I've Become a Nick Drake Fan - Guild Content

Haunting music. Guild M20 used on several of his recordings including 'Northern Sky'. Left us too soon (1948-1974) as many music geniuses did... http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=vtyLL_B ... re=related

I think it is his weird tunings and eerie voice that gives him the "haunting" sound you mention, especially the tunings. I like his stuff, particularly "Five Leaves Left".

walrus

walrus said:

I think it is his weird tunings and eerie voice that gives him the "haunting" sound you mention, especially the tunings. I like his stuff, particularly "Five Leaves Left".

walrus

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Me too. I've been a fan for a long time. Nick left us far too early. See A Skin Too Few (documentary about Nick) if you get a chance.

twocorgis said:

walrus said:

I think it is his weird tunings and eerie voice that gives him the "haunting" sound you mention, especially the tunings. I like his stuff, particularly "Five Leaves Left".

walrus

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Me too. I've been a fan for a long time. Nick left us far too early. See A Skin Too Few (documentary about Nick) if you get a chance.

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Another longtime fan here, I even have his album 'Bryter later' on Vinyl!!! :shock: ( that one has him with his Guild M20 on the cover) I was going to suggest the same doco..............it really brings his story to life a bit more and helps one understand the meanings behind the songs.You can view it on Youtube these days ( go to Nick Drake, 'A skin to few'......REALLY good!
Another good doco is 'Nick Drake under reveiw' probably more info and background stuff ( Ralph McTell tells a few tales here too!) than 'Skin', but not nearly as emotional and haunting.

Also...There are two great book bios on him. Nick Drake, the biography by Patrick Humphries, and Deeper than the Deepest sea, the search for Nick Drake, by Trevor Dann.........BOTH really add alot of understanding and appreciation of his music.........even MORE than the docos. I recomend them BOTH! :wink:

Sorry to say that his music is new to me. Glad to say his music is new to me...seems like a poet with a Guild....nice combination, and another loss for sure.....Steffan

Just to reiterate that A Skin To Few is one of the great music documentaries, and wonderfully evocative of Drake's background which led to the music.

I saw that documentary. It was really good. I'm a long time Drake fan as well. However, I never realized he played a Guild until a couple of years ago. That was a nice surprise.

I can understand why you like him, Ken.

You playing & singing style is very similar to his.

There's actually quite a bit of conjecture as to the M20 that Nick allegedly played as is borne out in this thread. From what I can gather, he mostly played a Martin 000-18, and the M20 he is posing with on the cover of Bryter Layter he never owned, but did own a different M20. I guess we'll never know for certain.

Fascinating info regarding the guitar there Sandy, and what a great night that would have been. I agree with the idea that his studio guitar was not always a Guild M20, It just doesnt 'sound' like that in my opinion ( 'Guitardude' Ian has said the same here before)......the Martin makes perfect sence. and that his sister now owns the Martin (his last guitar), well that speaks for itself. I do have a 'only recently released' photo of him (in a magizine) playing his Guild m20 at his parents home while his sister looks on, so there may be something to the story of his aquiring his own one later on. Who knows.......I reckon Nicks 'sound' is more HIM than the guitar he used. Simply HIM, creating his own sound...and creating MAGIC.
All this talk has stirred me to put some Drake on today.
By the way Sandy, That wonderful F20 you sold me......I Love her!!! She's as close to an M20 as I'll be getting..............I named her "Gabrielle", after Nicks lovely sister. She is a constant inspiration :wink:

southernGuild said:

Fascinating info regarding the guitar there Sandy, and what a great night that would have been. I agree with the idea that his studio guitar was not always a Guild M20, It just doesnt 'sound' like that in my opinion ( 'Guitardude' Ian has said the same here before)......the Martin makes perfect sence. and that his sister now owns the Martin (his last guitar), well that speaks for itself. I do have a 'only recently released' photo of him (in a magizine) playing his Guild m20 at his parents home while his sister looks on, so there may be something to the story of his aquiring his own one later on. Who knows.......I reckon Nicks 'sound' is more HIM than the guitar he used. Simply HIM, creating his own sound...and creating MAGIC.

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I agree John. So much of Nick's sound was just HIM. It's a shame that Nick was around for such a short period, and had such terrible stage fright that there's not a single video clip of him out in the wild that I'm aware of. I would love to see his style that was so obviously a huge part of his sound. It's certainly not much of a reach to surmise that songs like Pink Moon and Time Has Told Me were done on an all-hog guitar, though who knows whether it was an M20? I remember reading a thread somewhere where it was said that he also played an all-hog Martin early in his career (if you can call it that), but I couldn't find it. That dry, dark, woody sound certainly sounds like an all-hog small body (or maybe a Gibson :shock: ) Who knows at this point? A lot of that sound can come from fingerpicking with no picks or fingernails.

southernGuild said:

By the way Sandy, That wonderful F20 you sold me......I Love her!!! She's as close to an M20 as I'll be getting..............I named her "Gabrielle", after Nicks lovely sister. She is a constant inspiration :wink:

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Another happy customer. 8)

There's alot of good Drake stuff on Youtube, but this tribute , I feel is one of the best. It's at "Nick Drake, Time of no reply, the grave and Tanworth-in-Arden". ( sorry , I dont know how to link as yet). Its not as dreary as it sounds...............Its actually BEAUTIFUL, and a bit of a walk through his world,.his hometown, his home, ( you can see his bedroom window from the outside (the round window, I love how that image was used in Skin too few)) his gravesite, etc......all to the tune of a more obscure Drake song. Very tastefully and sensitively done. Its like visiting the places yourself.............just beautiful. Worth a look.
Nice to know he has so many appreciators of his music around here.

"Now we rise, and we are everywhere" :wink:

southernGuild said:

There's alot of good Drake stuff on Youtube, but this tribute , I feel is one of the best. It's at "Nick Drake, Time of no reply, the grave and Tanworth-in-Arden". ( sorry , I dont know how to link as yet). Its not as dreary as it sounds...............Its actually BEAUTIFUL, and a bit of a walk through his world,.his hometown, his home, ( you can see his bedroom window from the outside (the round window, I love how that image was used in Skin too few)) his gravesite, etc......all to the tune of a more obscure Drake song. Very tastefully and sensitively done. Its like visiting the places yourself.............just beautiful. Worth a look.

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I'll definitely check it out. I hadn't explored Nick's youtube stuff yet. I do know that he did very few live shows.

southernGuild said:

Nice to know he has so many appreciators of his music around here.

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Here in the states, it was a VW ad that really sparked a lot of interest in Nick.

Sadly, Youtube has NOTHING of him actually performing his music, no live shows or anything ( but we live in hope!! you never know WHAT might turn up.....but the outlook is bleak. ) just bits that folks have put together to his songs. No known ANYTHING of him on film, even a BBC radio interview he once did was erased!! ( the BBC was big on reusing their tapes to save money........no thought for the future) so the blank canvas of obscurity remains upon him. There is ONE apparent sighting of Nick, actually on film, It's of "him' ( sure looks like him, but....who knows) just walking by the camera shot as part of a crowd at a music festival of somesort in England. Long tall stoop shouldered lanky guy walking alone) The filming had nothing to do with him......he just walked past the filming camera, and now some suspect it is him. not much to see really.