiences would say, "channeling Nick Drake". I had put together a solo show, after decades of making a living at playing in bands, and for my "Acoustic Eclectic" show had selected a half dozen or so of Nick's haunting and challenging songs for my repertoire: "Time Of No Reply", "River Man", "Road", “Fly”, ‘Pink Moon”, "From the Morning", "Which Will"... All the different, crazy tunings, challenging guitar parts and the melodies... You kept the company of The Velvet Underground, CSNY, Jefferson Airplane, Leo Kottke, Skip James, John Fahey, Mississippi John Hurt, and so many others.
Strangers would approach me on my break. look me deep in the eyes and say they felt like they were listening to 'old Nick' himself, ask questions of me like 'how did it feel to inhabit those songs'...
It was always hard. It was sometimes tearful, but I didn't care; I just wanted to serve the songs, present them stripped naked and honest as they day they were written. Wishing I had written them myself, but being thankful that they were there to be covered. Most of the time I felt as if your songs were playing me...
Now some time has passed, I've got old and doubt I could even play or sing those profoundly demanding pieces, but they still live inside me, close to my arthritic fingertips and now raspy voice. Though you didn't get to grow old with your songs, I did, and I'm glad of it.
Thanks Nick!
This woman is fantastically gorgeous in every way.
Thank you you for sharing your love, sad loss, he was so brilliant, pouring your love and heart into this letter of love & memories. ♥️ bring so much more understanding too the loss.
So beautiful, sad, poignant, perfect.
I wasn't a fan that was immediately attracted to Nick drake he sort of grew on me then took up lodgings in my head lol maybe I should charge him rent? I found this touching and insightful the whole family were talented Thank you for this rarity xxx
His music is incredible! I would say he was way before his time. This letter is precious too. ❤️✝️
Gabrielle is truly an amazing soul.
Absolutely lovely.
This is really beautiful, I love art by Nick and Molly Drake. The citation of the song "Milk and Honey" (here starting with "gold and silver") was written by Jackson C. Frank and was first released in 1965. He also is a very underrated genius who had a cruel fate.
Wonderful.
Nick has touched the soul of so many to the point that we try to be worthy of his precious company. Look at us Nick, your custodians. Guardian angels out of time, trying to touch back your soul.
When people ask me my favorite kind of music I kind of try saying Nick Drake is one, and I see their blank stares, and they ask about him, and I just stare ahead, as I don't have the words to explain Nick Drake, as how do you summarize Nick Drake's music to someone else. And then on very intense days when I miss my special loved one so much, I play Nick Drake's music for hours and hours, to try and capture the essence of a beautiful mind and soul, as beautifully captured by Gabrielle. Then I try to explain Sandy Denny to someone, also to blank stares, and end up listening to her music for days. Then Jackson C. Frank, then Rich Farina,...then.... then I listen to JOhn Martyn's Solid Air... thanks Gabrielle to continue to celebrate Nick Drake's existence and beautiful talents and future potential.
I know all these artists, but as a musician listened to everything, every genre , we have to find people who shared the experience of listening to these beautiful musicians. Then it is lovely to sit and listen together ❤️
Great letter from sister to brother.
He’s seen as the great forgotten artist but honestly almost all artists live their entire lives without anything gaining any notoriety and what they produce completely disappears after their death. Nick Drake did well in comparison to the vast majority of artists.
Saw your letter to Nick for the first time yesterday.
It is so deeply and emotionally expressed. Beautiful. Thank you.
