The Most Hauntingly Beautiful 4-Chord Song Ever Written

Comments · 4.6K

• CH

  @CharlesCornellStudios · 1 year ago · pinned

  Nick Drake's story is a strange and tragic one. It's amazing to me how many artists have left us with such incredible music within a very short life. Amy Winehouse, Clifford Brown, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix...the list goes on. I don't know how I didn't know about Nick Drake before now, but I'm glad I do now.

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• SU

  @supergranular · 1 year ago

  People still discovering Nick Drake is why the internet isn't entirely a bad thing.

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• JO

  @johnknottenbelt2727 · 1 year ago (edited)

  By sheer chance, I saw Nick perform at Les Cousins, Greek street, London, early December 1969. Having newly arrived in England, some friends took me there 'for a few beers' before going to the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. There was this very tall guy, with shoulder length dark hair, quite conservatively dressed in a dark jacket, playing guitar & singing very softly, gazing downwards, amongst the loud talking patrons who seemed oblivious of him. I certainly didn't know who he was, but his sound pulled me in & I found myself sitting on the floor of that small club, virtually at his feet, mesmerised. In fact when my mates thrust a jug into my hands & suggested that I joined them away from my spot on the floor, all I could do was decline. I sat rooted to that spot, hardly drinking that beer, until his set ended and he seemingly 'loped off the stage, unheralded, disappearing into the dim light of that venue'. Not long afterwards my friends suggested we leave, which we did. None of them seemed to know who that musician was or seemed to care. I was left in hollow sorrow. It was about 30 years later when I was back in Durban South Africa, that a musician friend of mine arrived at my home with 2 albums and a biography of Nick Drake, that I recognised who I saw at Les Cousins, all those years ago. I then realised how fortunate I was for that magical by chance gift. My friend was gobsmacked at my 'unrealised' stroke of fortune. That is my living memory about a guy called Nick Drake 😊❤

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• WA

  @walkerjohnclark · 1 year ago

  The fact that he wrote a folk song in 5/4 with the progression Cm-Eb7-Ab-C, and makes it sound so natural is just absolute musical genius.

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• TR

  @Tryna-B-Good · 6 months ago

  His sister, Gabrielle Drake, has been promoting his music for years. She believes he was too gifted to be forgotten. I think it’s terrific that a sister, known as an actress, is the number promoter and advocate of her brother. Lovely.

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• WO

  @worldnotworld · 1 year ago

  About ten Radiohead songs were born of this

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• JU

  @juliao8428 · 1 year ago

  Don't forget Nick's mum, Molly Drake, a most enchanting parlor pianist, singer and songwriter. Her compositions show up quite unexpectedly here and there. You can absolutely draw a straight line from mother to son. ❤

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• FR

  @frankpaquet295 · 1 year ago

  My husband and I, he's 73 now and I'm 71, started to listen to Nick Drake 56 years ago in 1969.  We have loved him ever since and every time my husband sees something or hears something about Nick Drake, he gets tears in his eyes.  He loves this mans music and always has.  Thank you for this and I hope that you explore more of Nick Drake and this video was so appreciated.  I wish he could have been around a lot longer.

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• JT

  @JT-2000 · 5 months ago (edited)

  This dudes tuning was from another planet.<br>My favourite Nick Drake song is Northern Sky. I might be being a basic bitch, but I think his best album is Pink Moon.

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• CH

  @chriscousineau4537 · 1 year ago

  I first came across Nick Drake in the late 1990s. A friend of mine worked as a porter in the Crown Plaza Hotel in Liverpool. One day, he found a cassette tape in one of the hotel rooms that was a Nick Drake tape. He called me over to his house to listen to it, and when I did, I was absolutely mesmerised. It gave me goosebumps. Even though I was sure I&apos;d never heard of Nick Drake before, I felt like I knew every song, every chord progression, every melody innately. Listening to the songs for the first time, I felt like I knew what was coming before it played. One song in particular - Fruit Tree - completely shook me to the core. <br><br>Fast forward around 10-15 years, and I was having dinner one night with my parents. I was playing Nick Drake in the background. My mother sat up and said, &quot;Is that Nick Drake?&quot; I said yes and told her about the story with my friend and the tape he found. She said, &quot;I used to play Nick Drake records all the time when I was pregnant with you to help me relax&quot;. <br><br>My friend&apos;s name was Steven Kelleher. He died aged 27 of drug-related issues.

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• BI

  @bimbettocavallo · 1 year ago

  &quot;Fame is but a fruit tree, so very unsound. It can never flourish till its stock is in the ground&quot;.<br>Drake wrote this and it did turn out to be true in his case.

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• DA

  @davidminken4094 · 1 year ago

  Mr. Drake&apos;s phrasing is beyond compare. &nbsp;<br><br>...and I will forever be baffled by how he can make the minors feel comforting, and the majors achingly melancholic.

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