Nick Drake - Kitchen Listening

Nick Drake - Kitchen Listening. We listened to a set of Nick Drake albums from my collection today. It was very special hearing all of these albums together in one afternoon. They sounded great.

I first became aware of Nick Drake in the mid to late 70's from a friend who was very much into British folk music from the 60's and early 70's. He turned me on to a lot of wonderful music including this artist although by that time he was already dead from a suicide overdose of antidepressants. One of the sad things about his life was his depression and stage fright. He only played a few live concerts and his albums were commercial failures at the time. They did become popular starting in the mid to late 1980's.

I learned a lot more about him a few years ago after reading Joe Boyd's memoir White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960's which was published in 2006. I read it in 2022. He was Drake's album producer and mentor for the first two records.

• Five Leaves Left, 1969
• Bryter Layter, 1971
• Pink Moon, 1972
• Time of No Reply, 1987