man that Peel "Three Hours" is so so nice. feel so bad that dude could not find a way through.
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, 9 August 2014 17:46 (nine years ago) link
What's the sound quality like?
― Mark G, Saturday, 9 August 2014 21:12 (nine years ago) link
£35 for the normal version might well be pricey but fair
£150 for the 10" single and the fancy version?
Think I'll hang on for the illegal download or whatever
― Mark G, Saturday, 9 August 2014 21:14 (nine years ago) link
"Road" is oftentimes my favorite Nick Drake song and is also proof that Nick Drake has the most incredible fingerpicking technique of anyone ever.― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, June 2, 2007 4:23 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is accurate. did he use three fingers in addition to his thumb? trying to wrap my mind around some of his patterns... pretty mindblowing stuff
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 February 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link
i think i've read that nick used his right pinky at times
― tylerw, Monday, 23 February 2015 21:36 (nine years ago) link
that would make sense. his thumb also sounds good at repeatedly striking the same string. would be hard if you're like me and used to octave-style string patterns.
so clean and droney. i love it. and this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IevsddOcJ7o
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:03 (nine years ago) link
yeah he's just so metronomic, unflappable. makes it seem like no big deal, but it obviously is.
― tylerw, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:10 (nine years ago) link
Nick Drake: how???
haha yes
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:12 (nine years ago) link
Nick Drake: wtf???
― tylerw, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:13 (nine years ago) link
― global tetrahedron, Monday, February 23, 2015 4:30 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I don't know about "anyone ever" -- I mean, classical guitarists all use three fingers and thumb in pretty complex patterns (and non-patterns).
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Monday, 23 February 2015 22:14 (nine years ago) link
is there any known footage of him playing?
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Monday, 23 February 2015 22:15 (nine years ago) link
nope
― tylerw, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:17 (nine years ago) link
& yeah, classically trained people do all kinds of wild technique things on guitar, might be the fact that drake was untrained that takes it into a different realm.
― tylerw, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:21 (nine years ago) link
^ yeah, makes his style more sui generis/idiocyncratic. i'm sure there are 'schooled' players who are technically superior but his chops are just kinda mysterious
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:23 (nine years ago) link
Where was it that I read that all those weird tunings he used is partly what made him such an awkward performer, and in turn heightened his depression? He'd play a song, then spend five minutes tuning, then song, tune ... etc. That supposedly is something the also forced Joni off the tour circuit. I know dudes like Richard Thompson generally try to stick or adapt to only a couple of tunings (standard and drop D, typically) with lots of capo use to get around the issue.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:24 (nine years ago) link
that sounds a bit mythologized imo, like tuning can be annoying but it doesn't have to take five minutes. don't doubt that he was awkward though
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:26 (nine years ago) link
"schooled" just means someone showed you how to do something in person
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Monday, 23 February 2015 22:26 (nine years ago) link
it means you just get owned a lot
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:28 (nine years ago) link
I mean I think Nick Drake is a great guitar player, I just don't buy into the "untrained" vs "trained" mythology. I have no idea whether he ever took a paid guitar lesson, whether he ever looked at a guitar book, or whether he ever sat down with other fingerpickers to learn picking patterns.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Monday, 23 February 2015 22:31 (nine years ago) link
he probably did all of that -- i just meant that he wasn't someone who was a classically trained guitarist. he mainly learned from listening to records, afaik.
― tylerw, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:33 (nine years ago) link
I dunno, I've seen people take five minutes to keep a guitar in standard. If he was using a whole bunch of weird open tunings and doing it by ear, shit adds up. I read that Joni would have needed something like 35 tunings for her ideal set, since so many of her songs are in a tuning. She apparently got one of those Parker guitars and a MIDI box to artificially alter everything for her.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:43 (nine years ago) link
http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/1424/under-investigation-joni-mitchell-complete-so-far/50383
Says her songbook breaks down into 42 (!) tunings. Dunno how many Drake used.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:46 (nine years ago) link
surely joni could afford 42 guitars
― don't ask me why i posted this (electricsound), Monday, 23 February 2015 22:46 (nine years ago) link
She obviously could, but reportedly travelling with so many and keeping them in tune was just a constant pain.
