Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter. Although his music did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, he gradually achieved wider recognition and is now considered among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years. Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old 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.Drake's reluctance to perform live or be interviewed contributed to his lack of commercial success. He suffered from depression and insomnia, topics often reflected in his lyrics. After completing Pink Moon in 1972, he withdrew from live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November 1974, at the age of 26, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant. The 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree triggered a reassessment of Drake's catalogue. By the mid-1980s, artists such as Robert Smith, David Sylvian and Peter Buck were crediting Drake as an influence. In 1985, the Dream Academy reached the UK and US charts with "Life in a Northern Town", dedicated to Drake. By the early 1990s, Drake had come to represent the "doomed romantic" musician in the UK music press, and was being cited by artists including Kate Bush, Paul Weller and the Black Crowes. The first Drake biography appeared in 1997, followed in 1998 by the documentary A Stranger Among Us. In 2000, the title track from Pink Moon appeared in a Volkswagen advertisement, and within a month Drake had sold more records than he had in the previous 30 years.