Nick Drake - The Making of Five Leaves Left (2025)

Having worked on this set since day one – my initial role being all of the tape research, which over time evolved into a whole heap more – it really is pretty disheartening to read people on SDE (and elsewhere) believing that much of this has been released before, meaning essentially, there’s nothing new – and all offered at a (to put it bluntly) rip-off price.

The content: there are 32 (count them) previously unheard tracks. They include what is commonly known as the Beverley Martyn reel; a reel recorded by Paul de Rivaz (an undergraduate acquaintance of Nick’s at Caius) which no one knew existed until we were fairly well along with this as a set, the rest of the which being made up of outtakes (if that’s what you want to term them) from sessions at both Morgan and Sound Techniques. These have all either been bootlegged or officially issued before? I think not.

All of the Bev reel is included and that represent’s Nick’s first time in a proper studio and it is, we believe, in exactly the same running order as it was recorded. There was another set of songs recorded around this point – possibly the same day, possibly a few days later. That reel no longer exists but would have included early versions of Magic, Mary Jane and Day Is Done. A reel which would have been given to Richard Hewson… if not, how would he have been able to complete arrangements for the Sound techniques session on April 11 – impossible as he’d have no reference points.

The PdeR reel sat in the bottom of a drawer, untouched, for decades as his career took him around the world. It is not dated and it was Gabrielle who worked out what it was intended for via a letter from Nick to his parents. The quality is not studio quality – ie, its not comparable to what one would hear from Sound Techniques. Nonetheless, it cleaned up well enough and is a vital part of the process we’ve documented – the *making of* 5LL. Thats the core, the beating heart of this.

The outtakes – this may come as a surprise but, way more reels from the 5LL sessions existed, more than anyone imagined. That meant we had the absolute pick of the best of the outtakes – (a) because this is exactly what it says on the tin… it is the *making of* 5LL. And (b) it would be doing Nick an absolute disservice if every single outtake was to be issued – that was never going to and never will happen. It might satisfy the purists but, thats not how the Estate and especially Gabrielle works.

All of the above means we’ve the best possible music to illustrate a process – the *making of*… you get the gist.

4LPs and 4CDs..? I’ve read that it should be over 2CDs and sure, it very probably could be run out that way. Why not? Because that would fly in the face of what this project has always been about – and that, trust me, isn’t going away. We’re illustrating a process – if thats not your cup of tea… fine… your right, your opinion. Its also why, when I came to sequence the set, we ended up with (initially) three LPs and three CDs before adding the final part of the jigsaw – the actual album itself. And, while there will be many who argue strenuously ‘oh, you didn’t need to do that because we already have it’, the counter argument is… ‘there are just as many who don’t have it to fit with the other material which John (Wood) and Simon Heyworth have mastered. Plus, it shows where the *making of* led to.

The sequencing is very deliberate – not a running order which was cobbled together but something which was the subject of very many conversations until we ended up with it being exactly as it should be. My original did get changed a little from being as near chronological as could be to how it is now – for example, we had to find a way of including one of the Richard Hewson tracks… of course we did as that’s an integral part of … the *making of*… but how best to utilise it? It was Cally and Gabrielle who suggested taking Day Is Done and run it consecutively to show how a song of Nick’s developed. Strange Face ended side one so why not open side two with a version that no one is going to expect – John and Nick playing with ideas one day at Morgan. The first time of hearing that, the consensus was… ‘What the heck is this..?’ Well, it was recorded on 4-track so that meant to achieve that level of multitracking, they’d have to mix two tracks on the fly, bounce that down to give themselves the extra track to work with. And then begin the process again to give them an extra track to play with. If we were closing chronologically, we should have used Saturday Sun – the final track to be recorded. But that didn’t work as well as using the second take from the Harry Robinson session. All the above meaning the sequencing was originally for vinyl which meant we had to replicate that on CD. Otherwise… the illustration of the *making of* wouldn’t work. Complain if you need to but that is the back stop.

The price point – I cannot comment since that is absolutely nothing to do with me. What I can comment on, however, is the inference that this set has been created as some kind of money-making exercise or, even worse, with a view to ripping off the purchaser. This project has been going on for way longer than anyone realises (quite how the secret was kept for that long still baffles me). These things are neither cheap or simple to put together. Consequently, costs have to be covered. Even so, I genuinely don’t think anyone will be profiting much from this. All that to one side, this needs to be said: If there is anyone who genuinely believes that any one of us who worked on this set did so on the basis of profiteering or rip-off, you have absolutely zero understanding of how the ND Estate works, how Gabrielle and Cally operate and how Nick’s record company thinks. If you don’t like the music which has been assembled – that’s fine, your opinion, your right if you prefer. I began researching this project over nine years ago and to be tarred with a brush which suggests rip-off shows utter disrespect for Nick, his music and those of us who’ve worked as hard as we have to bring this out into the open. Think twice before you go there.

Yield schreef:
Koop gewoon de 3 briljante reguliere albums en je bent klaar.