Summary:
Before he died in 1974, Nick Drake
managed to record only three albums, but that meagre repertory is enough
to rank him among the most influential singer-songwriters of all times.
He turned the tables on rock and folk music, projecting emotions outside in
instead of inside out. If rock music had emphasized the emotional aspect of
music in ever more creative ways, Drake did the opposite: his music seems
to cancel out the emotional factor, his voice sounds neutral, anemic and
indifferent, the arrangements are spectral and almost "silent".
Silence is, indeed, the ultimate referent of Drake's "minimalism".
Drake had little to say, and he said it using minimal means.
Surprisingly (and this was Drake's great discovery), his almost voiceless
whisper conveyed stronger emotions than most magniloquent music.
Drake's lost, tenuous, taciturn manner scoured the terminal states of
melancholy, angst and despair for a reason to live this life.
There was something terrifying in those frail notes:
Drake's music was the equivalent of a suicide letter.
Drake fumbled blindfolded on the edge of the abyss, and his songs were the thoughts that accompanied him while waiting for the fall.
The lyrical, elegiac and naive Five Leaves Left (1969) was already
representative of the drama that developed via
Bryter Layter (1970), mildly revitalized by soul and rhythm'n'blues
spices, and that reached its climax with Pink Moon (1972), Drake's
masterpiece and one of the most depressing albums of all times.
(Translated from my original Italian text by DommeDamian)
Nicholas Rodney Drake did not have a long career
and certainly did not have a prolific career, but his influence on the
singer-songwriters of the 90s (especially) was immense. Rock music had
always been highly emotional musically, and the golden age of 1967-1969 had
done nothing but enhance that emotion in ever more creative ways, leaving
behind the refrain of the Beatles melodic song. Launching into titanic harmonic
feats, Nick took the opposite route instead. His music seems to
completely cancel the emotional factor. His voice has a neutral tone, a
little indifferent and a little anemic, which the arrangements (ghostly to say
the least) help to make it even more "silent". His
"minimalism" was the antithesis not only of the principles of
rock music but also of the intellectual attitude of most of his
contemporaries. He had little to say and he said it with the minimum of
means. The fact is that Nick Drake's almost voiceless whisper ended up
conveying, paradoxically, precisely the most extreme emotions. The faint
and lost voice sounded out the terminal states of melancholy, anguish,
despair. There is something truly chilling about those notes without any
source of force: Nick's music was the musical equivalent of a suicide
note. He groped aimlessly on the edge of the abyss, and his songs were the
thoughts that accompanied him as he awaited the fall. To this
"existential" tragedy is added the artistic one: Nick had very few
fans alive. Many years had to pass after his death for his art to be
re-evaluated. In a sense, in 1974 Nick Drake died of misunderstanding.
The short career of Nick
Drake (born in Burma in 1948) consists of just three short records, recorded
two years apart starting in 1968.
Five Leaves Left (Island, 1969), recorded while still a
student at Cambridge, features a tenderly naive style. With a calm and
meditative tone Nick reveals himself to be a lyrical and elegiac poet,
dedicated to the search for wisdom through a hermetic sound that is married to
a very colloquial language. Not at all self-indulgent, his songs make use
of subdued orchestral accompaniments (provided by another student, Robert
Kirby), as well as the almost jingle-jangle chimes of his guitar. The
resulting fatalistic atmosphere is sometimes postwar film-noir (Fruit Tree, Way
To Blue, River Man, Three Hours, and Cello
Song).
Nick Drake's formula is
expressed more clearly by the second album, Bryter Layter (Island,
1970): he combines the magical and introverted rhythm and blues of Van Morrison
with the psychic and folk acrobatics of Tim Buckley. An increasingly
tenuous language explains the sweet adolescent sadness, which is not yet an
existential crisis but is still tender and dreamy. This is how superb odes
are born like Northern Sky and At The Chime of The
City Clock . Songs like Hazey Jane are closer to
jazz cocktail and night-club soul than folk, but the sound is more fruit of the
collaborators (John Cale, Richard Thompson, Robert Kirby's orchestra and two
jazz players) than by Nick himself.
