My route to Nick Drake started fairly recently, only when I opened the shop in fact. Almost as soon as we opened people started talking about and asking for “Pink Moon” (which we will come to presently) so I thought I’d better find out about him. Then someone offered me a 1st pressing of that record which was instantly snapped up by my friend Sally as a birthday present for her brother (lucky bro’). In the meantime I’d had a listen, I was smitten.

If you don’t know of Nick Drake he was a singer-songwriter and gifted (acoustic) guitar player. Born in Burma but lived from the age of 2 in Tanworth-in-Arden just south of Birmingham. He made only 3 albums and sadly died from an overdose of a prescription anti-depressant at the age of just 26. The official verdict at his inquest was suicide and although some family and friends have disputed this there is a widely held belief that, whether his death was accidental or otherwise, due to his illness Nick Drake had "given up on life". A sad story indeed.

“Five Leaves Left” (the legend imprinted on a certain brand of cigarette rolling papers when you had five leaves left) was recorded in 1968. It was produced by Joe Boyd (Fairport Convention) and features the Fairport’s Richard Thompson on guitar and Pentangle’s Danny Thompson on Bass. It’s a very intimate album. Drake’s playing and singing style give this mental image of a man wrapped around his guitar delivering breathy vocals into a microphone into which he is leaning closely, or at least it gives me that image. There’s an air of, not sadness, but something similar, melancholy perhaps, about the whole record. I’ve seen it described as Pastoral and Baroque but melancholy fits better for me. However, in that mental image of Nick playing it always feels like a little satisfied smile is just playing on his face.

Nick Drake’s guitar playing is intricate and rhythmically hypnotic, but not flashy. His vocal style is quiet, gentle and breathy. Producer Joe Boyd thought recording Nick’s songs presented a challenge and if they could do it right then it would make a very special album. It’s a very sparse production, very dry, the focus is Nick’s playing, voice and of course the songs.

The first two songs are as good an introduction to Nick Drake as I can think of. “Time Has Told Me” features the two Thompson’s we mentioned earlier, you absolutely know it’s Richard as soon as he starts playing, if you are in any way familiar with Fairport Convention it’s unmistakable, and Danny is Jazz-ing away in the back ground. “Riverman” is doused in that feeling of melancholy and Nick’s guitar is augmented with a beautiful, understated string arrangement. 

Elsewhere, on “Way To Blue” Drake’s voice is so upfront in the mix it feels like he’s in the room with you. “Cello Song” features an hypnotically circular guitar part and a vocal melody that traps you in a headlock. “Man In A Shed” is about as “rocking” as this record gets and my love of the book “Men And Their Sheds” sold me on this one immediately. The closing “Saturday Sun” is just plain gorgeous and is enhanced by drummer Tristam Fry doubling on Vibraphone.

“Five Leaves Left” is a beautiful, beautiful record made by a supremely talented man. Its lack of sales may well have been due to Drake’s reluctance to tour and consequently Island’s reluctance to promote it too heavily. His music wasn’t widely known while he was alive but Nick Drake’s star has risen in the years since his passing and he is now reverently cited by the likes of Kate Bush, Paul Weller, Beck and Robyn Hitchcock. 

If you know you know and if you don’t, well, then you should.

Time Has Told Me - https://youtu.be/G8SmkwS82u4

An 18 track, double LP round-up of exactly what it says on the sleeve, “The Best Of The Doors”.

There was a time in the 60’s in LA when on given nights on Sunset Boulevard you could go into a club like Ciro’s or the Whiskey A Go-Go and see The Byrds or Buffalo Springfield or Love or The Doors, what a time that must have been. 

All their great singles are here “Light My Fire”, “Break On Through”, “Hello I Love You”, “Riders On The Storm” (in its full length form) but it’s the album tracks, longer pieces, that stand out. “The End”, used to incredible effect in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now”, “When The Music’s Over” and the complete version of “Roadhouse Blues”. 

As Best Of’s go this one covers everything you need.

The End (edit from “Apocalypse Now”) - https://youtu.be/CIrvSJwwJUE

I like The Doors (I know I said that yesterday but it bears repeating). I don’t really know a lot about them. I’ve seen the movie about them starring Val Kilmer and yes I understand that is unlikely to be a completely accurate historical document. I’ve never bought in to the cult of the Lizard King, nice looking boy, decent voice, knew how to wear a pair of leather keks but we’ll leave it there. I just happen to like the noise they make.

“LA Woman” begins with “The Changeling”, a groovy, keyboard heavy opener that sets a mood for the record. The band wanted it as the albums lead single but were overruled by Elektra in favour of “Love Her Madly”, a careering, tumbling, out of control thing with a fantastic hook.

There are other classics within, the title track could be the perfect soundtrack to driving around LA (I’ve done it, these type of songs make much more sense when driving along Sunset or Hollywood Boulevard with the soft top down, see Don Henley’s “Boys Of Summer” or the Gin Blossoms “Hey Jealousy” also), and of course this album finishes with a real classic (Doors or otherwise) the utterly beguiling “Riders On The Storm”, a fitting outro for Jim Morrison who died just 76 days after the albums release.

This is one of those records I acquired through owning a record shop. I got it as part of a collection I bought for the shop, a UK 1st issue with the rounded corners on the sleeve and the cellophane “window” with The Doors staring out at you. It’s not in pristine condition and, like “Morrison Hotel” before it, I could have sold it cheap but it plays well enough and as you now know, I like the noise they make.

The Changeling - https://youtu.be/4py-jtiCtfc