bryter layter poll

Chime!!

Voted "Fly." I'd forgotten how fantastic this album is (esp. if you ignore "Poor Boy").

chime. this was the first ND album i owned, it's been years upon years since i've heard it

This is an evil poll... The 2 Hazeys and Fly... grrrrrrrrrrr.

one of these things first. i'm on record as favoring this one for sentimental reasons

Northern Sky.

I really want those shoes.

"One of These Things First" is the song that got me the first time I heard that split LP that Capitol put out in the US back in, what, '71? So that's it.

"One Of These Things First" is great.

Yep, that's what I chose also.
I bet it'll come out on top.
Or maybe Fly

oddly I thought "Northern Sky" was the one that would walk away with this

I would vote for his shoes if it was an option.

i bet they were stinky

"Poor Boy."

http://blogs.walkerart.org/offcenter/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/cover_large.jpg (on my fridge)

I was going to post that instead of the actual album but I forgot the band

"Fly" by a huge margin.

three hour from sundown jeremy flies

i have spent a lot of time parsing the phrase 'in search of a master, in search of a phrase'

i mean 'in search of a master, in search of a slave'

Hazey Jane II
At the Chime of a City Clock
One of These Things First

Those 3 in a row is what makes this album the best nick drake album to me.

i'll be the contrarian and vote for 'sunday.' those last few seconds, when the drums drop out (ch ch ch...ch!) and it's just the flute and guitar are so haunting, especially if you see drake's albums as some kind of narrative: the lush, happy album is over; time for the bleak, brittle one. i once read an article -- forget who it's by -- who pointed out the significance of the days in his three main albums. you've got 'saturday sun' on five leaves left, 'sunday' on bryter later, and pink moon as a whole is monday (moon day, lunedi, etc). saturday and sunday are leisure days, but monday is the beginning of the week, back into the world, and drake -- befitting his persona, i guess -- couldn't stand to go back into the world, but couldn't retreat either.

it's a gorgeous melody, in any case...

sorta interesting

This short interview was taken from The Wire magazine, circa 1996. A feature of the magazine was to play a musician certain tracks and ask them to identify the song and comment on it. Here John Cale is played Drake's Black Eyed Dog and, surprisingly, he doesn't recognise it.
Interviewer: Nick Drake.
John Cale: (Listens intently) I've no idea who this is.
Interviewer: Nick Drake.
Cale: That was my first instinct about it, but I thought, 'No, he's too old sounding.' The only other guy with a voice like that was the fat guy from the blues band in San Francisco (Canned heat's Bob Hite).
Int: In the 70s you played on some of Drake's records. Did you do so because you liked the music, or was it just a session job?
Cale: No, I liked his stuff. It was also a question of how to make a grand. It was right after (Nico's) Marble Index and before The Stooges - it might have been after The Stooges. I was doing a lot with Nico and it was one of those trips I came over that I met Drake. Joe (Boyd, then an Island Records executive) had set up the studio. When I met Drake I had a 12-string and he'd never seen a D12 before, a Martin. And you know that very complicated picking that he had? He just picked up the guitar and it was just like this orchestral sound coming out. He went nuts. He was sitting there stunned by it.
Int: What was Drake like to work with?
Cale: Very introverted, I hardly ever dealt with him. I think it was Joe.
Int: What were your criteria for deciding which sessions to do and which production jobs to take? They cover an extremely wide range of music.
Cale: Well, who I knew. I knew Joe Boyd. I was fresh out of the Velvet Underground anyway, and I'd done Marble Index, and I was interested in producing. And one other way of developing what I did with Marble Index was to do Nick Drake and The Incredible String Band and whatever came around. Joe seemed to appreciate what I was doing. Everything he showed me was very interesting.

my for reals vote goes to 'one of these things first'

It's probably not that surprising he hadn't heard it as it's not on his LPs.

