I don’t know about you, but as a kid I used to spend many a wet afternoon mucking around with tape-recorders. I used to take the little cassette deck which loaded my Spectrum games and with a tiny crappy microphone balanced on a Casio I would make my own Soft Cell and Human League covers. I have a tape at home of a 1981 viola recital which is, quite frankly, appalling, despite my grade 2 (with merit). In a parallel universe somewhere, these are coming out on CD this week. However…

Nick Drake also liked to experiment in this way, recording his own cover versions and his own original compositions. His sister, Gabrielle, would also join in. Since his death in 1974 pilgrims to Far Leys, his childhood home, were welcomed by Rodney and Molly Drake and sometimes their hosts would play these recordings to them. Sadly, on occasions these tapes were copied, and turned up on numerous bootlegs.To address this, those recordings are among the collected tracks that make up this release. Recorded either at home or during his year spent in Aix-En-Provence, they are what they are – home recordings, not meant for commercial purposes. They can not even really be called demos – instead, they show a songwriter finding his feet and his style. There are many cover versions, including takes on Bob Dylan and Bert Jansch, plus many traditional pieces which were clearly favourites of a family where music was an important facet of life. In fact, Molly Drake, mother of Nick, wrote songs herself, and performs twice on this collection.

The sound quality here is poor throughout, with no attempt made to clean things up. However, this is a good thing in my opinion, emphasising the amateur status of these recordings. There is also a lot of material, not all of it that entertaining. However, there are moments where the genius of Drake shines through, most notably on the two songs that would later find their way onto his debut album – in particular Way to Blue, which even in its embryonic stages contains a sadness and an atmosphere heightened by the string arrangement on Five Leaves Left.

In reality, as is often the case with the long dead, the well has long since run dry. The three albums he released in his short life are, in my mind, close to perfection. I can therefore praise this release as to me, any Drake material is welcome. The sleeve notes are also worthy of mention, meticulously detailed and including a heart-felt essay from his sister. Sometimes my heart also aches, and I dream to wish that Drake did a Vashti back in ’74, and will return one day to the acclaim denied him. As this will never happen, I am content with a release such as this, and hope that it will lead others onto the trio of albums he left, that time will never age or weary.
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Links
Nick Drake [official site]