His style is the most
radical (ie minimal) on Pink Moon (Island, 1972). Nick
Drake sings with no accompaniment other than guitar (and piano solo in Pink
Moon). The record seems to be the result of an existential travail
that is increasingly suffered. His adolescent fairy tales have turned into
cold breaths that exhale an acute sense of desolation, indulge in the
suggestion of solitude, obsessed with the transience of all things. The
crisis has reached the point of no return: the harmonic texture is deboned,
frail and gaunt, the singing is a humble whisper, the conciseness of the pieces
is manic, the lyrics are indecipherable, bizarre, hallucinated. The
salient passages are precisely those of only four lines, cryptic and
penetrating aphorisms, fragments of a now dried up delirium, confessions that
seem unburied corpses, in which the guitar often has the melancholy toll of a
clock (Pink Moon), Donovan-style nursery rhymes (Road),
cataleptic litanies (Which Will), archaic blues (Know), anguished
street folk (Parasite). The crepuscular serenades of Place
To Be and From The Morning are the only songs that
unfold in the rhythm of the great outdoors; but they are ghostly
declarations of love that live on a schizoid romanticism. The bleak and
majestic apex of Nick's philosophy is found in the surreal ruminations of Things
Behind The Sun, one of the most poetic, depressed songs of all time, a
terrifying parable about solitude in a crowd.
Nick Drake was being
treated at a psychiatric hospital when the record came out. The following
year he decided to abandon music and turn to computer science. He was
found dead on November 25, 1974, from an excess of barbiturates, probably
suicidal.
Time of No Reply (Hannibal, 1986) collects ten unpublished
works. Fruit Tree (Hannibal, 1986) collects Drake's three
albums. Family Tree (2007) collects material that Drake
recorded before the first album.
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Nick Drake non ebbe una lunga carriera e certamente non ebbe una carriera
prolifica, ma la sua influenza sui singer-songwriter degli anni '90 e`
stata immensa. La musica rock era sempre stata una musicalmente altamente
emotiva, e l'epoca d'oro degli anni 1967-1969 non aveva fatto altro che
esaltare quell'emotivita` in maniere sempre piu` creative, lasciandosi
alle spalle il ritornello della canzone melodica alla Beatles e lanciandosi in
titaniche imprese armoniche.
Drake compi` invece il percorso opposto. La sua musica sembra annullare
completamente il fattore emotivo. La sua voce possiede un
tono neutro, un po' indifferente e un po' anemico, che gli arrangiamenti
(spettrali a dir poco) contribuiscono a rendere ancor piu` "silenziosa".
Il suo "minimalismo" era l'antitesi non solo dei principi della musica rock
ma anche dell'atteggiamento intellettuale di gran parte dei suoi
contemporanei. Drake aveva poco da dire e lo diceva con il minimo di mezzi.
Fatto e` che il bisbiglio quasi afono di Drake finiva per convogliare,
paradossalmente, proprio le emozioni piu` estreme. La voce tenue e smarrita
di Drake scandagliava gli stati terminali
della malinconia, dell'angoscia, della disperazione.
C'e` qualcosa di davvero agghiacciante in quelle note senza force: la musica
di Drake era l'equivalente musicale di una lettera di suicidio.
Drake brancolava senza meta sul bordo dell'abisso, e le sue canzoni erano
i pensieri che lo accompagnavano nell'attesa della caduta.
A questa tragedia "esistenziale" si somma quella artistica: Drake ebbe ben
pochi fan in vita. Dovettero passare molti anni dalla sua morte perche' la
sua arte venisse rivalutata. In un certo senso, nel 1974 Nick Drake mori`
di incomprensione.
