Editing Nick Drake (section)

==Musical and lyrical style==
Boyd wrote that "the roots of Nick's harmonies" were in his mother's piano playing,<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Deluca |first=Leo |date=2024-11-25 |title=Nick Drake And The Mother Of His Mysterious Sound |url=https://www.stereogum.com/2288658/nick-drake-and-the-mother-of-his-mysterious-sound/columns/sounding-board/ |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=[[Stereogum]] |language=en}}</ref> which drew from [[West End theatre|West End]] acts such as [[Noël Coward]], [[Sandy Wilson]], and [[Julian Slade]].<ref name="Macdonald" /> As a teenager, Drake learned songs by [[Bob Dylan]], [[Paul Simon]], and [[Peter, Paul and Mary]] on guitar, having been particularly affected by Dylan's "[[A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall]]".<ref name=":7" /><ref name="Macdonald" /> Boyd additionally listed [[Django Reinhardt]], [[Miles Davis]], [[Bert Jansch]], and [[Donovan]] as influences and speculated that he was familiar with [[bossa nova]], specifically with the Brazilian guitarist [[João Gilberto]]. Drake asked Robertson to write an arrangement for "River Man" in the vein of [[Frederick Delius]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOb2X8XVRuQ |title=Joe Boyd on Nick Drake's ''Five Leaves Left'' |date=2014-09-24 |last=John Peel Archive |access-date=2025-01-27 |via=YouTube}}</ref> According to Kirby, the instrumental tracks on ''Bryter Layter'' were inspired by [[the Beach Boys]]' ''[[Pet Sounds]]'' and [[the 5th Dimension]]'s ''[[The Magic Garden]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An interview with Robert Kirby |url=http://www.nickdrake.com/Robert_Kirby_Q__A.html |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=www.nickdrake.com}}</ref> Similarities have been noted between Drake's compositions and the work of [[Johann Sebastian Bach]];<ref name="Macdonald" /> Drake was listening to Bach's ''[[Brandenburg Concertos]]'' on the night he died.<ref name=":7" />

Drake was obsessive about practising his guitar technique and would stay up through the night writing and experimenting with [[Scordatura|alternative tunings]]. His mother remembered hearing him "bumping around at all hours. I think he wrote his nicest melodies in the early morning hours."<ref name="McGrath" /> Self-taught,<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/nick-drake-comes-to-life-in-film-197316/|title=Nick Drake Comes to Life in Film|last1=Sullivan|first1=Denise|date=6 March 2002|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> he achieved his guitar style through the use of alternative tunings to create [[Tone cluster|cluster chords]],<ref name="Frederick">{{cite web|first=Robin|last=Frederick|url=https://robinfrederick.com/nick-drake-place-to-be/|title=Nick Drake&nbsp;— A Place To Be|date=2001|website=RobinFrederick.com|accessdate=26 October 2006}}</ref> which are difficult to achieve on a guitar using [[standard tuning]]. Similarly, many of his vocal melodies rest on the [[Extended chord|extensions]] of chords, not just on notes of the triad.<ref name="Frederick" /> He sang in the [[baritone]] range, often quietly and with little projection.<ref name=":5">{{cite web |last=Levith |first=Will |date=26 July 2013 |title=10 Artists That Owe Nick Drake a Round |url=https://diffuser.fm/artists-that-owe-nick-drake-a-round/ |access-date=11 June 2023 |work=[[Townsquare Media|Diffuser.fm]]}}</ref>

Drake was drawn to the works of [[William Blake]], [[William Butler Yeats]], and [[Henry Vaughan]], whose influences are reflected in his lyrics.<ref name="Macdonald"/> He also employed a series of elemental<ref name="RS PM">{{cite magazine|first=Anthony|last=DeCurtis|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/pink-moon-nick-drake-album-204646/|title=Pink Moon|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=17 February 2000|accessdate=31 December 2021}}</ref> symbols and codes, largely drawn from nature. The moon, stars, sea, rain, trees, sky, mist, and seasons are all commonly used, influenced in part by his rural upbringing. Images related to summer figure centrally in his early work; from ''Bryter Layter'' on, his language is more autumnal, evoking a season commonly used to convey senses of loss and sorrow.<ref name="Macdonald"/> Throughout, Drake writes with detachment, more as an observer than a participant, a point of view ''[[Rolling Stone (magazine)|Rolling Stone's]]'' [[Anthony DeCurtis]] described "as if he were viewing his life from a great, unbridgeable distance".<ref name="RS PM"/> Kirby described Drake's lyrics as a "series of extremely vivid, complete observations, almost like a series of [[epigrammatic]] proverbs", though he doubts that Drake saw himself as "any sort of poet". Instead, Kirby believes that Drake's lyrics were crafted to "complement and compound a mood that the melody dictates in the first place".<ref name="NKent" />