Richard Morton Jack

Nick Drake: The Life, by Richard Morton Jack, is just what the title says, the life of Nick Drake. The music, while the reason so many will be interested, is but a part of the story. A big part, but this book centers the person, the human being, with the music and the music business serving to tell that story.

I start with pointing out the obvious because some will no doubt complain that this biography isn't a music analysis text. Don't get me wrong, I love those kinds of books, ones that don't so much tell the entire life of an artist but the life of the artist's career. I don't hold it against those books for not being a biography since that isn't what they set out to be. And holding it against a biography for being, well, a biography is asinine.

Parts of this book might be hard to read, especially if you have ever experienced, yourself or through someone close to you, similar personalities that can, so easily, become fatal. That said, we want to know what makes those whose work we admire tick. In this thorough volume we see, with the benefit of hindsight, how the person Drake was didn't always coexist easily with the world around him or what was expected from him. There isn't repetition here so much as certain things Drake did that hinted at what could happen later he did often. The accounts given by all of the people Morton Jack interviewed have similarities because, if nothing else, Drake was consistent with what he liked and didn't like to do.

I've seen a couple references that many of his actions suggest the possibility he was on the autism spectrum. This is from those who see themselves in his actions as well as those who have friends or family on the spectrum. I just toss that out there because, if the case, a lot of what he did makes more sense. I have very limited close experience with anyone I was aware of being on the spectrum, so I don't know. If you have such knowledge or experience, keep the possibility in mind as you read and see what you think.

A personal aside, my dad and thus my family was stationed in England around that time and a friend of my older sister played one of his albums for us (Pink Moon) and I remember liking it. It totally left my mind until years later when I saw a reissue of it and the memory came back to me. And like so many others, I "discovered" his music and came to love it. Makes me wish I or my sister had gotten a copy while we were there.

Highly recommended for both those who love Drake's music as well as those who simply want to know about the life of a very talented singer-songwriter. If you enjoy biographies in general, especially those that look closely at a life cut far too short, you will enjoy this.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (más)