Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left (1969)

This is really one of the strangest and ultimately saddest of tales.  Nick was still at University; and aged just twenty when he secured a recording contract with newly formed Island Records.  A singer-songwriter a couple of years before they really became popular.  He had already suffered from depression and was terrified of performing live.  However, he was an accomplished guitarist and a friend of John Martyn.  With producer Joe Boyd he recorded this debut album, a quiet reflective album with no glossy production, mostly just Nick and guitar, with occasional cello or piano – which promptly died a death – being far too introspective for the late 60s.   he recorded two other albums, neither of which were successful.  In 1974 he died of an overdose of an antidepressant drug.  However, in a strange way and although his albums were initially hard to find his popularity began to grow; artists such as Kate Bush and Paul Weller referred to him a major influence and he has now attained almost cult status.  I ‘discovered’ him around the end of the Seventies when a couple of articles appeared in the music press.  I have all three records and often play them – they seem to glide along with little to differentiate song from song but leave you in a calm and thoughtful mood.  Best tracks on this debut are ‘Fruit Tree’, ‘Time Has Told Me’ and of course ‘River Man’.  I barely hear the words but his voice and gentle playing are amazing.