YMMV / Nick Drake

• Awesome Music: Everything he did, really, by wide critical and fan consensus. All three of his albums were listed in Rolling Stone''s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The line "And now we rise / And we are everywhere" in "From the Morning", the last song on his last album, was ultimately put on his gravestone.
  • The lyrics of the song "Fruit Tree" are incredibly eerie when one takes in consideration that Drake was only able to achieve proper recognition several years after his death.
    Fame is but a fruit tree
    So very unsound
    It can never flourish
    'Till its stock is in the ground
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • So many indie folk artists have copied his hushed vocals, finger picking on the acoustic guitar and introspective lyrics that it can be hard for modern listeners to understand how different his style was from anything that was going on at the time.
  • His style of downtuning and capo use specifically for melancholic feel renders him unique even among folk musicians. In recent times it has been more common to downtune this way in the post-hardcore and shoegaze genres.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential: Nick Drake became much better known after his death.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Doris Troy, one of the backing vocalists on "Poor Boy", actually had a top 10 hit as a performer with "Just One Look." Troy was also one of the backing vocalists on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.
  • During Nick Drake's lifetime he was often championed by his successful friend and label mate John Martyn, with his short-lived touring career often supporting Martyn, as well as Martyn referring to Drake frequently in interviews. Martyn was for many years much more successful than Drake, but nowadays young people are more likely to discover Martyn via his association with Nick.
• Signature Song: Despite not having a single released during his lifetime, the 21st century popularity of his music established "River Man", "Pink Moon", "Northern Sky" and "Magic" as his signature songs.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Despite the despair of a lot of his lyrics, a lot of people find the gentle sounds of his work relaxing.
• Tear Jerker: Damn near every song on Pink Moon, but especially the instrumental track "Horn".
  • "Saturday Sun".
  • The repeated instrumental break in "Voice From A Mountain" (heard at 1:39) is hauntingly beautiful, made moreso by not reappearing later in the song.
  • His life, for that matter.
  • His father's diary as seen in "Remembered For A While", chronicling the descent of Drake into depressive isolation and eventual death, with his parents very concerned for him.
• Vindicated by History: Virtually unrecognized during his lifetime, he was later recognized as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time. His albums got mixed reviews upon original release, but Rolling Stone named all three of them among the 500 greatest albums of all time many years later. Drake became a major influence over the indie folk and "freak folk" movements.

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