Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English singer-songwriter. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old. He released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. On 25 November 1974, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant. Whether his death was an accident or suicide has never been resolved.
About Nick Drake in brief
Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English singer-songwriter. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work has gradually achieved wider notice and recognition. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and a student at the University of Cambridge. He released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums—Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. On 25 November 1974, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant; he was 26 years old. Whether his death was an accident or suicide has never been resolved. Drake’s music remained available through the mid-1970s, but the 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree allowed his back catalogue to be reassessed. He was frequently cited as an influence by artists including Kate Bush, Paul Weller, Aimee Mann, Beck, and The Black Crowes. In 1985, The Dream Academy reached the UK and US charts with \”Life in a Northern Town\”, a song written for and dedicated to Drake. His first biography appeared in 1997, followed in 1998 by the documentary film A Stranger Among Us. His father, Rodney Shuttleworth Drake, moved to Rangoon, Burma, in the early 1930s to work as an engineer with the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. In 1934, Rodney met Nick’s mother, Molly Lloyd, the daughter of a senior member of the Indian Civil Service.
Rodney proposed in 1936, though they had to wait a year until she turned 21 before her family allowed them to marry. In 1950, the family returned to England to live in Warwickshire at their home, Far Leys, in Tanworth-in-Arden, south of Birmingham, where Rodney worked from 1952 as the chairman and managing director of Wolseley Engineering. Nick’s older sister, Gabrielle, became a successful screen actress. Both parents wrote music. Drake learned to play piano at an early age and began to compose songs which he recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorder she kept in the family drawing room. He played clarinet and saxophone in a band, the Perfumed Gardeners, with four schoolmates in 1964 or 1965. In 1963, he attained seven O-Levels, fewer than his R&B studies. In 1965, he performed on piano and alto sax with the group Pye International International. In 1966, he was asked to join the band, but was rejected as his taste was too poppy. He also played in a school orchestra, much much to the amusement of his fellow pupils. In 1967, he joined the band Pye de Burgh, but he was rejected because he was too “too poppy”. In 1968, he played in the band Perfume International, with occasional alto and sax covers and jazz standards, as well as Yardbirds and Manfred Mann songs. In 1969, he left school to pursue a career in music.
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