Nick Drake - A Stranger Among Us Nick Drake 

You can listen to his songs and it's like the first time you hear it every time...

I’ve never heard anyone able to copy Nick Drake’s guitar playing or his voice. Only Nick can do Nick. RIP

Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley saved my own life at the end on 1999 when I tried to take my own life..The very first music I.listened to when waking up not knowing if I was actually alive or dead after a massive overdose...I' m still in great pain ( I have MS) & emotionally too , but so glad to still be here and have access to music that resonates with soul .Anybody reading this who feels low ,please know you are loved & not alone ..reach out today and get some help ,talking therapies truly can be pretty helpful but it has to be the right counsellor...don't suffer in silence !

No matter what anyone says, Nick's music stands on it's own. You just have to listen to it, experience it, and you will know, no one can imitate him or repeat him. It is simply great music.

Just discovered Nick Drake. Fantastic music. Imagining what could have been. Not all of us are long for this world though.

This cat was someone special. His music is haunting. Just a special human being. He just had "It". Whatever "It" is.

What a talented singer songwriter who left this mortal coil way too early. RIP Nick. You are well listened to now!!!

I love this documentary - really paints a picture of Nick I haven’t seen before. I like hearing his sister read their letters. RIP Nick 🙏

Heartbreaking. He was so beautiful.

Somehow missed this musician. Very sympathique with his music; clever, and beautiful fingerpicking. He should have been massively acclaimed.

Troubled individual he was, but what beauty is to find in his music. I hope he would have found some solace in living inside the hearts of many nowadays.

Wow! How come this guy can't see that Nick was great poet and poetry was his amazing talent, became the lyrics conveys true feelings that makes his songs timeless

I am a relatively new fan of Nick Drake. His voice is hypnotic and I cannot understand how his music was not a brilliant success during his life time. Hazy Jane has become my song of choice this Summer down under.

I hitchhiked all over Europe in '75 and '76 and worked in London for a while. I like how British people have a way with words, like the friends of Nick's, the guy at 10:25, and the lady at 13:03, and how they express themselves so fluidly, like Nick's sister too, all of them. I experienced this doc seems a year ago and back again to find new experiences. Thanks for making this video possible for the masses.

In my opinion and from what I have gathered over the years I believe Nick Drake was obviously a very depressed and an inward looking soul searching young man. His haunting words and music was his only real conversation with himself and the outside world. A kind of therapy for a loner who never fit in. Didn't know how to and probably didn't want to. He didn't want to do gigs or even television. His songwriting /singing may have been his way of lessening his anxiety and depression. A way of explaining himself to himself. He seems conflicted in himself and in society. A confused and depressed young man who tried not to let it show. It did show in his songs and Music very clearly. His conversations in his songs are not beautiful. They are hauntingly beautiful. He probably hoped this depression was a phase but I believe at the end he knew it was more than that. The songs were his puzzling self explanation. He learned about himself from his songs, his therapy. Perhaps he didn't like the questions he explored but he got an honest answer. A lot of writers do this in their works. It can be a dangerous avenue for some.Being brutally honest with yourself is not for the faint hearted. Maybe he got some honest answers in his honest search for a happy outcome. As someone here said.. He is all there in his songs. I agree completely. Unfortunately I've never heard one light hearted song from ND and that speaks volumes. Those old TCA antidepressants didn't work and they had bad side effects. Alot of people give them up because of side effects. They were known to cause anxiety and heart palpitations. That's why they are rarely used these days and they didn't work and made a person feel worse. He was obviously taking them in the hope that they might help with his depression. Maybe in the end he was asking for help but as we know the medication was dangerous and he didn't make it. A sad loss. RIP Nick Drake.

When Nick Drake sus 😳

Never grew up listening or really liking this style of folksy style of music. But it’s weird, when I heard Nick’s music I was so drawn to it for reasons that I cannot explain. I don’t like or listen to any others music of this kind other than his. Strange effect on me for music that overall does not interest me whatsoever. Nick’s music is just incredible.

