Upon completion of his third album, 1972's Pink Moon, he withdrew from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November 1974, Drake died from an overdose of amitriptyline, a prescribed antidepressant; he was 26 years old.
Drake's music remained available through the mid-1970s but the 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree caused his back catalogue to be reassessed. By the mid-1980s Drake was being credited as an influence by such artists as Robert Smith and Peter Buck. In 1985, The Dream Academy reached the UK and US charts with "Life in a Northern Town", a song written for and dedicated to Drake. By the early 1990s, he had come to represent a certain type of 'doomed romantic' musician in the UK music press, and was frequently cited by artists including Kate Bush, Paul Weller and The Black Crowes. Drake's first biography was written in 1997, and was followed in 1998 by the documentary film A Stranger Among Us. In 2000, Volkswagen featured the title track from Pink Moon in a television advertisement, and within a month Drake had sold more records than he had in the previous thirty years.
Count me among those. My CD of "Pink Moon" had a big sticker on it that said "As seen on the Volkswagen Cabrio commercial!"
It’s a beautiful commercial, and I always liked Drake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIOW9fLT9eY
man… i hadn’t seen that commercial since it went out of rotation. it really is a good one.
Good song, how is the album overall?
“Pink Moon” is a lot like those two songs. spare, raw, just him and his guitar (mostly). i love it: #28.
most of his other albums are slathered in 70’s strings and ghastly mellow saxophones.
Pink Moon
Sorry to bring a thread back from the dead, but this is apropos. I just saw an AT&T commercial using “From the Morning“, also off Pink Moon.
that AT&T commercial isn’t as good as the VW spot, but it’s not awful. and that song sure fits the mood.