Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake (Click to comment/discuss)
I discovered this record as I was recovering from a serious psychotic episode. I was in a period of transition where I had been released from hospital. I had moved from York to Wiltshire Westbury where I was living in a small house with my dad. Not yet ready to get back into the world of work but no longer as paranoid as I had been, I spent my days listening to music. Friends had mentioned his name in passing but it wasn't until this point that I had actually taken time to play the CD. What I heard was something magical, something that was unlike anything I had heard before.
Nick Drake's voice is rich and deep. His guitar playing is impeccable. As a guitar player myself I was inspired and immediately set about learning his songs and retuning my guitar to his weird and totally original tunings. His songs are wonderfully constructed.
Strangely this was not an unhappy time. I was young and convinced that my schizophrenia would eventually leave me alone. Life was full of promise and this album was the soundtrack to those days. The song Three Hours has an oriental feel and is probably the song I listen to most. Whenever I play it I'm transported away as if flying through the sky on a sunny day observing billowing oak trees below.
The album is quintessentially English and yet stands out as unique. No one really comes close, Davy Graham and Bert Jansch may be equals in the technical department, matching his guitar skills but didn't have the ear for a good song that Nick had.
He has often been compared to Elliott Smith, both died young. I read Nick's biography. It was short, he died age 26 and nothing particularly interesting happened in those years other than the usual shenanigans young people get up to. This followed by a period of self isolation and depression. He was considered shy and introspective, if you listen to his lyrics they are mainly about this. He wasn't a walkover however. He apparently got very hot under the collar when the string arrangements were presented to him, sacking the composer and hiring one of his university pals. The result was something spectacular, almost equaling the brilliance of Nick himself.
The name of the album comes from the warning slip that appears five cigarette papers before the end of the packet. I used to smoke the same brand of tobacco, I think it was called Amber Leaf.
There are elements of Jazz, Folk, Classical and Pop. It really stands alone. And yet as eerily predicted in the song Fruit Tree, he would never achieve success in his lifetime. I hope I can spread the word further and help promote this, the first of three brilliant albums by an underappreciated genius
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