Beautiful songs,frightened of fame I think.He wanted to be known and appreciated but the world is not a place for dreamers or poets,you must be able to take critisisim and adapt to life and all its madness and changes and unpredictabiliy.Depression,only those who have suffered depression can understand what Nick went through.Sadness,sensitivity, feeling lost and helpless,you feel trapped and there seems to be nothing or anyone to make you feel happy to be alive.He was unlucky to enter a place where he could not escape from.He is free now.God blessed him with a special gift,his music.It's part of the mytery of life.

That drive in to Tanworth-In Arden is lovely. I drove out there in 2001 and got into the village and suddenly was struck how I was being rather macabre, visiting. So, I drove around the village and left. 9:20 is so strange. All these rather posh prim people talking in hushed tones about dope. He would only have been 50 when this was recorded. I turned 50 this year and it feels no age. He was the product of English public school, like all his 'set' in this film. We will never hear that quintessential Englishness in music, for that reason. Unashamedly English, but unashamedly well read and had that strange 'correctness' too. 21:50 when Glastonbury was still Glastonbury and not totally monetized.

It was whilst living in Royston on one of my daily trip out to Cambridge I picked up my first album by Nick Drake in a market just outside King College. The music tall owner played Five Leaves Left which rang throughout the lazy market, I had to ask and never turned back. Nick Drake from that day on has become part of my life.

I agree. I think Gabrielle was the only one who knew him properly, and even she became distanced from him towards the end. Very sad, but his memory will always live on, as will his wonderful songs...

Some people with always remain below the radar. No matter how special or talented. I should know.

I don't see Nick Drake's story as tragic in any way. He tried to get his music heard, he was helped by a lot of people, he was a man out of time. Suicide is a very complicated issue and I don't think Nick killed himself because he wasn't successful as an artist, I think he had a life long struggle with depression. His life was like many others. He is an individual artist as in he has a sound and voice like no other. He's not a genius, he is a very unique artist with wonderful songs and a brilliant picking style. I love his music yet I think little of the myth. I am grateful for his recordings.

this doc was well done, from Joe Boyd, to Linda Thompson to his sister, friends etc. His mom's recording is hypnotic too. Great talent, would be megafamous today. Those people commenting taking a piss should think for a second - no single documentary will capture all of one person. That's why you need to watch many, as I have. They are all great in different ways. Just chill the fuck out and enjoy, goddam it!

Great documentry on Nick!

I klick on this bc it said among us

I think Nick was born into the wrong time. Even his music sounds like it could have come from within the last two decades. I think Nick would have been very successful had he been in the age of internet, which would have given him the oppertunity to put music out himself without needing to bother with shows or interviews. His sister has said that Nick was very adept with using the recording equipment his father had in the home, that he had a bit of an engineer's mind like his father. I feel like he would have taken to music production very well, perhaps even creating an independent record label like Conor Oberst. He could have fit right in with the independent, singer/songwriter, acoustic acts that were so popular with young adults in their 20s and early 30s throughout the early to mid 2000's and beyond. Acts such as Tallest Man on Earth, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith, Iron and Wine, Bright Eyes, Chad Vangaalen, etc.

It scars me that I like his songs, particularly Riverman and A Place. Manic Depression, such a sticky mood(s) and no way out it seems.

Great to hear from his Mates and Family, great documentary

Think I liked this film as much, or maybe more, than "A Skin Too Few." Very well made. Have been to, and played, at the annual Nick Drake Gathering a few times, and I must say, Tanworth, the people and the event were truly sublime ; ).If you have not been, and you love Nick and his music, you owe it to yourself at some point to go and listen. There's a lot more there, than just the music...

When the melancholic fingerpick acoustic is sus

The fact is then as now, few can really listen. His approach was as a composer\poet, thoughtful and contemplative in a way our noisy and busy world can not shut up for. Everyone at the time had no time to still their busyness and truly listen to a visionary. His fragility made him sensitive, yet our world has little patience for dreamers and poets. The impetus to subdue and conquer literally and metaphorically means you have to be a big noise with loud clothes and loud amplifiers and show your bum to stand out. Nick wanted to be loved purely on merit, but that process took many years and his complete disappearance to bear the fruit of fame. The stalk unfortunately had to be him put into the ground before anyone stopped talking and started listening. Then as now the worlds ego needs results to feel validated in a quantifiable way. Dying is proof sometimes that this world knows less how to truly live and more how to soldier on into oblivion.

