"Until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death."

Today is the Anniversary of the day that Nick Drake met his demise. If you don’t know you need to make this part of your musical Cannon. Despite his limited commercial success during his life, since his passing his music has been extremely influential to other musicians such as; Paul Weller, The Cure, The Black Crows, R.E.M. among others. What I find to be the most amazing quality about his music is how timeless it sounds, the depth and structure are completely independent and do little to indicate his influences. His music seems to be more relevant now then in context of the music that was being played when it was recorded in the 70`s, and it will probably continue to preserve that quality for generations to come. None of Nick Drake`s albums ever sold more then five thousand copies while he was alive. In recent years there has been a documentary, exposure on a Volkswagen commercial, and he was voted among one of the 50 most influential English songwriters of all time (BBC.COM), therefore his music has regularly reentered the charts over the last ten years. I don’t usually like to highlight these days especially since it was never clear if his death was accidental or intentional, however I have always believed that even if someone meets their demise in what started out as "intentional", in light of the horrible consequences, it always ends up being a tragic accident, its especially true in this case Nick Drake was 26.(19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974)



In kind of a related way I heard this while watching TV last week, I thought you might enjoy it. I am not going to say that I was flipping through the channels, I like this show. Dont get me wrong I am not a biker, I never have been and I never will be. I have never tried to put to much energy in trying to portray myself as something I am not, Hell! It takes to much energy trying not to be the things that I know I am. But anyway, the show reminds me of a day when bikers were the crazy guys that made me nervous, lived in the cul de sac at the end of the block, no shirts on a Saturday night racing suicide shift, short pipe bikes down the street all night long, no grass in their yard, mean old dogs, flat black trucks, three piece patch, and you knew they were up to some crazy crooked shit! this was long before we passed the tipping point of every cube jockey and commercial sellout wanting to buy back part of their character and self esteem by blowing their tax return on a Harley. I am sure there are still bikers out there, somewhere, but I dont know any. It might have been a novelty at one time for a biker to have a “straight” job, but now it’s a farce, the mainstream and the flock have gutted the ideal.