Nick Drake: Heaven in a Wild Flower

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Nick Drake. It was a hot Saturday afternoon in May or June 1985, and I was inside, as usual, in my room in Cosin Court, listening to Rock On on Radio 1, probably presented by Richard Skinner. They had a feature about Heaven in a Wild Flower, including interviews about Nick Drake with John Martyn and others. Whether the interviewees included Trevor Dann, who compiled the album, and was at one time producer of Rock On, I can't remember.

I bought the album shortly after, and quite enjoyed it. Then everyone started 'discovering' Nick Drake, and I did that terrible snob thing of putting him down in reaction to that.

I'm over that now, mainly as a result of becoming a big fan of Joe Boyd, who produced and managed Drake, via Boyd's fantastic White Bicycles book. However, I still have a feeling that Drake's work wouldn't have the profile and longevity it has if it were not for the contributions of Messrs Boyd (production), Kirby (arrangements) and Wood (engineering). Boy, do they make these songs sound good, especially on vinyl!

The one truly great song for me is Northern Sky. There are some other good ones, but several are flawed by a too-fey lyric here or there. I object to all the Rupert Brookery in the way Nick Drake gets portrayed. When A Skin Too Few was screened at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, I asked the producer or director why, when they detailed Nick's life in Cambridge, they showed pictures of the backs and cyclists on cobbled lanes instead of the 1960s black brutalist architecture of Fitzwilliam College, which was where Nick actually lived. I was fobbed off with some account of Nick's friend having told them that the pretty images were of the places that Nick "most liked" in Cambridge. But I retained my cynical view that they wanted to add to the myth rather than show the truth.

MusicBrainz entry for this album