Dear Nick
Written by Oliver Golding
Embedded Files
Nick Drake was an English singer/songwriter. He wrote songs so well crafted that you'd wonder where how and when he'd learned such things. His style was unique to him. It blended folk and blues, delivered with a virtuosity usually associated with classical or jazz musicians. He added his own twists too, creating his own picking patterns, chords, and even tunings.
Let me explain how this sets Nick apart from all others.
Guitarists start learning the instrument using concert tuning - EADGBE (from bass to treble; the order of notes each string is configured to before playing a chord or fretting a note). Pretty much all guitar-led pop music is written within this framework. Some guitarists will learn songs in alternative tunings, but perhaps the majority stay within concert. Pop songs are so narrow in scope that they can be played with 3 chords within concert tuning. Meaning, they are very easy to learn.
Odji's music (to date) comprises 4 tunings (including concert) and a variety of chord shapes. So, that's 4 frameworks to write a song in.
Nick? He used at least 15 different tunings - that we know of. A minimum of 15 different atmospheres to build a song in, and he played them all expertly. That is musical genius. His compositions are mind-bendingly creative and fluid - blending nuance, timing, and feeling with absolute clarity.
Have a listen to Road. This is the most beautiful guitar melody I've ever heard. Hope you find it moving too.
He had the potential to become internationally recognised as the greatest. The capability to reach the same heights as Bob Dylan. No one since has come close to Nick's level.
Nicholas was found dead, due to an overdose of medication, in his bedroom in Warwickshire in November 1974. He was 26 years old. He had released three albums to date. He had not even peaked in his technical ability. All that pure, unknown talent - gone before it could burn its brightest.
It is not known if he took his own life or if it was an accident. There was no note.
The point of this piece is not to tell his life story. If you search him online, you'll find articles about his depression, his genius, his life, his death.
The point is this: Hardly anyone recognised his talent.
Nick hated playing live. He was excruciatingly shy and found live performance to be an ordeal. That is the most tragic thing about him. To have all that talent and technical skill - literally at your fingertips - only to be unable to share it with others. It really breaks my heart, knowing what he could have achieved. The positive change he could have made. The humble, great man he could have grown into.
For someone as sensitive as Nick, I can't imagine how hard it must have been, possessing these skills, yet not being able to wield them comfortably.
It must have torn him apart. He fully retreated into himself. The last photographs of Nick (shown nearing the end of the video below) depict a man who is swimming in the depths of depression.
He was held back because society demands entertainment from musicians; it listens to those who create a consumable brand for themselves, those that shout the loudest; the ones that bombard us with their message. When you listen to Nick's tracks, for the most part, you are not entertained in the traditional sense of the word. You are moved. You are taken on a journey. It is not music you consume then throw away. It is something you sit with, explore; it invites you to find relationships in its patterns and melodies.
During the early 70s, Nick's quiet, understated persona got lost in all the noise of that era's fads. His last album, Pink Moon, is a highly introspective study. It expresses Nick's deepest emotions. It is Nick, 100% himself, communicated through phenomenal guitar and vocal work. It is the most human work of art you'll ever hear. But, the album largely passed people by. It didn't entertain enough. He released the album in 1972, and he died in 1974.
Road is the third song on Pink Moon.
Only really in the 21st century did Nick get the attention that he deserves.
The greatest that never was.
Nicholas Rodney Drake
1948 - 1974.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse