Nick Drake wins "Posthumous Britain's Got Talent"

[Enrique]

This is a similar thing to the Susan Boyle phenomenon. People loved Drake's music as soon as they heard it, including yours truly. Why did no one play it until VW did?

http://archive.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2000/06/19/drake/print.html

June 19, 2000 | English singer and guitarist Nick Drake, born 52 years ago Monday, died of an overdose of antidepressants in 1974. His third and final album, "Pink Moon," had been released two years earlier, and had sold fewer than 5,000 copies. This spring, it took less than three weeks for SoundScan to register an additional 5,000 sales of "Pink Moon," after its title song appeared in a Volkswagen commercial. And at one point, "Pink Moon" was Amazon.com's No. 5 bestselling album. (Amazon's sales aren't included in SoundScan figures.)

Posthumous fame is nothing new to pop music, but it's usually immediately posthumous. This was the first time that a recording artist found his first real success 25 years after his death -- the first time that a lost genius of rock's past had been found, suddenly and spectacularly. Drake's music is almost unbelievably pure, graceful and powerful; hearing 30 seconds of his voice and guitar playing in an ad for a car has inspired tens of thousands of people to buy his records. The question, then, isn't why so many people should want to hear his music now -- it's why they never have before.

The answer is a little depressing: The music world is driven by publicity and by events. The only relevant events of Drake's life happened when his three finished albums, "Five Leaves Left," "Bryter Layter" and "Pink Moon," were released. After his death, they were followed by a collection of other material, "Time of No Reply," and a box containing everything, "Fruit Tree." His life's work is finite, small and, with a single exception, perfect. There is no ramp-up or decline. He didn't live to build his early work's reputation through touring and recording and headline making, the way that Lou Reed did with the Velvet Underground or Iggy Pop did with the Stooges. He said his piece, and then he took too much Tryptizol and died.

(...)


remember the commercial?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIOW9fLT9eY

[saltpoint]

1. Haunting sounds he got out of that rainy-night voice.

Nick Drake gave us some splendid music.

[Vickers]

2. Like a million others, I heard "Pink Moon" and was blown away.

I went and bought 3 CDs of his stuff (Five Leaves Left, Bryter Later, Pink Moon) and consider them collectively the finest group of CDs I have EVER bought (and I have 2,000+ of the damn things).

What a loss.

[likesmountains 52]

3. Wow..I have one of those original 5000 Pink Moon albums..A boyfriend

from Holland gave it to me in 1971..still one of my faves.

[mackerel]

4. I loved that commercial and had no idea what the background

on the song was. I was looking for it. Thanks for the info.

[dipsydoodle]

5. There are two documentaries

A Stranger Among Us ,which we had on TV 10 years ago, and A Skin Too Few and there are clips of both on YouTube.

I think our perceptions may differ across the pond due to our familiarity with his name - we didn't a VW advert. Its the same way that for example you'd have known who Steve Earle was before us. The documentaries gave Nick Drake a new following in the UK especially with those like my daughter who was only 5 years old when he died.

Its tragic when anyone dies that young but especially so for one so gifted.

Thanks for the post. :hi:

[Wilms]

6. Thank you. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

7. Never heard of him!

But now that I have, and listened to several of his songs posted in YouTube, I am struck by his haunting acoustic guitar and vocals.