Editing Nick Drake (section)

== Personal life ==
In 1971 Drake's family persuaded him to visit a psychiatrist at [[St Thomas' Hospital]] in London. He was prescribed [[antidepressant]]s, but felt uncomfortable and embarrassed about taking them, and tried to hide the fact from his friends.<ref>Humphries (1997), p. 166.</ref> He worried about their side effects and was concerned that they would react with his regular cannabis use.<ref>Dann (2006), p. 166.</ref> By this time, Drake was smoking what Kirby described as "unbelievable amounts" of cannabis<ref>Kirby, Robert. Quoted in Dann (2006), p. 157.</ref> and exhibiting "the first signs of [[psychosis]]". He rarely left his flat, and then only to play an occasional concert or to buy drugs.<ref name=":2"/> According to photographer Keith Morris, by 1971 Drake was a "hunched, dishevelled figure, staring vacantly...ignoring the overtures of a friendly labrador or gazing blankly over [[Hampstead Heath]]."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Feay|first=Suzi|date=19 February 2006|title=Darker than the Deepest Sea: the search for Nick Drake by Trevor Dann|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/darker-than-the-deepest-sea-the-search-for-nick-drake-by-trevor-dann-6108836.html|access-date=11 June 2023|website=The Independent}}</ref> His sister recalled: "This was a very bad time. He once said to me that everything started to go wrong from [this] time on, and I think that was when things started to go wrong."<ref name=":2">Dann (2006), p. 157.</ref>

In the months following ''Pink Moon''{{'s}} release, Drake became increasingly asocial and distant.<ref>Humphries (1997), pp. 166–168.</ref> He returned to live at his parents' home in [[Tanworth-in-Arden]], and while he resented the regression, he accepted that it was necessary. "I don't like it at home," he told his mother, "but I can't bear it anywhere else."<ref name=ASTF/> His return was often difficult for his family, as Gabrielle said: "Good days in my parents' home were good days for Nick, and bad days were bad days for Nick. And that was what their life revolved around, really."<ref name="Paphides"/>{{listen
| filename     =
| title        = "Black Eyed Dog"
| description  = "Black Eyed Dog" from one of Drake's final recording sessions in February 1974. The title was inspired by [[Winston Churchill]]'s description, taken from [[Samuel Johnson#Final years|Samuel Johnson]], of depression as a black dog.<ref>Dann (2006), p. 251.</ref>
}}

Drake lived a frugal existence; his only income was a £20-a-week retainer from Island Records ({{Inflation|UK|20|1973|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}). At one point he could not afford a new pair of shoes.<ref name="NKent">{{cite news |last=Kent |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Kent |title=Requiem For A Solitary Man|work=[[NME|New Musical Express]]|date=8 February 1975}}</ref> He would disappear for days, sometimes arriving unannounced at friends' houses, uncommunicative and withdrawn. Robert Kirby described a typical visit: "He would arrive and not talk, sit down, listen to music, have a smoke, have a drink, sleep there the night, and two or three days later he wasn't there, he'd be gone. And three months later he'd be back."<ref>Dann (2006), p. 175.</ref> Nick's supervision partner at Cambridge, John Venning, saw him on an underground train in London and felt he was seriously depressed: "There was something about him which suggested that he would have looked straight through me and not registered me at all. So I turned around."<ref>Dann (2006), p. 177.</ref>

Drake was a close friend of fellow folk musicians [[John Martyn|John]] and [[Beverley Martyn]], and visited them regularly when they lived in London and subsequently [[Hastings]]. Martyn later wrote the title song of his 1973 album ''[[Solid Air]]'' about Drake and described him, in this period, as the most withdrawn person he had ever met.<ref name="guardian">{{cite web |title=The alternative top 10 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/albums/Story/0,,209103,00.html |website=The Guardian |access-date=18 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210034952/https://www.theguardian.com/albums/Story/0,,209103,00.html |archive-date=10 December 2019 |date=29 January 1999 |url-status=live}}</ref> Drake would borrow his mother's car and drive for hours without purpose, until he ran out of petrol and had to ring his parents to ask to be collected. Friends recalled the extent to which his appearance had changed.<ref>Boyd (2006), p. 259.</ref> During particularly bleak periods, he refused to wash his hair or cut his nails.<ref name="barnes"/> Early in 1972, Drake had a [[nervous breakdown]], and was hospitalised for five weeks.<ref name="Hunt">{{Cite web |last=Hunt |first=Rupert |title=Nick First Hand - his Life and Music in Quotes |url=http://www.nickdrake.com/nick_life_in_quotes.html |access-date=11 June 2023 |website=NickDrake.com}}</ref> He was initially believed to have [[Major depressive disorder|major depression]], although his former therapist suggested he had [[schizophrenia]].<ref name="Cole" />

By late 1974, Drake's weekly retainer from Island had ceased, and his depression meant that he remained in contact with only a few close friends. He had tried to stay in touch with Sophia Ryde, whom he had met in London in 1968.<ref>Dann (2006), pp. 54, 183.</ref> Ryde has been described by Drake's biographers as "the nearest thing" to a girlfriend in his life, but she used the description "best (girl) friend".<ref>Dann (2006), p. 55.</ref> In a 2005 interview, Ryde said that a week before he died, she had sought to end the relationship: "I couldn't cope with it. I asked him for some time. And I never saw him again."<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Brooks |first=Richard |date=24 May 2024 |title=Heartbreak letter clue to death of cult singer |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/heartbreak-letter-clue-to-death-of-cult-singer-8ksdhlq2xmq |url-access=subscription |access-date=24 May 2024 |work=The Times |language=en |issn=0140-0460}}</ref> As with the relationship he had shared with fellow folk musician [[Linda Thompson (singer)|Linda Thompson]], it appears that Drake's relationship with Ryde was not consummated.<ref name=":6" /> John Martyn claimed to have had a heated argument with Drake around a month before the latter's death which was never reconciled. [[Phill Brown]] later said that this "destroyed" Martyn.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thomson |first1=Graeme |date=15 July 2020 |title='Greek, without the sex': Nick Drake and John Martyn's folk bromance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/15/nick-drake-john-martyn-complex-friendship-small-hours-extract |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

Drake's perceived inability to connect has led to speculation about his sexuality.<ref>Dann (2006), p. 217.</ref> Boyd detected a [[virgin]]al quality in Drake's lyrics and music and notes that he never knew of him behaving in a sexual way with anyone, male or female.<ref>Boyd (2006), p. 263.</ref> [[Ian MacDonald]], who was distantly acquainted with Drake at Cambridge, wrote that he "was probably fonder of sex than has been suggested so far, but otherwise he held aloof from worldly attachment".<ref name="Macdonald" /> The claim that Drake died a virgin has been falsely attributed to his sister Gabrielle, who responded that "I never said any such thing because I don't know! I have no idea. And I don't mind what he was."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jeffries |first=Stuart |date=2014-11-15 |title=I want to complicate the Nick Drake story |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/15/i-want-to-complicate-the-nick-drake-story |access-date=2025-01-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>