I started to cry... Thanks to all involved - I have a biography, forget the author and that's not a slight, I own hundreds of books, and I am leery of biographies- they can't get at the "real" person, a book has to sell! The private person is what we want to learn about- BUT THE LYRICS OF CERTAIN SONGS TELL IT ALL...I have suffered from depression and anxiety, I am still in therapy, unlike Nick I can't produce art- 30 antidepressant pills IS an overdose, I can understand why his parents didn't want to believe he committed s. but having tried it, I can. No, nobody young truthfully wants to die, there's always a crack wherein a little light is still getting in but watching your family and peers doing what a part of you wants to do, "be normal" isn't possible. I was "in love" with Nick, I slept with a picture of him under my pillow but then I'd look in my mirror, he was SO handsome and I am homely and...well you can guess the direction and my family was comprised of 3, me and two very dysfunctional, rather nasty, abusive people- so you live in books, drop out of school and daydream of all the books you are going to write, with your beloved Nick Drake, a kindred spirit, on the turntable- Thank you. Namaste from Canada ( he has and will always be "fresh" and on my turntable...)

The record company guy is absolutely correct.

Watching on quarantine

...and BLOODY BLOODY BLA whatever I was going to say, his memory will live on" ....WHUT??

I always find it strange when someone is so talented can be consumed with sadness.

The best documentary is "Nick Drake - Under Review" - it talks much more about the music & less about the politics. It's very hard to get hold of but there are a few copies on Amazon I believe.

I have been an admirer of Nick's work since I bought the first album in 69,there has been many theories about Nick's depression and his subsequent downward spiral,I have recently been watching many Joe Boyd memories and interviews about Nick but I believe one of the major blows to Nick was when Joe left for the States after Bryter Layter. As someone with depression myself it is very difficult to communicate and try to make friends,when Joe left Nick must have felt he was losing his only friend who could help his career,not to blame Joe,he had a very successful career as record producer in the UK and the States. I often wonder how things would have turned out had Joe not left as it was a rapid downhill journey for Nick after.

AMOGUS

Appreciate your putting this up here, if only to show what a woeful and flippant documentary it is. The BBC should be ashamed--and perhaps they are, given the fact that this is so hard to find. Anyone interested in Drake and his music should instead seek out A Skin Too Few, which is wonderful and gives the man the respect he deserves.

2019 getting on count of this

I remember reading that he had died sitting on the bus to school in 1974. I remember being shocked and saddened by it because I knew that he was so young.

“Too weird to live, too rare to die...”

If only I could play like Nick, a broken Adonis, with fingers that were too afraid to touch any other woman, than his own guitar...

When he did smile he had a great big nice smile, wish Nick could have been more happy, my girlfriend and I suffer from depression but I don't think we have it as deep as Nick 😪

wasn't taken with his stuff until I heard black eyed dog, and then it all gained new depth...

227zoo I have to say thanks for the great songlist. Great stuff!

It surprises me that John Martyn was not interviewed, his title song for the album Solid Air was about Nick Drake.... Similar styles and lack of early mainstream success.

Nick Drake = The Vincent Van Gogh of singer songwriters

I suspected there would be comparisons with Syd Barrett; but I think Nick was a lot more like Mike Oldfield - especially as an adolescent. Both seem to have been quite withdrawn, concentrating their energies on expression through music.

heath ledger admired him so much he wanted to do his life story

Right out of the gate, the first sentence was bullshit... Nick didn't "die on the brink of fame." He should have been famous by then, but it's all part of the tragedy...

He was well educated and bourgeois. Except for suffering depression, does not meet the stereotypes of the "artist" of the time. It also requires a certain sensitivity to appreciate the poetry of his lyrics and the musical ability in his way of tuning and playing the guitar.

