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Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake

Nick Drake - Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake Audio CD

A fair review of the Nick Drake "Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Nick Drake reviews here, or go back to the Nick Drake tabs.

Band: Nick Drake
Title: Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-10-04
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Cello Song 2: Hazey Jane I 3: Way to Blue 4: Things Behind the Sun 5: River Man 6: Poor Boy 7: Time of No Reply 8: From the Morning 9: One of These Things First 10: Northern Sky 11: Which Will 12: Hazey Jane II 13: Time Has Told Me 14: Pink Moon 15: Black Eyed Dog 16: Fruit Tree

Drake's Blue, Blue Way
The guitar picking is sublime and sure-handed, the vocals ethereal, the lyrics complex in a simple manner; music that speaks to the soul's suffering. "Way to Blue: An Introduction To Nick Drake" has the power to mollify a full-blown manic attack that a psychiatrist can only dream of with lithium in several weeks. The collection is a best of that culls 16 tracks from the three records ("Five Leaves Left," 1969; "Bryter Layter," 1970; "Pink Moon," 1972) produced during his brief life (1948 - 1974).

Besides an acoustic guitar, instruments such as the cello, bass, drums, piano and congas accompany Drake's reserved singing that infuses the album with a delicate but strong presence. However, Drake was shy about performing live, giving interviews, and suffered from depression; all hurt his chances of getting any proper notice, which he never received during his lifetime. In fact, an interesting tidbit is no moving images of Drake exists, only still photographs. The lyrics of "Fruit Tree" seem prophetic in retrospect: "Fruit tree Fruit tree/ No-one knows you but the rain and the air. / Don't you worry/ They'll stand and stare when you're gone. "

To say the tracks are haunting is underestimating the album. Grief oozes while any sense of joy will have to be carefully searched for as it hides in the album's looming shadows. Having studied English literature at Cambridge (left nine months before graduating) provided Drake a way to explore themes of loss and grieving with nature's elements: seasons, stars, moon, sun, river, sky. In "Time Of No Reply" Drake aches, "Summer was gone and the heat died down,/ And Autumn reached for her golden crown,/ I looked behind as I heard a sigh,/ But this was the time of no reply. "

These compositions appear to be cut directly from Drake's troubled soul; if sadness and tears could be planted, a thousand fields of melancholy roses with eager thorns would bloom. "The Birth of Tragedy" by Friedrich Nietzsche closes with the philosopher stating, "how much must these people have suffered in order to be able to become so beautiful!" After listening to Drake you could hardly disagree with Nietzsche's conclusion. Fortunately, music fans have found the beauty as Drake predicted from "Time has told me. " "Time has told me/ You're a rare rare find/ A troubled cure/ For a troubled mind. / And time has told me/ Not to ask for more/ Someday our ocean/ Will find its shore. "

Bohdan Kot

[. . . ]

"Legal disclaimer: the first sentence of the review is hyperbole, not to be taken literally, but used to entertain the reader. The album is not recommended for periods of extended listening or for any period of time during the wintertime for those prone to depression. "
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You owe it to youself to love Nick Drake
Take this CD and listen to it while going for a walk through your neighborhood. Haunting and beautiful.

Nick Drake is one of those unfortunate artists who dies before anyone bothers to appreciate his brilliance.

But since he was in fact left to his own devices in near obscurity, he stays rather pure and original and untainted and beautiful.

You owe it to yourself to love Nick Drake.

No other pretty boy singer songwriter of this day and age can touch him.

10 Stars with a tragic ending
Get the Fruit Tree boxed set, please. After hearing this CD from a friend (ironically, thanks Nick), I too needed more from Nick Drake. Nick has so much more to offer. It's just a tragedy that artists such as Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Tommy Bolin faced such an early demise. A real shame.

Way too blue
Talk about prophetic. "And if one day you should see me in the crowd/Lend a hand and lift me/To your place in the cloud," Nick Drake sings dreamily against a backdrop of cello and congas. The tragic singer-songwriter, who was only in his late 20s when he overdosed on sleeping pills, left behind an all-too-small collection of exquisite music.

"Way To Blue: An Introduction" serves both as an intro to his poignant folk music, and also as a sort of "Best of" collection. This album contains selections from his four albums "Pink Moon," "Five Leaves Left," "Bryter Layter," and "Time of No Reply," and these selections are arguably the best of Drake's bittersweet music.

Drake generally stuck to the folk sound -- lots of acoustic guitar and laid-back bass, sometimes dressed up with piano. But he twiddled with that sound in a few songs; the ethereal "Northern Sky" is swathed in organ, piano and celeste, raising it above the average folk song.

What all these songs have in common is a loneliness, a poignancy, and a beauty that is truly heartrending. Drake suffered from depression during his short life, which may explain the tone of songs like the sweet "Time of No Reply," in which he sings sadly, "The time of no reply is calling me to stay/There is no hello and no goodbye/To leave there is no way. "

In other songs, Drake describes the fickleness of his fame, the loneliness of his life, and hopes to "forget this cruel world. " But also seems to have a kind of optimism about love, which sounds all the more poignant in his smooth vocals. Drake's singing sounds unpolished by computers, making its husky sweetness even more striking.

Long after his death, Nick Drake's bittersweet music lingers on. "Way To Blue: An Introduction" is both an excellent collection of his best songs, and a good introduction to his work. .

A Sonic Van Gough
Nick Drake is rather like a Van Gough for your ears. How could one possibly put their feelings about Van Gough's Starry Night into words? It can't be done. I just can't put the impact of his music into words. I've been buying records since I was 14 and I'm now 47 years old. This is one of the best purchases I've ever made. My collection includes works by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ralph Towner, The Beatles, King Crimson, Dave Matthews, Van Morrison, Eric Dolphy etc. In other words, I'm a prolific listener with varied tastes and as a musician, I know real art when I hear it. The closest I've heard musically to Drake's style would be John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Fairport Convention, that sort of thing. . . Only this is better. This music is haunting and, if you have any soul, it will expose things you never even realized were within you.

If you have enough pennies to buy only one CD this year, this is it. Warning: Way to Blue will leaving you hungering for more and there are only 4 CDs available from Mr Drake who flew from this world at the tender (but some how ripe) age of 26 years.

Buy it now!.

You can see a complete list of all Nick Drake discography, or go back to the Nick Drake tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.