A Skin Too Few: The
Days of Nick Drake
Director:
Jeroen Berkvens
Year:
2002
Rating: 6.0
He died too young. At 26 with three wonderful very
unknown albums behind him. Well after his death either intentional or not
with anti-depressant pills people discovered his music and he sold many times
what he did while he was alive. Romantic in its way like artists before him
but tragic as well and just rather sad. His music is wistful, acoustic, poetic,
haunting and mood inducing. Sort of in that soft English folk style that
was popular in the late 1960s and 70's - but then not really. At times his
voice reminds of Donovan but more mournful and with precise beautiful guitar
playing. None of his albums sold more than 5,000 copies and he found that
he could not play in front of live audiences. Nor did he want to be interviewed
or do publicity. Just make music. There are apparently no live recordings
of him or interviews. Trying to make a documentary about his life with so
little on record could not have been easy and this comes in at about 45 minutes.
The lack of success in his music made him more and more depressed, reclusive
and inward. He was proscribed an anti-depressant and one night in his family's
home he took too many and passed away. The final video footage of him as
a child will kill you. Nick Drake 1948 - 1974.