La breve carriera di Nick Drake (nato in Birmania nel 1948)
consta di appena tre dischi, incisi a distanza
di due anni l'uno dall'altro a partire
dal 1968.
Five Leaves Left (Island, 1969), registrato quando era ancora
uno studente a Cambridge, presenta uno stile teneramente naive.
Con tono pacato e meditativo Drake si rivela poeta lirico ed elegiaco,
dedito alla ricerca della saggezza attraverso un suono ermetico che si sposa
pero` ad un linguaggio molto colloquiale. Per nulla auto-indulgenti, le sue
canzoni si avvalgono di dimessi accompagnamenti orchestrali (forniti da un altro
studente, Robert Kirby), oltre ai rintocchi quasi jingle-jangle della sua
chitarra. L'atmosfera fatalista che ne risulta e` talvolta da film-noir
del Dopoguerra (Fruit Tree, Way To Blue, River Man,
Three Hours, Cello Song).
La formula di Drake e` espressa piu` chiaramente dal secondo album,
Bryter Layter (Island, 1970): Drake coniuga il rhythm and blues
magico e introverso di Van Morrison con le acrobazie psichiche e vocali
di Tim Buckley.
Un linguaggio sempre piu` tenue spiega la dolce tristezza
adolescenziale, che non e` ancora crisi esistenziale ma e` ancora
tenera sognante.
Nascono cosi` superbe odi come
Northern Sky e At The Chime Of The City Clock.
Canzoni come Hazey Jane sono piu`
vicine al cocktail jazz e al soul da night-club che al folk,
ma il sound e` piu` frutto dei collaboratori (John Cale, Richard Thompson,
l'orchestra di Robert Kirby e due jazzisti) che di Drake.
Il suo stile e` piu` radicale (ovvero minimale) su
Pink Moon (Island, 1972). Drake canta senza altro accompagnamento che
la chitarra e il piano.
Il disco sembra il frutto di un travaglio esistenziale sempre piu` sofferto.
Le sue favole adolescenziali si sono trasformate in soffi freddi che esalano
un senso acuto di desolazione, indulgono nella suggestione della solitudine,
ossessionate dalla caducita` di tutte le cose.
La crisi e` arrivata al punto di non ritorno:
il tessuto armonico e` disossato, gracile e smunto,
il canto e` un bisbiglio dimesso, la concisione dei brani ha del maniacale,
i testi sono indecifrabili, bislacchi, allucinati.
I brani salienti sono proprio quelli di soli quattro versi, aforismi criptici e
penetranti, frammenti di un delirio ormai prosciugato,
confessioni che sembrano cadaveri insepolti, nei quali la chitarra
ha spesso il rintocco malinconico di un orologio:
ballate apocalittiche e surreali (Pink Moon),
filastrocche alla Donovan (Road),
litanie catalettiche (Which Will),
blues dall'incedere arcaico (Know),
folk angosciati di strada (Parasite).
Le serenate crepuscolari di Place To Be e From The Morning sono le uniche
canzoni che si distendono nel ritmo dei grandi spazi aperti;
ma sono spettrali dichiarazioni d'amore che vivono di un
romanticismo schizoide.
L'apice tetro e maestoso della filosofia di Drake si trova
nelle elucubrazioni surreali di Things Behind The Sun,
una delle canzoni piu` depresse di ogni tempo,
parabola terrificante sulla solitudine in mezzo alla folla.
Drake era in cura presso un ospedale psichiatrico quando usci` il disco.
L'anno dopo decise di abbandonare la musica e darsi all'informatica.
Venne trovato morto il 25 novembre 1974, per eccesso di barbiturici,
probabilmente suicida.
Time Of No Reply (Hannibal, 1986) raccoglie dieci inediti.
Fruit Tree (Hannibal, 1986) raccoglie i tre album di Drake.
Family Tree (2007) collects material that Drake recorded before the
first album.
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