Apparently Drake used 12 tunings: http://www.algonet.se/~iguana/DRAKE/tunings.html
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 23 February 2015 22:47 (nine years ago) link
just buy another guitar, hire a friend to tech, and prepare your 'nick drake still hasn't made it blog post' where you complain about paying your good friend and guitar tech.
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 23 February 2015 22:48 (nine years ago) link
Does anyone here have the Scott Appel (?)recordings? Been trying to hear these albums for years. Way out of print . I think there's just one or two tunes on YT?
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 23 February 2015 23:00 (nine years ago) link
<i>Where was it that I read that all those weird tunings he used is partly what made him such an awkward performer, and in turn heightened his depression?</i?
That was in the otherwise forgettable Joe Boyd book in fact.
― campreverb, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 12:54 (nine years ago) link
Otherwise forgettable? Not the White Bicycles one then?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 12:57 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, White Bicycles, filled with insights like 'my generations white blues revival was better than yours' 'Nick was a genius' and other less than earth shattering insights.
― campreverb, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 13:00 (nine years ago) link
huh, i thought that book was goodanyone read the new nick drake book?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:14 (nine years ago) link
I just don't buy into the "untrained" vs "trained" mythology.
Indeed. Who trained Bert Jansch? Or Davey Graham?
― Romeo Daltrey (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:23 (nine years ago) link
Wondering if he used fingerpicks -- his articulation was very strong
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:52 (nine years ago) link
here he is -- looks like he had long fingernailshttp://i2.cdnds.net/13/11/618x462/music-nick-drake.jpg
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 15:55 (nine years ago) link
Awkward!
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:05 (nine years ago) link
I played in a band with guys who used a bunch of different tunings, and it made for a lot of awkward pauses in the set. Sometimes we managed to put together a set list that optimized the tuning changes (especially if we also brought an extra guitar or two), but it didn't always work.
― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:11 (nine years ago) link
That's the point at which you need to have a chatty, relaxed rapport with the audience. I have a feeling that might have been a problem for Nick Drake.
― めんどくさかった (Matt #2), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:24 (nine years ago) link
"Hello, I'm Nick Drake. Please don't look at me."
― tylerw, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:32 (nine years ago) link
I saw a Steve Earle/Shawn Colvin show last year, and as she was tuning she told a story about opening for Sting. She said something along the lines of every folk singer needs to know how to talk while tuning, to keep people engaged, and how she stuck to that even while playing arenas opening for Sting. She would stand there and talk and tune. Then one day she got off stage and there was Sting, who just sort of frowned at her at said "you know, you can just buy a better tuner and get it over with faster."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:41 (nine years ago) link
those are my least favorite folk singer moments. for example, the stuff neil young says tends to not be very funny. but everyone laughs, and it's just awkward!
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 16:57 (nine years ago) link
... it's how Billy Connolly (and numerous other less stellar and talented folkie turned comedians) got started!
Did you ever see Bert Jansch live? Chatty and relaxed he most certainly wasn't!
― Romeo Daltrey (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 17:33 (nine years ago) link
whereas john martyn had more rabbit on him than chas and dave's pet rescue
― let me be your fan taytay (NickB), Tuesday, 24 February 2015 17:57 (nine years ago) link
He (usually) had Danny Thompson with him also.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 24 February 2015 19:10 (nine years ago) link
xposts: i saw jansch play an outdoor mini-folk festival type thing when he toured nz in the nineties, think his only comment was that the rain and surrounding terrain reminded him of scotland!
― no lime tangier, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 00:30 (nine years ago) link
what a dumb thread concept
― Treeship, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 01:16 (nine years ago) link
"drake fans have provided no satisfactory arguments" like wtf, it's pretty folk songs
― Treeship, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 01:17 (nine years ago) link
yeah it's like he or she is reviewing a technical manuscript
― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 01:32 (nine years ago) link
feels like you rarely hear the "the boy was smoking mountains and mountains of weed" angle when people talk about why Nick Drake was so hopelessly withdrawn and depressed and anxious around people
― example (crüt), Thursday, 9 February 2017 07:00 (seven years ago) link
i mean he must have brought at least 2 joints with him on each of his night drives across Great Britain right
― example (crüt), Thursday, 9 February 2017 07:02 (seven years ago) link
are you suggesting he had been smoking too long?
― Dick Hole Son (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 9 February 2017 07:09 (seven years ago) link