NICK DRAKE (Nick Drake) was born in Rangoon, Burma, on June 19, 1948.

His parents, Rodney and Molly, were British, upper-middle class. Rodney worked for a company of antiques and Molly was an amateur singer. Four years ago Gabrielle was born, Nick's older sister. Rodney's job forced the family to move to Bombay, India, with Nick still a baby. The tropical climate Rodney harmed health, so the family moved Drake finally back to England, settling in Tanworth-In-Arden, south of Birmingham and near Stratford-On-Avon. Nick Drake was four years old. The house in which the family lived thereafter called Far Leys. It is a rambling mansion of red brick and stone built in 1912. The back opens to an English garden that extends as far as the eye reaches and is lost in the green hills. CHILDHOOD Nick Drake was very observant and spent much of his time alone. He cared a lot, sometimes too much, for the problems of others. His family loved music and Nick also was interested in her. He loved classical music since he was a baby and had ambitions to become a famous director. He learned to play the piano quickly and easily. With four years and composed, his first song was entitled "Cowboy Small". At eight he began attending school at Sandhurst, and became an important member of the chapel choir. Used to be elected student representative and was captain of the rugby team. However, the school principal said that "nobody knew him very well." Nick loved folk and rock, and was a fan of the Beatles. He asked his parents for a guitar, which began with a voracious research, led him to create his own style in the score and tuning. Then she began to compose songs with extraordinarily sad. NICK STUDIES Began in Marlborough, a prestigious and elite public school for boys, at age 13. He was a great athlete and set a record in the 100 yard race which remained unbeaten for decades. Michael Maclaran, a friend from those days, recalls tall, stooped, with his head down as if an icy wind blew always. In Marlborough learned to play the clarinet, flute and saxophone. He also joined a jazz band of students called "The Perfumed Gardeners", acting in school parties. By 1965 his favorite music was Bach Dylan, through the Beatles. In your daily life suffers from low self-esteem, which leads to fear physical contact with people and especially with the girls. It is said that only told a girl in his life, with disastrous results. To escape this frustrating reality Nick begins to build his own world, the world of his songs, full of princesses and romantic thoughts. It has been speculated to be repressed homosexuality of Nick Drake, that somehow explain many of their attitudes and behavior throughout life. Nick Drake was accepted at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he began studying English Literature in 1967. Cambridge fed his melancholy. He left the track, dedicated to French poetry reading, smoking hashish, pounding music and the guitar.

THE PHYSICAL ASPECT OF NICK It was unique. It measured 1.90 meters and walked hunchback. His hands were huge, beautiful fingers. According to his friend Paul Wheeler, "your first impression of Nick was an incredible elegance. Only after you discovered his worn shoes or laces that jacket did not fit. "I used to wear black corduroy pants, black shoes or boots and a black jacket. The fame of talent as a songwriter Nick Drake swept the folk music circuit in Cambridge, and was often invited to play in small pubs. In late 1967 he started working with Robert Kirby, a young music student, working on the arrangements of some of the songs of Nick, who will be part of their first album. At 20 years a member of Fairport Convention saw him act and recommended it to producer Joe Boyd. When Boyd asking a model called Nick was delighted. The American Boyd, with only twenties, was already a local legend. He created the company Witchseason Productions, which recorded the brightest young songwriters of England. When Drake heard the tape was pleasantly surprised by its quality. FIVE LEAVES LEFT The first album of Nick Drake was produced in 1968 by Joe Boyd. The title is an allusion to the cigarette paper kits 'Rizla', in which an emblem with these three words (5 leaves left, ie remaining 5 sheets) warns that it is running out of paper. Five Leaves has been compared with the contemporary Left 'Astral Weeks' by Van Morrison for his consistency of ideas and intensity confessional. In the studio Nick brought out his strong character, recalls John Wood, sound engineer. The company had been a renowned arranger to prepare a few songs for an orchestra of 15 musicians. Nick began to chafe more and more, despite his apparent shyness made clear its opposition to such arrangements. So he called Robert Kirby, his friend musician Cambridge, he would better understand what Nick wanted. And the company hired Kirby, along with a handful of musicians, surprised at how good it was. IN JULY, 1969 Five Leaves Left was published. The album was praised by critics but did not sell well. Nick agreed to promote it with actions. He performed at the Royal Festival Hall in London with John and Beverly Martyn and Fairport Convention. Nick Drake played his songs for a packed room, sitting on a stool and looking at their shoes, never the audience. Then he gave a series of concerts, a tour of eight clubs, but became depressed. The hearings had been too busy talking and drinking and listening. The experience was so painful that Nick never tried again. However, still looking for stardom and decided to continue composing. Cambridge left the race in the absence of one year to finish and moved to London. After sharing a flat in Notting Hill moved to a single room in the neighborhood of Hampstead, near the field. He lived on the ground floor of a Victorian building, the cold and loneliness. She said she wanted to be alone to work. And there, in a couple of months, wrote songs for her second album, Bryter Layter. BRYTER LAYTER The Nick Drake's second album, released in 1970, sounds less bleak than Five Leaves Left. The syncopated rhythms and playful piano sax and flutes seem to mock the melancholy lyrics.

