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Nick Drake Quotes

Nicholas Rodney Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work has since achieved wider recognition.Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20, while a student at the University of Cambridge, and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded two more albums, Bryter Layter and Pink Moon. Neither sold more than 5,000 copies on initial release. His reluctance to perform live or give interviews contributed to his lack of commercial success. No footage of the adult Drake has been released, only still photographs.Drake is believed to have suffered from depression, reflected in his lyrics. After making Pink Moon, he withdrew from performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. At the age of 26, Drake died from an overdose of approximately 30 amitriptyline pills, a prescribed antidepressant. His cause of death was determined as suicide.The 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree triggered a reassessment of Drake's music. By the mid-1980s, he was credited as an influence by such artists as Robert Smith, David Sylvian, and Peter Buck. 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. By the early 1990s, he had come to represent a "doomed romantic" musician in the UK music press. The first Drake biography was published in 1997, followed in 1998 by the documentary film A Stranger Among Us. In 1999, his song "Pink Moon" was used in a Volkswagen commercial, resulting in an increase in his U.S. album sales. By 2014, more than 2.4 million Nick Drake albums had been sold in the UK and the US.

✵ 19. June 1948 – 25. November 1974
Nick Drake photo
Nick Drake: 22   quotes 4   likes

Famous Nick Drake Quotes

“Going to see the river man,
Going to tell him all I can
About the plan
For lilac time.
If he tells me all he knows
'Bout the way his river flows,
And all night shows
In summertime.”

Nick Drake

River Man
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)
Variant: Going to see the river man.
Going to tell him all I can
About the ban
On feeling free.If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows,
I don't suppose
It's meant for me.

“And now we rise
And we are everywhere.”

Nick Drake

From The Morning
Pink Moon (1972)

“Saw it written and I saw it say
Pink moon is on its way
And none of you stand so tall
Pink moon's gonna get ye all.”

Nick Drake

Pink Moon
Pink Moon (1972)

“And at the chime of the city clock
Put up your road block.
Hang on to your crown.
For a stone in a tin can
Is wealth to the city man
Who leaves his armour down.”

Nick Drake

At the Chime of a City Clock
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

“Safe in the womb of an everlasting night,
You find the darkness can give the brightest light.
Safe in your place deep in the earth,
That's when they'll know what you were really worth.”

Nick Drake

Fruit Tree
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

“So I'll leave the ways that are making me be
What I really don't want to be.
Leave the ways that are making me love
What I really don't want to love.”

Nick Drake

Time Has Told Me
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

Nick Drake Quotes about the trip

“Have you seen the land living by the breeze?
Can you understand the lights upon the trees?
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today if you know the way to blue…”

Nick Drake

Way To Blue
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

“Please give me a second grace.
Please give me a second face.
I've fallen far down
The first time around.
Now I just sit on the ground in your way.”

Nick Drake

Fly
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

“Fame is but a fruit tree:
So very unsound.
It can never flourish
Till its stalk is in the ground.
So men of fame
Can never find a way
Till time has flown
Far from their dying day.
Forgotten while you're here,
Remembered for a while.
A much updated ruin
From a much outdated style.”

Nick Drake

Fruit Tree
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

Nick Drake Quotes

“And what will happen in the morning when the world it gets
So crowded that you can't look out the window in the morning?”

Nick Drake

Hazey Jane II
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

World

“And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought I'd see when day is done.
Now I'm weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in the need for you.”

Nick Drake

Place to Be
Pink Moon (1972)

Strong , Sun

“Do you curse where you come from?
Do you swear in the night?
Will it mean much to you
If I treat you right?
Do you like what you're doing?
Would you do it some more?
Or will you stop once and wonder
What you're doing it for?
Hey slow Jane, make sense.
Slow, slow, Jane, cross the fence.”

Nick Drake

Hazey Jane I
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

Sense , Night

“Time has told me
You're a rare, rare find,
A troubled cure for a troubled mind.”

Nick Drake

Time Has Told Me
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

Time

“The world hums on at its breakneck pace;
People fly in their lifelong race.
For them there's a future to find,
But I think they're leaving me behind.”

Nick Drake

Leaving Me Behind, appeared on Family Tree (2007)
Song lyrics

People , World , Thinking , Future

“I never felt magic crazy as this,
Never saw moons, knew the meaning of the sea,
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand,
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree,
But now you're here.
Brighten my northern sky.”

Nick Drake

Northern Sky
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

Tree , Sea

“I'm growing old and I wanna go home.
I'm growing old and I don't wanna know.”

Nick Drake

Black Eyed Dog, first appeared on Fruit Tree (1979)
Song lyrics

Home

“I could have been a sailor, could have been a cook,
A real live lover, could have been a book,
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock,
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be here and now,
I would be, I should be, but how?
I could have been one of these things first.”

Nick Drake

One of These Things First
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

Books , Lovers , Cooking

“Please tell me your second name.
Please play me your second game.
I've fallen so far
For the people you are.
I just need your star for a day.”

Nick Drake

Fly
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

People , Game , Star

“When the day is done,
Down to earth then sinks the sun,
Along with everything that was lost and won,
When the day is done.”

Nick Drake

Day is Done
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

Sun

“Life is but a memory,
Happened long ago.
Theatre full of sadness
For a long forgotten show.
Seems so easy
Just to let it go on by
Till you stop and wonder
Why you never wondered why.”

Nick Drake

Fruit Tree
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)

Life , Sadness , Memory

“Don't be shy you learn to fly.
And see the sun when day is done.
If only you see
Just what you are beneath a star
That came to stay one rainy day
In autumn for free.
Yes, be what you'll be.”

Nick Drake

Things Behind the Sun
Pink Moon (1972)

Star , Autumn , Learning , Sun

“Would you love me for my money?
Would you love me for my head?
Would you love me through the winter?
Would you love me 'til I'm dead?
Oh, if you would and you could,
Come blow your horn on high.”

Nick Drake

Northern Sky
Song lyrics, Bryter Later (1970)

Love , Money , Winter , Dead

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