13. Nick DrakeTime Of No Reply
I heard Nick Drake when I was going down that English folk rabbit hole as a young man. I started to see the references to him especially when I was getting into things like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. I was hearing about him when seeing some of the names referenced as producers and people involved in that scene: Richard Thompson and Joe Boyd. But I probably didn’t really dive in until I wondered who wrote the song ‘Black-Eyed Dog’ that Swans recorded. So it was a deep dive into Swans that sent me to seek out Nick Drake’s record, and I was pleasantly surprised at how different it was. Because of course Swans had twisted it into something gnarly. I had a hard time choosing this one as well: I really love the songs on Five Leaves Left, Pink Moon seems like it would be everybody’s choice, but the Time Of No Reply, which is a collection of outtakes, I think has some of his greatest songs on there, such as ‘Clothes Of Sand’. I loved that enough that I covered it on one of my solo records. I think that’s maybe the most beautiful song he ever wrote and recorded. That’s why that album is included here.
