Sometimes, the most extraordinary musical talents are those with troubled interior lives – so deeply in tune with their emotions that, when they’ve not been channelled into a creative outlet, these feelings eventually consume them. Of course, mental health struggles are not a prerequisite for making good music, but for many, their issues come to inspire their work.
This was certainly the case for Nick Drake, whose music was significantly inspired by his experience with depression. While we shouldn’t merely define Drake by his mental illness – he also wrote about nature and family – it is hard to ignore how vividly he explored his struggles. Subsequently, many listeners find solace in his lyrics, knowing that someone else put their abstract, hard-to-define feelings into words.
Drake’s ability to convey themes of loneliness, alienation and hopelessness was extraordinary, leaving behind a small yet powerful body of work that has influenced countless musicians and poets ever since. Throughout the three albums Drake released in his lifetime, his lyrics weaved between moments of despair and glimmers of optimism.
However, by the end of his life, his depression had become unbearable, and he shut himself away from his family and friends. He died in 1974 at the age of 26. The cause of his death was an overdose of drugs, although it is unclear whether he intended to commit suicide or not. He was cremated before a gravestone was placed in the Church Of St Mary Magdalene in Tanworth-In-Arden. It features an epitaph comprised of lyrics from Drake’s song ‘From the Morning’, the last song on his final album, Pink Moon.
The song is bittersweet in its hopeful appreciation of nature, which bears the direct influence of the Romantic poets. He sings, “A day once dawned/ And it was beautiful,” before encouraging listeners to “Look see the days/ The endless coloured ways/ And go play the game that you learned/ From the morning.” Yet, it didn’t take long for Drake to lose sight of any remaining optimism. That same year, he had a nervous breakdown, telling John Wood, “I can’t think of words. I feel no emotion about anything. I don’t want to laugh or cry. I’m numb-dead inside.”
Upon his passing, his parents used the lines, “And now we rise/ And we are everywhere,” on his headstone. Not only does it suggest a connection between Drake’s departed spirit and the natural world, which he loved so dearly, but it also foreshadows Drake’s posthumous popularity.
Since his death, his music has become well-loved by people across the world, allowing his spirit and creativity to live on without him. Thus, his music has taken on a form of resurrection, and just as he predicted in 1969’s ‘Fruit Tree’, “They’ll all know/ That you were here when you’re gone.”