I hope you have healed a little bit from such a great loss, though he will be in your heart until the day you hopefully meet him again. ❤
For someone who grew up in the care system,then on a council estate I find it both perplexing and sobering that someone with Nick Drakes upbringing can still struggle. I came across Nicks music in the mid -eighties when I was a callow nineteen year old ,I've played the albums right up to now(2019).They still mean so much.So I thank you Nick Drake
Added public reply
Circumstances aren’t quite everything in mental health my friend. He was a quiet and reserved person. For a reason unknown apart from it’s just him. He didn’t quite connect to anyone from his schools or such, just a few, but none truly knew the real nick. The definition of being depressed is that you are sad but don’t know why. Which is true in every case with nick as there was no reason or Rhyme to his depression. The unsuccessful albums at the time didn’t help with his mental state either. Nick truly felt like an outcast to everyone and thing around him but didn’t know how to talk about it. Other than on his songs. He deserved the help that was necessary, but was not common then. A truly beautiful soul and a misunderstood mind
@H Kay why poverty and mental health?
The parental and peer group expectations put upon children from his background can be enormous and impossible to bear.
Nothing wrong with growing up on a council estate no point in carrying a chip on your shoulder about it don't let it define you hi I'm so n so and I was in care I raised on a council estate so what?
♥ Gabrielle
Battle Spear- it is really sad that quite a few gifted musicians seem to really suffer from depression. My heart goes out to them - there are better treatment options now. Best wishes to you.
Having just discovered this intimate jewel ,I must confess to being emotionally spent after listening attentively to every breath . It's a heartfelt and poignant recollection from his wonderful sister whom Nick would have forgiven for any minor indiscretions .Gabrielle has been his champion since his untimely departure and through her memories we are now able to piece together a few more parts of the jigsaw puzzle that his devoted fans will have craved for. If there is an after life where those that have passed from this mortal plain can still feel love then for certain Nick Molly and Rodney will rest in the comfort that they left their mark and more importantly enriched the lives of so many .
Brought me to tears in public. This is so heartbreaking, but beautiful too.
Thanks Gabrielle to you and all the Drake family and your late brother Nick of course. This was a lovely letter and presentation. It appears the Drake family were all a creative crew. Your brother Nick certainly had a way with words and music which will hardly be forgotten. I believe you are due a big thank you. I haven't heard his music in a few years. There is no doubt that he was a fine artist.. Thanks to you and others it will not be forgotten and his short life will not have been in vain.
A beautiful, heartfelt letter, a shared intimacy for which we should be grateful. Thank you, Gabrielle.
Thank you, Gabriella. Rest assured that we fans of Nick's recordings immensely appreciate your thoughts, feelings, and ruminations on your family life and legacy.
This is beautiful ♥
So moving. Thank you for sharing Gabrielle ❤
brought me to tears
Me too actually
lovely and rather heartbreaking
I really feel for you Gabrielle, I wish you all the peace in the world XX
A wonderful loving tribute to a talented man.
Beautiful man wonderful n beautiful talent. Long live nick drake
I always wanted a sister... Gabrielle, you're amazing :-)
How lovely.
Gabrielle, Looked for you in Tanworth in 2012, although knew you would not be there, as I know, you did not want to take away from the festival held in honor annually for your younger brother Nick. Hope you are well....Orv
This is so moving and insightful.
So Beautiful..
Thank you. 🙏🏽💖
Thank you for this, thank you!
Bless Nick
I hope Ms Gabriella is reading this. I'm sure I'm not the only one here struck by her writing talent. The written word for her is what the guitar was to her brother Nick. Ms Gabriella, please continue writing and publishing it in a book. I would read it, and I'm certain others would read it, too. You would gather a following in your own right.
❤️ to Gabrielle, through the ether. I hope this message finds you energetically: Thank You, from all of Us who Love your Brother’s Music, for taking the time to Love him as you do.
Beautifully written.
He (and his music) will be remembered and have great meaning to humanity for many hundreds (or more) of years.
Beautiful. Thank you. :)
ND's description of a song as 'utterly wet' is the same condemnation used frequently by nigel molesworth in the st. custards sequence of books (by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle).
nick drake was a special soul
Excellent,
Thank you.
Sublime....
He didn't stand a chance, grew up in a mansion with an understanding family.
love.
