Nick Drake-Made To Love Magic

Wonderful stuff,fabulous guitar technique,even to an untrained ear,its wonderful to listen to.
Its a lovely cd,well recorded and mastered,in fact,this type of music is why I upgraded,his vocals are lovely and silky and you can hear his fingers sliding down the frets.
On another note,there is a track that was recorded shortly before his death.He doesn't sound suicidal,if its possible to do that,but he sings with so much 'happiness' his supposed suicide is difficult to fathom.I believe his death was accidental anyway.He sadly mixed his pills up by accident.

What a sad,tragic loss for a very rare talent,someone who could write poetry,have a unique voice and play guitar in a wonderfuly unique style.He was everything Dylan was/is.imho.

 

He's a favourite of mine too .

I've nto heard the 'new' stuff but I do have the rest of his catalogue and it's certainly worth investigating if you don't have any other of his records.

Also worth a purchase is "Solid Air", by John Martyn. Drake was a close frined of his and the title track from "Solid Air" is about his death.

Anybody hear the Nick Drake program on Radio2 a few months back with Brad Pitt narrating ?

 

I haven't got any John Martyn,I will check him out,ta

Most of the stuff on this new cd has never been heard before,so well worth getting (get the copy that comes with the free single though)

 

Saab

Theres a wonderful back catalogue out there for you, and best of all most on-line places and FOPP are selling them at a fiver each.

The studio albums
Five Leaves Left
Brighter Later
Pink Moon
Are all good, but my favourite Drake is on Pink Moon. Brighter Later is the one you always read about in the hifi mags as being the seminal work. Not sure I agree.. They all have a different character about them.. all worth buying, especially at a fiver each.

Seeing as you like Nick Drake, and also Kings of Conveniance, may I point out my favorite discovery from a trip to sideshowbobs music emporium??

We listened to around 30 albums that day, and this one stood out above all to me. A voice with deep richness and quality, and acoustic guitar work as good as Nicks Drakes. Songmanship to rival Bob Dylan too.

Fred Neil.
The many sides of Fred Neil

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...416/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl/202-2764663-5371843

Buy just speculatively - I promise there wont be dissapointment.

NB
This CD is a double CD, the second cd being a live album - worth having in its own right too.

Chris

 

Saab, some good info on John Martyn here:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/hvandenberk/

& here

http://www.hillarby.freeserve.co.uk/

He has a huge cult following.

If you've heard nowt, I would start with

Solid Air (The LP anyone recommends who's heard of him!)
One World.
Grace & Danger.
The Church with One Bell.
Live at Leeds.
Sunday's Child.
Probably in that order..

There are lots of others. Early stuff is folky, middle stuff is excellent (Solid air etc), later middle stuff is not so great.., more recent stuff quite good. Church is a recentish cover album & has some great tracks.
All IMHO of course.

 

excellent stuff,thanks to you both,i will defo check out both these guys,as my fave music is in fact man+guitar

I have all Drakes studio releases,and I agree re Bryter Later,its just too folky in places,whereas Pink Moon is just utterly faultless,a simply wonderful cd,in fact,right up with all my faves.I think it stands up alongside Dylans best tbh.

 

just ordered Fred Neil (bloody expensive!!)

and made a bid for Solid Air on Ebay

 

Fred Neil is worth it, for "The Dolphins" (later covered by Tim Buckley), and "Everybody's Talkin'" (famously covered by Nillson on the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy) alone. Bleecker and McDougall is another essential album.

As for Nick Drake, all four of the albums released in his lifetime are wonderful, albeit in different ways.

-- Ian

 

Fred Neil and John martyn on the way.............will post reviews

must admit to loving everybodys taking though,didn't know he did it,this will keep Mrs Saab happy,she thinks I buy shit most of the time

 

On the subject of untimely demises, Jeff Buckley only produced one studio album .

At least there are 4 Nick Drake albums to enjoy.

 

OK I'll bite.

Five Leaves Left
Bryter Later
Pink Moon

What was the fourth album released in Nick Drake's lifetime?

Bob

 

there were only 3

 

Yes, there were only 3, duh, my mishtake. There's The Time of No Reply collection of unreleased recordings, put out after his death, it was in the Fruit Tree box, not sure if it ever got a separate release. Well worth having though.

-- Ian

 

Fred Neil review

very interesting production,very earthy Memphisy sound,very bassy,very very bassy in fact,i suspect this would sound great on LP

like his music so far,very much so in fact,I like the bluesyness,as opposed to folkyness.He is like a cross between Johnny Cash and Bert Jansch

Evrybodys Talking is indeed great,better than any covers I have heard

 

Splendid. Everybody should own at least one Fred Neil record, it's a bloody crime that so few people know about him.

-- Ian

 

I'm pretty sure it DID get its own release, as I have a vinyl copy (bought off a colleague - totally on spec, as I'd NEVER heard Nick Drake!); my copy's from 1986 and has a barcode; if it was in a boxset, you'd assume it wouldn't have a seperate code to the box itself.

I intend to get his other albums soon. Am I right in saying that "Five leaves left" is named after those little bits of paper that are inside Swan cigarette papers? I saw one while I was rolling up at Glastonbury, and suddenly twigged...

I only heard the last half of the Drake thing on R2, but it sounded excellent.

 

Yup "Time of no reply" was given it's own release but was first included as part of the "Fruit Tree" boxset.

There's an excellent little compilation called "Way to Blue" which features various tracks from all his releases (Time of no reply included) and is a good place to start for those new to Drake.

Dom, didn't know that about "Five Leaves Left" - way cool :MILD:.
It's also my favourite album of his and was a huge influence on Paul Weller during the sessions for "Wild Wood"; not a bad album either .

 

His albums are available at HMV on CD in their sale for £5.99 at the moment unless you want the original vinyl pressings. £250 for a s/h Pink Moon I believe! There are Simply Vinyl repressings though at about 20 notes.

Bob

 

yep,i bought a Simply Vinyl 180gram Bryter Later,and very good it is s well

got John martyn thorugh and i must say i am very impressed with him as well as Fred Neil,2 very good suggestions,worthy additions to my cd collection

 

Nice one .

Does the vinyl have the extra live track at the end ?