Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridge. His debut album, Five Leaves Left, was released in 1969, and was followed by two more albums, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972). While Drake did not reach a wide audience during his brief lifetime, his music found acclaim and he gradually received wider recognition following his death.
Drake suffered from depression and was reluctant to perform in front of live audiences. Upon completion of Pink Moon, he withdrew from both performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November 1974, Drake was found dead at the age of 26 due to an overdose of antidepressants.
Drake's music remained available through the mid-1970s, but the 1979 release of the retrospective collection Fruit Tree allowed his back catalogue to be reassessed. Drake has come to be credited as an influence on numerous artists. The first Drake biography in English appeared in 1997; it was followed by the documentary films A Stranger Among Us in 1999 and A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake in 2000.