👁️ I hope he got peace from what was inside him. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
Hi Gabby. Been catching my daughter up on you and so on, she was impressed by UFO. 👍 x
Does anyone know if there is any first-hand testimony from these fans in the 70s who visited Far Leys?
Im crying
*cries*
I held it together until she gets to the part about Nick's fans showing up at the house.
💓💓💓💓😢
Even Nick’s sister doesn’t understand Nick.
It appears to me, from the depth of perception Nick showed into other peoples' minds, that he may well have been an INFJ on the Briggs-Meyers personality scale. This may have led to the sensitivity of his lyrics, and also the inability to take criticism, whether implied or overt. Coupled with a susceptibility to marijuana's tendency to magnify mental issues, and probably a deepening reactive depression resulting from the then apparent failure of his musical career, helps to explain Nick's descent into severe depression. I'm only guessing, and it is possible his demise was inevitable, but hopefully the next tortured genius is better able to find help these days.
Marijuana was not very strong then whereas LSD, readily available at Cambridge, was much much stronger than now. A few trips could easily make one descend into madness. Five Leaves Left seems to me to have a few songs about or inspired by acid. Plus he recorded songs explicitly about cocaine and opium, each easily available in London (where she said she lived with him whilst he was absent). “Pot” was probably the least of his habits, but for a sister’s anecdotes it’s more innocent so an easy scapegoat, for mental issues and to cover for her overall ignorance of his day-to-day life.
put a legend its possible? thx
In recent years it emerged Nick's mum Molly was a gifted singer/songwriter, a talent that went wholly unrecognised in her lifetime - as female talent is so often subjugated to the profound mediocrity of domesticity and motherhood.
Nick Drake's life ended far too soon, and was unfulfilled in so many ways - but perhaps most devastatingly for him, in his private life. As mental illness took hold, he relied more and more heavily on cannabis - a deadly combination.
His work lives on but it is unutterably sad he could not achieve sufficient self esteem and peace of mind to pursue his great talent, as his successful actress sister did. Had he been able to pursue his music career and ride the inevitable disappointments, everything else would surely have followed, as night follows day.
"Profound mediocrity of domesticity and motherhood."? How histrionic and demeaning. I am sure Molly valued her life as mother very much as did her children. And her husband was very supportive of her art too.
@@janetclaireSays I don't doubt Molly Drake was a wonderful, loving and much-loved wife and mother. She was also a wonderful singer, songwriter, musician and poet. But we didn't get to see it in her lifetime, because unlike her children she didn't achieve any recognition for her remarkable artistic talents at all.
As I've said, it's a common story for women of her time. You'll be shocked to hear it, but not all women were or are totally fulfilled by motherhood alone. Good parents/parenting are invaluable, but today most men and women don't only want to be defined by their status as someone's father or mother. Like life itself, human beings are multi faceted, complex, and brimming with potential to be and do many different things simultaneously!
That was my point. You've pulled one phrase out of context from my original post, and misrepresented it as an attack on mothers. It wasn't - and nor incidentally did I infer any criticism of Molly's husband Rodney!
Molly's generation was taught marriage and motherhood were the summit of female ambition. To want more was deemed greedy - or worse, unfeminine. Girls grew up with no conception, least of all expectation, they could one day 'have it all', as boys did - ie personal AND professional fulfilment, and a positive identity and purpose in and outside of the home.
A life in which that choice is denied to you, and your path limited by societal/cultural expectations based on your biology, strikes me as profoundly mediocre! It's certainly not one many people would aspire to today.
Molly's musical influence on her celebrated son, is obvious. Her songs have been called 'the missing link in the Nick Drake story'. That her own music only gained recognition thanks to Nick's fame, with the album 'Molly Drake' released in 2013 - twenty years after her death - says it all!
This is my right to reply to your petty, missed-the-point-by-a-mile, little post. I won't be indulging you further.
