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Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English musician. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridge. His debut album, Five Leaves Left, was released in 1969, and was followed by two more albums, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972). He did not reach a wide audience during his lifetime, but found acclaim an…
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entertainment · British musician (1948–1974) · singer-songwriter · songwriter · guitarist · composer · singer · musician · also Nick Drake, Nicholas Rodney Drake, Nicholas Drake, Drake
Born 19 June 1948 · Died 25 November 1974 · Q211588
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“I remember in one of his reports towards the end of the time at his first school, the headmaster said that none of us seemed to know him very well. And I think that was it. All the way through with Nick, people didn”
Far Out Magazine: ‘Time Has Told Me’: The 1969 Nick Drake song that was destined for Roberta Flack
Still Listening: 10 Artists Like Nick Drake You Need to Hear
Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce: Nick Drake tribute comes to Lichfield’s The Hub at St Mary’s
WBUR: The music of Molly Drake, mother of Nick Drake, is finally having its moment
Released album “The Making of Five Leaves Left”.
Rolling Stone: Need More Nick Drake Than Just Those Three Albums? A New Box Comes to Your Rescue.
New Hampshire Public Radio: Remembering singer Nick Drake, 50 years on
The Guardian: ‘He tells you it’s all right to be miserable’: why Nick Drake enchants every new generation
The Guardian: Nick Drake by Richard Morton Jack review – genius remembered
The Guardian: Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack review – folk’s fragile man of mystery
The Guardian: ‘I thought: This boy’s gone, we can’t reach him any more’ – the tragedy and beauty of Nick Drake, by those closest to him
The Guardian: ‘I knew this was different’: Nick Drake’s producer on misunderstood classic Pink Moon
Released album “Bryter Layter (Sessions)”.
The Guardian: 'Greek, without the sex': Nick Drake and John Martyn's folk bromance
The Guardian: The week in radio and podcasts: Lost Boy: In Search of Nick Drake; The Raw Pearl Bailey; The Big Idea
The Guardian: Rachel Unthank: how I fell in love with the defiant songs of Nick Drake's mother Molly
Released ep “The John Peel Session”.
Released album “A Day Gone By…”.
A 10" live EP, released alongside the book, Remembered For A While, was released, titled The John Peel Session
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Released album “Nick Drake”.
Released album “N. R. Drake, 69.”.
Released album “Family Tree”.
Released album “Time Has Told Me, Volume Two”.
Released album “Time Has Told Me”.
Released album “A Treasury”.
Released album “Made to Love Magic”.
Far exceeded Drake's lifetime sales
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Released album “Second Grace: Alternate Versions and Unreleased Songs”.
And A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake in 2000
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"Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen commercial, boosting Drake's US album sales from about 6,000 copies in 1999 to 74,000 in 2000
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Released album “The Complete Home Recordings”.
Released album “Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake”.
Released album “Tanworth‐in‐Arden 1967/68”.
Released album “The Hannibal Sampler”.
Released album “Time of No Reply”.
A biography of Drake by Gorm Henrik Rasmussen was published in Danish; an updated version with new interviews was published in English in 2012
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Released album “Heaven in a Wild Flower: An Exploration of Nick Drake”.
When the Dream Academy included a dedication to Drake on the sleeve of its hit single "Life in a Northern Town"
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Released album “Fruit Tree: The Complete Recorded Works”.
Rob Partridge joined Island Records as press officer and commissioned the release of the Fruit Tree box set
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Died 1974-11-25.
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And an extensive biography written by the American journalist Arthur Lubow
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By late 1974, Drake's weekly retainer from Island had ceased, and his depression meant that he remained in contact with only a few close friends.
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Released album “Pink Moon”.
Drake had a nervous breakdown, and was hospitalised for five weeks
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Early in 1972, Drake had a nervous breakdown, and was hospitalised for five weeks.
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Released album “Bryter Layter”.
Drake's family persuaded him to visit a psychiatrist at St Thomas' Hospital in London
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Released album “Five Leaves Left”.
And was followed by two more albums, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972)
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Studied at Fitzwilliam College (1967–1969).
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And moved into his sister's flat in Hampstead, London
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Studied at Marlborough College (1962–1966).
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Drake enrolled at a tutorial college in Five Ways, Birmingham, where he won a scholarship to study at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
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Drake paid £13 (equivalent to £220 in 2025) for his first acoustic guitar, a Levin, and was soon experimenting with open tuning and finger-picking techniques
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Attained seven GCE O-Levels, fewer than his teachers had been expecting, failing "Physics with Chemistry"
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Drake was sent to Eagle House School, a preparatory boarding school near Sandhurst, Berkshire
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The Drake family returned to England to live in Warwickshire, at their home, Far Leys, in Tanworth-in-Arden
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Born 1948-06-19.
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But the couple had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry
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Rodney Drake met Molly Lloyd, the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service
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