Most people first heard of singer-songwriter Nick Drake a few years back when Volkswagen, in an effort to sell its sharp new cars to romantic urbanites, used his 1972 song “Pink Moon,” a lilting ode to the inevitability of death that was written just two years before Drake died at 26 of an overdose of antidepressants, in one of its commercials. Before then, Drake’s music had been fairly obscure except to in-the-know record collectors and musicians. But the fact that his records never sold more than a few thousand didn’t diminish Drake’s artistic influence in the ensuing years. As with the Velvet Underground, whose records were initially greeted with almost nonexistent sales, it would seem that most of Drake’s records were purchased by fellow musicians (such as admitted fans Paul Weller and Robert Smith) who let Drake’s sound help to shape their own influential work. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine such deeply confessional artists as Belle and Sebastian or Elliott Smith without the residual sway of... More >>>