@@glamdolly30 Molly Drake made a choice of how to live her life. Not every talented person has the urge to be public or famous. I'm sure she enjoyed her music AND her domestic life and that's why she chose to live her life the way she did and perhaps that balance was exactly what she wanted. And it has been noted by her daughter that Molly's husband was very supportive of her music. Your negative description of being a mother and housewife ON TOP OF having music in her life was demeaning to both her choice and the very existance of people who choose domesticity.
@@janetclaireSays You'd start a fight in an empty house! 🤣🤣🤣
I loved your beautiful insight on Nick. Is it possible he suffered high functioning autism. It was so hard for him to make friends, he was reserved, and I could not talk to people about any feelings that were harming him.
He used drugs as comfort.
subtitles please
I transcribed this with time references above :)
Who is the musician mentioned at 18:33 in Nick's childhood music log whose song 'Making Love To You' is amusingly described by young Nick as "soppy and utterly wet"? Hilarious and precocious critique :D
I hear Gabrielle say something about it being a song by someone called C. Doherty - don't you?
Techno Demic I thought so but wasn't sure and couldn't find any further information to confirm who that was. I transcribed the whole letter so our non English speaking friends could translate the parts they couldn't understand for themselves :) it took much longer than I expected but once I started I wanted to finish the task! That was the only bit I couldn't definitely make out.
+John Arundell Good job, John! How many languages do you speak?
Techno Demic English! I actually googled the classical music piece for correct spelling, etc and used Google Translate for the French expression. It would have been hard work for people who don't speak fluent English though :) speaking of classical have you heard that the Brandenburg Concerto (from memory) was the last record on Nick's turntable the night he died so possibly or probably the last music he ever heard. I prefer to believe he passed away peacefully by accident rather than on purpose.
+John Arundell Me too. In fact I used to get really annoyed with people like Heath Ledger automatically assuming he'd topped himself, as that didn't tally with the Nick I knew, at all. But Gabrielle told me that she thought that, on that night, he'd just taken an extra dose - in a fit of frustrated pique - just to see what would be the result. And my personal view of allopathic medicine, prescription drugs, and the training provided for contemporary doctors, is one of disgust, in any case. I wouldn't touch any of them with a barge-pole (my doctor is the quietly brilliant Farida Sharan - who has been my personal friend for over 40 years; who just a few centuries ago would have been burnt as a witch, for displaying extra-sensory curative instincts; and who - incredibly kindly - regularly leaves me supportive comments on my YT clips).
No - I didn't know about the Bach. He probably had a good idea how to play some of it, also. His knowledge of the keyboard was almost as impressive as his guitar-playing.
The story of how I learnt he was no longer with us (I was in India when he died, and knew nothing of it until my return, early in the following New Year) is also quite curiously ironic - but a little long to relate here.
Ciao a tutti gli ammiratori di Nick, vi sarei grato se sapreste dirmi se c`è anche questa lettera di Gabrielle con i sottotitoli in italiano. Ci tengo molto. Vi ringrazio anticipatamente, Drake nei nostri cuori per sempre!!
Parlo piccolo Italiano - scusi. Come fai lei per comprendere li paroli di Nick? Non credo que questa lettera che verzione sottotitolado - despiace.
Zero non a capito bene. Lei admiratore di Nick, no di tutti Inglese, e vero?
Someone in the comments transcribed her words. You could screen shot it and get it translates.
The transcriptional nearer the newer comments.
I can look for you, but I might lose your text then 😂🙌🎶🎶🎶🎶🐾
@@technodemic6258 he doesn't totally undetstand. He needs a transcription. There is one in the comment, a transcription.he could screen shot and have it transcribed. Means searching the comments, he needs an English speaker to look.❤
Check out Gabrielle in 'Au Pair Girls', 1970s softcore film, before her career really took off with Moonbase Alpha 🤣
DL & Ploppy - if you were RADA trained and had become a Master (or, in this case, Mistress) of monologue delivery, and you had once lost a nearest and dearest, wouldn't you also use every ounce of your knowledge and experience, and every resource of vocabulary and expression available to you, to do maximum justice to an heartfelt eulogy in their memory, as, and when, you were moved so to do?
You appear to be confusing superlative technique with insincerity - these are by no means mutually inclusive. If they were, none of the great orations of history would contain any meaning. As Mariel Hemingway says to Woody Allen at the end of the movie "Manhattan" - "You need to have a little faith in people".
well-said, Sir. xxx
rosecoloured glass Thanks. Nick was a friend of mine, so it matters to me.
rosecoloured glass Look out for Gabrielle's biography of him, which should be released and in bookstores around November. I've read some extracts and it will be a must for all ND fans.
xx
thank you,..i will! xxx
zero Hi Chum. His sister has, this month, just released a new biography of Nick, called "Remembered for a while". A very expensive limited edition of 1000, with additional perks, but also the regular hardback copy - much, much less expensive. You can Google it. You should be able to locate it in the best bookshops. You'll also find me inside (photos and all), but not under the pseudonym "technodemic" - obviously! They have even included a short piece I wrote about him for the book. It's stuffed with bona fide info. (for a change), and I can highly recommend it. Have fun, & best wishes.
P.S. Floyd, yes - Zepp, I doubt.
Gabrielle denied respected author, Patrick Humphries, the right to use Nick's lyrics in his biography of Nick in the late 90's. That was an unwise, if not downright selfish, decision. To his credit, Humphries pressed on nonetheless and he completed and published a very well-done biography. Humphries is a great fan of Nick Drake and he desired to do his part to get the word out on this rare artist. (Btw, Humphries biography on Richard Thompson is the definitive biography on RT.)
Drake vs DeBurg The princess of the sand vs The Lady in Red
It sounds like a comic title
zero People tell me that I'm crazy for writing jokes about him
zero I think he was not too serious but very shy. Maybe his sense of humor was not understood by everyone. I don't really know, my perception comes by his morning monologue.
zero I think he was funny in a special way, like the english comedy (ha, ha) Well his first album is called "five leaves left" and in this album there is a song called "The Thoughts of MARY JANE" You need a bit of sense of humor, very elegant if you want it, to make something like this
I have to concur with Mr. Plop.
Very transparent.
May I remind you both that Gabrielle is Nick's sister. He means far more to her than to any of us. What sounds like egotism to you would likely sound very different to Nick - to whom this letter is addressed. You should try to respect that and not be so cynical.
+ginnyxwotsit You said it absolutely resolutely CORRECT!! BTW; No offense but listen to Nick play that song that originated from the American South, "Old Black Mountain Come and Let Me Spit In Your Face" That is a 1940's or 1950's whiskey, song.
I wish Nick would have not played and sung that song.
I dunno- but that song is the opposite of the arcane, archaic, medieval , ancient, dark age, aristocratic, Old English, Anglo-Saxon*** style that Nick Drake is known for.
I like to think of Nick as an Al Stewart type singer guitarist.
Back in the 1970's me and my cousin used to call the best songs, the British bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin; we used to call it;
"British Castle" or "Old British Castle" songs.
Ignoramus.
David Lloyd twat
Dear David, you must miss a lot of love. I hope you find it.
Nick Drake Mmmm was he really “all That”?? Compared to say,,,Murray Head,,?? Tim or Jeff Buckley’?? Or John Martyn,, I mean no disrespect but just felt it needed to be said,🇬🇧
Whatever you say, Skeeter Davis.
Music, like all art, is subjective. If you don't like his music then don't listen to it. But why come to a video memorial for the man and shit on his work? Does it make you feel good?
Yes he was! Most definately. He just was ahead of his time!
@@BlGGESTBROTHERWell said
What a disgusting ego-trip of a tribute
What a disgusting pile of shit of a comment :/
Well said, John. Spot on.
Fuck off
What a pathetic comment. 9 years on, hopefully you are a better person now and can see that it clearly isn’t.