Decades after her death, private home recordings revealed Molly Drake as the quiet, unheard source of her son Nick Drake's melancholic songwriting.
MOODS · melancholic · intimate · wistful · reflective · understated
BIOGRAPHY
Molly Drake, born Mary Lloyd on 5 November 1915 in Rangoon, Burma, was a poet and musician who died on 4 June 1993 in Tanworth-in-Arden, England. She is remembered chiefly as the mother of actress Gabrielle Drake and musician Nick Drake. She met Rodney Drake in 1934 and married him in 1937, and earlier had performed as part of a radio singing duo, the Lloyd Sisters, on All India Radio, though no recordings of that act survive.
Drake wrote and performed songs and poems privately for family and friends, never releasing anything in her lifetime. In the 1950s her husband recorded her at their Tanworth-in-Arden home; these tapes remained unknown until excerpts appeared in the 2000 Nick Drake documentary 'A Skin Too Few,' prompting their eventual commercial release.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
Molly Drake's story is essentially one of posthumous discovery: a private, amateur body of songs and poems, never intended for release, that turned out to illuminate the melancholic sensibility later associated with her son Nick Drake. Once compiled and issued, her recordings drew favorable critical attention, described as essential listening for fans of Nick Drake's 'impenetrable, gorgeous sadness.' Her work later inspired 'The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake,' a 2017 album by the folk group the Unthanks that received a five-star review in The Independent, with particular praise for the song 'I Remember.'
GEORGE'S PLAYS
First time on the station.
PLAYED ON WOKE1