In the studio Nick continued the search for perfection. Repeatedly rejected the final recordings for not being satisfied with the arrangements. In the end, the recording lasted about nine months. In his arrangements can guess an influence of Joe Boyd and John Wood (producer and engineer new) greater than Five Leaves Left. It is believed that Nick did not have more songs than the 10 that make up the album, but in any case, he was so proud of the three instrumentals included that would not have resigned to do without them. Boyd and Wood Layter Bryter consider the most perfect album they have made, a true masterpiece. When published Boyd said the album would make Nick a star, but he was wrong. The album did not sell as well as expected and Nick felt very disappointed, although the company, Island Records, was satisfied with 15,000 copies sold. A DEEP DEPRESSION Invaded the last four years of the life of Nick Drake. Shortly after the publication of Bryter Layter, Joe Boyd sold his label 'Witchseason' Chris Blackwell, the owner of 'Island Records, and moved to Los Angeles. This was a hard blow for Nick, who, according to his own father-loved Joe more than anyone. As Nick was so bad, her parents, and Boyd himself on the phone, he insisted her to visit a psychiatrist. Finally, in 1971, Nick agreed. The psychiatrist prescribed three different antidepressants, saying it was a case of internal depression without specific external causes. But Nick was not constantly taking pills, I did like aspirin for a headache. Beginning to take them and when he felt better left, arguing "I will get through this by myself." He returned to live with his parents in Tanworth-inArden, although it was sporadic driving trips to London. The depression was overwhelming. Nick used to sit for hours in a chair, twitching hands on his knees as he stared out the window or watching the sparkle in his shoes. His friend Paul Wheeler recalls: "I was very distant. He went away, and away, and away, until it just disappeared. " PINK MOON Was the last album released by Nick Drake. In the summer of 1971 Chris Blackwell, the owner of 'Island Records', he appreciated the work of Drake, he offered his apartment on the Spanish coast. When Nick returned in October called John Wood to record a new album. Pink Moon recorded in two nights, singing without other accompanying his guitar and a few terse piano arrangements. Wood assumed it was preliminary recordings and asked Nick how he wanted them to be arranged. And Nick replied that he wanted to arrange with his famous phrase: "No frills" (no frills). The album was short, less than 30 minutes, but Nick had no songs. Not daring to give explanations to the company by the absence of arrangements, Nick Drake left the master tape to the receptionist 'Island Records', and it was found several days later by surprise. The album was released in February 1972 and sold even less than their predecessors. In Pink Moon moving subjects in a relaxed, drawing a homogeneous atmosphere delivered by a voice that is almost a whisper. The low melodic structure of the songs makes poetry skeletal stuck in a communication medium, rich in allusions and metaphors, inscrutable cross references to a tortured being groped moving in uncertainty. PINK MOON AFTER Nick worsened. It auto ingres (auto login) in a local psychiatric hospital for five weeks and then returned to his parents' house. He said he did not understand the meaning of life.

Not being able to write music sought to do something else. He visited the army recruitment office but failed the interview. After he was hired as a computer programmer in the company of his father, but had to travel to London and live alone in a hotel, and after three days he left. In February 1974 Nick Drake recorded his last 4 songs ('Voice from the Mountain', 'Rider on the Wheel', 'Black Eyed Dog' and 'Hanging On A Star') with the help of loyal John Wood, who claimed to be the start of their next album. 30 years after it was learned that in those sessions had recorded a song: ' Tow the Line'. Drake was morbidly depressed when he wrote the songs. In the study, once finished instrumental tracks, Wood said, "You are having trouble with the words." 'Yes,' he replied, I cannot think of words. I feel no emotion about anything. I do not laugh or mourn. I'm numb, dead inside. " After this failed attempt Nick decided to stop singing, and this decision made him feel happy again. He went to Paris to live on a barge on the Seine, and decided that she loved being there and that would cool his French. He said he was not going to re-record songs, but write them for other, perhaps to the French singer Franoise Hardy, which once had asked. It was the summer of 1974. NOVEMBER 25, 1975 Nick often used to sleep late at Far Leys, but it was noon and had not risen yet. Molly, his mother, went to offer breakfast. When he opened the door of his room he saw several albums with the 'pick-up' stereo. On the plate, one of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, music your child often heard. Nick Drake was lying dead in his bed. Death had occurred about 6 am, due to an overdose of Tryptizol. It is an antidepressant that Nick used to take, and that this time had taken, perhaps by mistake, instead of sleeping pills. The deputy coroner said that it was a suicide. The truth is that Nick left no note, and we'll never know if he really wanted to kill himself. Nick Drake is buried in a cemetery marginal Tanworth-in-Arden. His modest tombstones (which are also the names of their deceased parents) faces a landscape of hills and meadows. An ideal resting place for a man so in love with the generous offerings of nature. AFTER THE DEATH OF NICK In 1974, his reputation has grown steadily, as have been providing her songs. By 1986 Drake still continued to be the subject of interest only to elites. In fact, three albums in the catalog had remained miraculously by Joe Boyd, who had published in a beautiful box: 'Fruit Tree' (Island Records, 1979). In August 86 edition was redesigned in a box that added a fourth album with four songs recorded in 1974 and other unpublished works: Fruit Tree (Hannibal Records, 1986). This fourth album was released a year later separately with the title Time Of No Reply (Hannibal Records, 1987). In 2003, Gabrielle Drake, John Wood and Robert Kirby, compiled study material lost or hidden for years, and home recordings in Cambridge and the theme 'Tow The Line' recorded in 1974 and no one had been heard in nearly 30 years. The result was Made To Love Magic, album appeared in 2004. The song 'Fruit Tree', which appeared on her first album, five years before his death, proved to be the most autobiographical theme of Nick Drake: "Fame is as unsound as a fruit tree, never blooms until your trunk lies in the ground. " Joe Boyd wrote about these verses: "The prophetic words of 'Fruit Tree' came true. In the verses of the song can be heard a shocking announcement events. Nick seemed to know his fate and accepted it poetically, which can be seen as ironic humor. It's hard to say what exactly makes eternal music. In a discrete form, he was a powerful person. He'd love to see the attention and respect that his music awakens currently, but listening to his lyrics began to appear that he could have planned it this way. "