Nick Drake : 'Cello Song

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Saturday Morning Flashback: 1969

Nick Drake was only 20 years old when he began recording his first studio album in London in 1968/69, just 5 short years before his untimely death. Although the production process was drawn out and filled with disagreements between Drake, American producer Joe Boyd and the session musicians Boyd brought in (most notably Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention), the end result was one of the best folk albums of the last 50 years.

Drake was enrolled at Cambridge at the time of the sessions, cutting class and hopping the train to London to record; with high hopes that a successful career would reign in his wrenching depression.

Less well known than Drake's subsequent two studio albums Pink Moon and Bryter Later, the debut Five Leaves Gone contains some of his most interesting and complex compositions, most notably this track which was brilliantly covered for the 2009 Red Hot Compilation Dark Was The Night by Jose Gonzalez/The Books.

I've included both versions as I think it shows the timelessness of his music is and why his posthumous influence continues to grow:

by Nick Drake from Five Leaves Left

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