"Hazey Jane II" is the only answer to this. Sure, the album's good and it's his best one, but that song is an alltime favourite. I love the overlong first-line-of-the-verse (What will happen in the morning with the weasel with the teeth that bite so sharp when you're not looking... etc) and the nice brass sections.

"I never felt magic as crazy as this..."

what an opening line to a song.

Much as a like the rest of the album, it has to be Northern Sky for me.

In White Bicycles Joe Boyd claims that John Cale heard a tape of Nick Drake in his office, said "Who the heck is that???" upon which he ran over to Nick Drake's house, jammed with him for a little bit, and then dragged him back to the studio, guitars in hand, to record some more. Or something like that.

Hazey Jane I for me. "Do you hope to find new ways of doing better than your worst?" The cascading guitar, those rolling drums, that voice ... For a long while, Northern Sky was my fave, but this one is what I want to hear when I want to hear Nick Drake these days.

It's "Poor Boy" and fuck all y'all emo motherfuckers.

Hazey Jane II is real fun to sing, but I noticed that he has some difficult vocals in this song. It's hard to imitate it perfectly.

you need to time your breaths pretty carefully.

Hazey Jane I! Love the timpani rolls. So many great songs, though.
I prefer the demo version of "Fly."

my least favourite album of his. i really don't like the production with all those instruments (the flute on the title song is cool though), i prefer my nick drake on its own. this was the album that was supposed to break him. it didn't become the success it would have merited. though it may sound cruel in retrospect in a way i am happy about the commercial failure of "bryter later". would he ever have recorded something as beautifully bleak as "pink moon" after? i don't think so. my fave is his first lp. "five leaves left" is the one which has engraved itself in my mind forever. it was the first one i put on the record player when i got the fruit tree box as a belated christmas present in 1980. my fave on "bryter later"? the instrumentals touch me most. the serenity of "sunday". closing on album with the best piece. that's how it should be.

i think i prefer five leaves, too, but they are both perfect albums AFAIC

gr: my nick drake on its his own

HJ2

Sunday's best

i once read an article -- forget who it's by -- who pointed out the significance of the days in his three main albums.
very interesting. was that ian macdonald's essay?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Northern Sky," which, on one hearing, prompted me to take a flyer on the whole "Fruit Tree" box back in 1986.

One of The Things First

BTW Bryter Later > Five Leaves Left >>>>>>>>>> Pink Moon

insufferable indie rockers made Pink Moon the Nebraska of folk music.

^^^ YES

Yeahish.

Well I disagree with the last sentence but the ranking is spot on and the general thrust of the argument is yep.

If "Black eyed dog" had come out at the time, would that have been a change in his fortunes? Or is it too easy to say that in retrospect, while all around were "hooray, Blockbuster by Sweet" ?

I've never been sure that the stripped-down stuff was a purely artistic choice.

That's one of the few things I'm fairly certain was his choice.

There was also that 'oh before he'd record his singing and guitar playing at the same time, but with Pink Moon he recorded them separately', but I always thought "If it's going to be that stripped down, there'd be no place to hide a slightly fluffed note"

Sorry, yeah, I guess I remember reading something about him being unhappy with the arrangements on the first album. Okay, it wasn't a smart artistic choice.

Oh, I dunno..

As I say, that fourth album might have damn well done it.

If only he'd recorded the rest of it.

Although I suspect the fourth Nick Drake album would have done about as well as, say, the fourth Keith Christmas album.

as fine a singer as he was, I've always gravitated toward the timeless and strange instrumentals on this record...so, "Bryter Layter"...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"One Of These Things First" is the poster pick. "Northern Sky" is the lurker pick. :)

I am so glad even the instrumentals got votes!

Northern Sky from Serendipity fans.

God, I hope not...

And Northen Sky WINS! *waves fist in the air in triumph* ILM RULES!!!

And Curtis OTM re:instrumentals, I found myself only clicking on this thread because I wanted to see how the instrumentals fared!

Nick Drake was godhead, people. Check the documentary for evidence.