Nick Drake was an English singer/music author whose expertise handed nearly unnoticed throughout his lifetime. Born in 1948 in Rangoon, Burma, Nick Drake grew up in England and commenced enjoying the guitar on the age of 16. He launched his first album ‘5 Leaves Left’ in 1969 when he was simply 21. He didn’t obtain industrial success or widespread recognition on the time, although now the album often options in ‘The Finest Albums of All Time’ lists and compilations. Tragically, in 1974, on the age of 26, Nick Drake died from an overdose of an antidepressant medicine. The native coroner concluded Nick’s dying was not suicide however many others, together with his sister Gabrielle, have rejected this evaluation. Lots of Nick’s associates, nevertheless, weren’t shocked by the coroner’s phrases and, as a listener, for those who look at the lyrics of a few of Nick’s songs, corresponding to ‘River man’, ‘Fruit Tree’ and ‘I Was Made To Love Magic’, you will discover the artist expressing both extreme melancholy or a view that he did not fairly belong on this world. Let’s take River Man first – ‘If he tells me all he is aware of, about the way in which his river flows, I do not suppose it is meant for me.’ Now let’s take Fruit Tree – ‘Do not you are concerned, they will cease and stare while you’re gone.’ Now ‘I Was Made To Love Magic’ – ‘I used to be born to like no-one, no-one to like me.’

Patrick Humphries’ 1998 biography of Nick Drake accommodates quite a few oral and written testimonies that throw gentle upon the occasions main as much as his dying. Many of the info was obtained from his mother and father Rodney and Molly. In line with Molly Drake her son had gone to mattress significantly early on the night time he died (along with melancholy, Nick additionally suffered insomnia, so an early night time due to exhaustion might not have appeared out of the bizarre.) After retiring to his room and sleeping for some time, he acquired up within the night time and went right down to the kitchen. He ate some cornflakes (the bowl was discovered) and took some extra anti-depressants (the packet was discovered). He then went again to his room and instantly, or very shortly thereafter, collapsed on his mattress. Nick Drake most likely suffered a seizure or an preliminary fainting spell. He then fell right into a coma, suffered a cardiac arrest and was useless by 6am. He was discovered by Molly round noon. We now know that the tablets Nick was taking have been extraordinarily poisonous and susceptible to overdose, even in small portions. As I wrote earlier, a few of the individuals near Nick felt that he had intentionally exceeded the really useful dose, however there have been different associates and acquaintances who mentioned they’d seen an enchancment in his temper previous to his dying and so questioned this act of self-destruction. The query of Nick Drake’s dying is, like many well-known unanswered questions, maybe unanswerable. We might make a leap of religion right here, or a leap of religion there, however finally no-one is aware of for positive how Nick died as a result of there’s a lack of concrete proof on each side of the reason. My very own intestine principle is that Nick took his personal life. I base this purely on his very darkish lyrics, for lyrics are, when honest, a great indicator of somebody’s internal life, and on his sister’s opinion. All we have now left of Nick is his music, which is all we all know for positive.