I really liked your video Mrnes :) good

They should have included this in the Fruit Tree box. A nice companion to A Skin Too Few. I remember the first time I heard Nick; discovered 1992 after hearing Sebadoh vs Helmet

blurdy blurdy blur his memory lives on..

Oh,also look up The Other Favorites.It is about Josh Taylor one of the best young musicians out there.Henhas some youtube videos out there,Showing heow he had to find how Nick Got his particular tone when he was playìnb. He does do Nock drake and so many others,including his own stuff

I think probably smoking a lot of hash and grass did'nt do him huge favours. Also, from a modern perspective he was probably not eating anything much and was deficient in a shitloads of vitamins. Vit d particularly ! And a feeling that he had failed as a musician ( if only he'd had a crystal ball !) It was a perfect storm.

He wasn't depressed, but his guitar was...🤐

If he lived today he would have had a bandcamp account selling lmtd edition cassette tapes and digital albus. No need for gigs or record labels

sussus amogus

When was this docu made?

Mr and Mrs Crabtree. so ENGLISH!!!

30 pills is a fuckload--not an ambiguous statement of intent

Most of these people are dead now. How trippy.

Nick Drake was probably a closet case. If he had some companionship with someone it would have helped him rise above the rejection he felt about his music but there was obviously something blocking him from reaching out intimately. That's my little two cent theory anyway.

What's the first song in the beginning?

Why doesn't time of no reply count as an album in its own right

I like the one that goes. oh wah dung heap oh mine ah

He's alive and Living off grid with no Internet Electricity gas or water by mains in the desert in cali USA. He Has a wind farm & grows onions. Breeds beagles and has a trout farm. Talking to Harvey Goldsmith about a concert to mark anniversary of five leafs left album at Albert Hall in spring 2019. Keep an eye out but don't hold your breath. Itl be Heartbreaking if the concert doesn't happen.

Who is the director?

Oh you fickle people,I bought Nick's albums on release when no one was remotely interested in him.In the 1970's if I asked anyone if they had heard Nick Drake,the answer was always who? Now everyone is fawning and bowing as if they have just discovered him.l doubt if he would have welcomed fame from TV ads etc.

To be able to play that accurately requires a kind of concentration most people are incapable of. Nick Drake would have made a good Buddhist monk as they do things very simply, accurately and beautifully. They minimalize all other distractions and focus on very small tasks which they perfect. He would have been lost as a pop star, utterly lost. He needed seclusion above all, and simplicity. Had meditation found him, he'd have happily put down his guitar forever.

Frightfully english.

I love the rich people.

I discovered Nick Drake about 20 years ago, about 30 years after he died. He was truly a unique and gifted artist. I think he suffered from some emotional issues, and the heavy pot use might have contributed to some of his problems. But I think the biggest problem was his music was adulterated by the addition of too many stringed instruments. The cellos were nice in some regard, but changed the essence of Nicks compositions. If Nick had felt more secure in his raw talent, and had been encouraged by the right people with production skills, he could’ve been a huge success. But even that assumes he wouldn’t have died his untimely death.

Amogus

Died on the brink of fame ?? How do you work that out. ?

6th form lyrics. lol

23:55 is a bit disappointing. Nick obviously was a bit stuck-up, must have let his talent go to his head sometimes.

Thank you God that I was born and live in a Tropical Country ´cause the Sun give us life and happiness . England is too depressed for living . Getting Drunk is the most funny think to do . Cambridge is a very small town with nothing to do at all . That is not life . Even London can be very boring too .

His sad story reminds me of Kurt cobain :(

Over Conservative parents don't understand their liberal thinking son... There is something wrong with you, and you are embarrassing us! Perhaps it would be best if you distanced yourself from us, or just 'go'. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, he went.

these people are not smart. nick cant be represented by these fools

Could have been helped with proper meds

I like his music but I lost respect for him as a person. He grew up very easy and had it easy, and that was not good enough. Pathetic...

Watching on quarantine