BIOGRAPHY
Described by his mother Molly as being tall, very tall, about
six foot three. His shoulders were broad and his hips were extremely
thin, what gave him an extremely elegant look, a very masculine
body. But he always walked with his shoulders hunched up and always
wore too small shoes. His clothes were also old and shabby, like
he had slept with them. And he hated being tall and being so broadshouldered.
A friend once described him as being very charming and handsome,
for devastating effects. This is Nicholas Rodney Drake, that was
born in June 19th, 1948 in Ragoon, Burma. The reason for the exotic
place is that his father, Rodney, was working for a british lumber
firm and had been sent there after Gabrielle - Nick's sister,
four years older - was born. In India he met Mary - or Molly -
that was also there for working reasons, and they got married
in the begining of the 40's. In 1952 the Drakes moved to Tanworth-In-Arden,
a hamlet near Birmigham, in England. There they lived in a big
brick house called Far Leys, which was a bit out of the downtown.
That was the Drakes home for more than forty years.
Son of a rich family, Nick studied on the best schools of England.
At the age of eight he was sent to Eagle House School, staying
there until 1961, when he went to Malrborough, one of the most
respected schools of that country. At this time he started studying
music, learning the clarinet, the alto sax, the piano and the
acoustic guitar. The latter a friend taught him playing it. He
said that in six months Nick was better than him and could even
teach him some things. At this time Nick was standing out as an
athlete and his strong personality and his fine voice made him
being the eminence of the school's choir. Although he has now
the image of an unhappy and depressed young man, at this time
he didn't show the depression signs that later would appear. His
friends said that he was shy, but very happy and very pleasant.
Nick stayed in Marlborough until 1966, when he started a trip
with some friends to France and Morocco. This was a special time
in Nick's life. He started writing songs and experimenting drugs
such as marijuana and LSD. The legend says that they met The Rolling
Stone in Morocco, being confounded with them. Returning to England,
Nick lived for a while with his sister in London before going
to Cambridge.
In October, 1967 Nick went to Cambridge to study English for
three years. He had already composed a good material and sometimes
played it to his friends, that got astonished with the songs'
quality. In an anti-war festival in London, in the spring of 1968,
Nick was discovered by Ashley Hutchings, bassist of Fairport Convention,
that recomended him to Joe Boyd, producer who worked with the
best english folk artists. Nick signed contract with Island Records
and a year and a half later was released his first album, Five
Leaves Left. In the summer of 1969 Nick decided to end his studies
on Cambridge - against his father's will - to concentrate his
attentions on his musical career. He went living in London, without
a certain home. He was always living in different places and his
friends described these places as not being a home. It was something
temporary, without furniture and with old cartons of milk on the
ground.
Besides the good things the press said, Five Leaves Left didn't
sell well and the fact that Nick wasn't doing concerts helped
in not increasing the numbers. Nick really did some gigs, but
he didn't like doing that, he never felt confortable on stage.
He was very shy and couldn't be atractive to the audience. And
there was his songs, which were too complex to be played with
a simple arragement. So he stopped doing gigs in the end of 1970.
Besides Five Leaves Left didn't have sold well, Nick's potencial
was enormous and so him and Joe Boyd bet everything on the next
record, Bryter Layter, which took nine months to be prepared,
because of his sofistication. Master-piece, it also was well-recieved
by the press and also didn't sell well. This failure affected
Nick, that started showing signs of depression.
In 1971 Nick went seeing a psychiatrist and he pescribed Tryptizol,
an anti-depresssant. But he didn't show signs of a betterment.
So Chris Blackwell, Island Records' boss, lent him his house in
Spain. Nick stayed there for some weeks and returned feeling better,
thinking in recording a new album. In the end of 1971 Nick contacted
John Wood, sound engineer who worked on his two other albuns -
and maybe the one who better knew Nick - and they entered the
studio. In February 1972, Pink Moon was released. It was recorded
only in two days. At the same time Nick decided to return living
with his parents in Tanworth-In-Arden and gave up his musical
career, saying that he wanted to write songs for other artists.
There's not much accounts about his last days. It's known that
he went to London when he was feeling better. But he was really
bad, he stayed six weeks on a hospital because of depression,
that made him stay without walking and even speaking. He also
tried to enter in the army and work as a computer programmer,
but both intentions failured. The end of his days seemed being
a bit better, as long as in the begining of 1974 he worked on
what could have been his fourth album. In this year he lived in
Paris for a few months on a house-boat with some friends.
In November 25th, 1974, a monday, Molly was worried because
was midday and Nick haven't wake up yet. She went to his room
to know what was happening and discovered that her son was dead.
If it was an accident or suicide, it's not known. The ones who
believe in the accident say that, as an insomniac, Nick used to
take an extra-dose of Tryptisol to get some sleep, and died because
of a heart failure. The ones who believe in the suicide, say that
he was depressed, so he killed himself. Besides his family and
friends say that he would never do this and that he was cheerful
the time right before his death, the coroner said that it was
suicide. Other questions about him also stay without an answer:
if he was or not schizophrenic, if he was or not gay, if he had
or not an affair with the french chanteuse Françoise Hardy.
What's known is that his music is getting more and more fans all
over the world through the years because, even had died almost
unknown, Nick was a genius and couldn't be unkown forever.
By : Hazey Jane
