Product Description

This is the indispensable consumers' guide to the music of Nick Drake, the English singer-songwriter who although failed to find a wide audience during his short lifetime, his work grew in stature to the extent that he now ranks among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years. After the release of this third album Pink Moon in 1972, he withdrew from live performance and recording and died of an overdose in 1974, aged just 27. A thorough analysis of every officially released album by Drake, from "Five Leaves Left" to "Pink Moon" and the most recent posthumous collections. This title includes a track by track analysis. Information on when and where the music was recorded. This book features a special section of compilation, archive and posthumous material. It contains a track index for easy reference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91833 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-05
• Format: Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 96 pages

About the Author
Peter Hogan is among the few contemporary aficionados of Nick Drake who actually saw Drake perform in the early Seventies. He is an experienced music writer who has contributed to Melody Maker, Vox and Uncut and is the author of books on The Doors, R.E.M. and The Velvet Underground.

Customer Reviews

Great Reference Source
The information that's out there on Nick Drake is very limited and tends to get recycled on a fairly regular basis. This publication brings nothing "new" to the table, what it does do so very well is provide a potted introduction of Nick's life and an album by album, track by track breakdown of Nick's recordings. Ideal for someone new to Nick's work and equally for those who know his music well and want a handy source of information to dip into from time to time.

Solid, level-headed account of Drake's music, but it's not really "a complete guide"
The last two years have seen the appearance of two new books on Nick Drake and his music: Amanda Petrusich's Pink Moon which appeared as part of the 33 1/3 series in 2007 and Peter Hogan's Nick Drake: A Complete Guide to his Music in 2009. Petrusich's small, short book is fundamentally flawed and in desperate need of an editor: she gives far too much space to what advertising execs at Volkswagen have to say about the album (little of interest) and her own narcissistic wanderings. Hogan's book, which purportedly provides an analysis of Drake's entire recording legacy, is more serious-minded and even-handed.

Typical of Hogan's level-headed approach in this 105-page book is his summary of Drake's debut album: "There are many who think of Five Leaves Left as a sad record. It's certainly wistfully romantic [...]. But it would be unfair to call it adolescent, as some critics have done, since many of the songs here display a remarkable maturity". There follows a (literally) down-to-earth discussion of one of Drake's most popular songs 'River Man'. Hogan suggests - as Patrick Humphries did in his 1997 biography - that the river imagery might have more to do with the time Drake spent crossing over rivers in Cambridge (more banally, you could in fact go even further and argue that the title rhymes with the River Cam - the river which flows through the university town).

We also get a detailed list of artists and philosophers who might have influenced or been an inspiration to Drake, such as French authors Camus, Sartre and Baudelaire; the English poets William Blake and Wilfred Owen (author of the poem 'Strange Meeting'); and musicians John Coltrane, Zoot Money, and Graham Bond (whose suicide in May 1974 had depressed Nick). But Hogan can be moody when discussing how others have found references in Drake's songs which don't correlate with his own interpretations, particularly those relating to drug use: Of Trevor Dann's reading of the Hazey Jane songs, he writes, "If this is actually about heroin, I just can't see it").

That a track-by-track commentary is provided is a pleasure to see - so often Drake's music is overshadowed by discussion of his enigmatic character and premature death at 26. Yet certain songs deserve a more in-depth analysis than Hogan is prepared to give: the great 'Northern Sky' gets short shrift (a mere seven lines) and the instrumental 'Bryter Layter' is described as "sound[ing] like a TV theme", which seems somehow inappropriate in the light of Drake's disinterest in material possessions and the elegance of his instrumentals (the use of his songs in adverts and films is entirely a posthumous phenomenon). Another case in point is the demo version of 'Fly', which Hogan describes as "mildly interesting" and leaves it at that. Expressing criticism of Drake's music isn't a problem, but it's better when it's backed up with a more substantial explanation or reasoning, otherwise it comes across as excessively subjective and a little bit random.

But in spite of these gripes I'd still recommend this short book to Drake fans and neophytes alike.

Also recommended>
* Ian MacDonald's brilliant essay 'Exiled from Heaven: The Unheard Message of Nick Drake' collected in The People's Music (2003)
* Patrick Humphries' Nick Drake: The Biography (1997) and Trevor Dann's Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake (2005) - the two biographies
* "Nick Drake: A Skin Too Few" and "Nick Drake: Under Review" - two documentaries
* Family Tree - CD including earlier songs as well as a composition by his mother and a song sung by Drake and his sister

Pleasant little tome on Mr. Drake...
There are now (including this book) three publications that look into detail of the life of Nick Drake. The first being the rather doomy and serious Nick Drake: The Biography by Pat Humphries, the second being the lighter and more balanced Darker than the Deepest Sea by the wonderful Trevor Dann, and now this publication. Less detailed than the other two, but still a nice reference piece; I like to dip into this book while I am listening to Drake's music; the other two books are more in depth analyses of his work and attempt to get to know the man behind the music, which is always going to be tricky, as he's been dead for 35 years and those who knew and worked with him have either waxed lyrical about him endlessly or have left the planet.

As a book it is concise, to the point, full of facts rather than conjecture and if you are looking for more on the man, but don't want a more sizable book on the subject, this is the one for you. I approached it cautiously (due mostly to it's size; it is a fairly small book), but have been pleasantly surprised, mainly as it is not at all flabby in its detail. A criticism? The title, as another reviewer has suggested, is all wrong; want a complete guide, you'll probably be disappointed. But want a sound overview and you may well be in luck.