04 NICK DRAKE

Emotive and somber, Drake’s chords were as poetic as his words

Critics praise Drake for his somber and beautiful lyrics, influenced by his love of poets like William Blake and W.B. Yeats. But according to his friend and collaborator Robert Kirby, these lyrics were crafted to fit the moods dictated by his music. It wasn’t that Drake found the perfect musical accompaniments for his feelings; those haunting and heartbreaking sounds were his feelings. He wrote guitar parts that sounded like loneliness, and they speak directly to his listeners. His unique sounds came from tunings he discovered himself, allowing chord voicings with multiple adjacent notes, impossible in most common tunings.