Nick Drake - an Aspie ?????????

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Do you think that the late Nick Drake ( BRYTER LATER , etc. ) might have been Aspie ( -ish ) ????????? He's less well-known in the U. S. , but I did see the " A SKIN TOO FEW " television flick about him ( in a theater ) recently .

It is probable. Certainally Asperger's wasn't as widely recognised then as it is now but Linda Thompson who briefly went out with Nick mention's in his biography that she thought that he may have certainally been affected by autism. Do try and purchase a copy of the book, it's called 'Nick Drake - The Biography' by Patrick Humphries and I found it extremely informative and engaging.

I've wondered about it also, although before when I didn't know as much about AS I didn't think he fit the profile exactly. Now, I think there's definately a strong possibility. He has an aspie look to him, that's for sure.

It seems plausible to me. I haven't seen that movie or read his biography but from what I have read about him in other sources he seems to have had some aspie traits. And you can hear it in his music / lyrics.

I'll tell you something, I wouldnt trust anyone who's name rhymes with Dick Cake!

an u sure as heck can't trust an Aspie!! !! ...with anything big or small!


Forget Nick Drake, Brian Mcfadden is miles better!

jeez i was thinkin of Nick Cave

Last edited by squatterandtheant on 01 May 2007, 1:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Being a fingerstyle guitarist/singer-songwriter with AS and who's struggled all her life with depression, I'd say, yeah plausible and probable. from the first time I heard someone talk about him, I felt a powerfully deep, intuitive kinship with him that goes beyond fan worship or even words. I had dreams and even a vision of him before I had ever heard his music or knew his story - at the time I simply knew he was this guitarist who was thought highly of. It was having those experiences that lead me to exploring his music. When I first heard his music, I didn't think in terms of "Oh he's an Aspie" but more like he was some long lost brother or relative I had never gotten to meet in person (he died when I was 3). I admit that while I have all his released recordings, I don't listen to his music too much because it can be really hard sometimes for me. I still however don't think of him having AS, although it fits, in my view.

I don't think you need to comb his lyrics or anything to prove he had AS. It's sort of the whole package, the good and bad, the pretty and not so pretty. Either you see or you don't it, but just because you don't doesn't mean he wasn't. I'd say he most likely was.

Over-rated in my opinion.
Appealed to the angst ridden depressed college mentality.
Sixth-form poetry.

This is as laughable as it is contentious. What are you trying to prove - that you know something? His "angst" (if you insist on calling it that) is more informed and more reflective than whatever cultural shallows you strain to fit him in, which apparently is all you know of. Otherwise your response would actually reflect some degree of comprehension of what his music represents. My first assumption is you're a passive consumer of music with plenty of noisy opinions to spare, but not actually a musican yourself. That is to say, you'd probably be better off keeping your mouth shut. Anyone who's sat down and played any of his songs easily knows he was a profoundly gifted musician.

And if by chance you are a musican, you're a woefully ignorant adn short-sighted one. Which in that case you also need to shut up. As a musican who's paid her dues and gotten her degree, I have no patience with this kind of silly, dilettantish nonsense.

As for poetry- he wrote lyrics for songs, which is not the same as other forms of poetry. But I take you're not really a songwriter either.

P.S. Yeah, saw you had posted lyrics from a Big Black song and a Smiths song in another thread and got a good chuckle out of that. And of course, I couldn't resist saying calling you out on it. So that's you're frame of reference: Albini's ulcer-driven, college days angst and Morrissey's anemic, Ian Curtis worship angst. That figures. You just think your stale 80's angst is better than other people's angst, that's all. Albini and Morrissey would both mock you mercilessly.

Yeah i am trying to prove i am not a big fan of Nick Drake.
How contentious.
He was probably a nice guy, i got all his long players and i dont think he is too bad.
Call me out on anything.
I dont mind
I like the Fall and Sonic Youth; give you a chuckle.

John Denver was cool.
He could write and sing too.

ASS-P

great user name

I'm a huge Nick Drake fan, but I think it's a little over the top to say that you need to be a musician to appreciate his music. Like it or don't like it, whichever works for you. I don't hear any angst in any of his songs, though... I don't like the idea of people using that word to describe any music that's somber or downbeat, that's pretty unfair.

Also, I think he wrote great poetry, especially on Pink Moon.

Don't forget Dylan.
He was OK.
Sorry i forgot to shut up, my opinion is worthless

"fruit tree, fruit tree"

This is an old thread but, having just finished reading the biography by Humphries, and watched "A Skin Too Few," I see austism spectrum written all over Nick Drake. It is such a strong thread running through the biography that I was all but shouting out loud: "Didn't anyone see -- he had Asperger's!!" The biographer himself keeps questioning -- very eloquently, its a beautifully written book -- what was wrong with Nick, why this, why that. It felt very clear to me. Aside from the idea that I also feel that his drug use could have triggered and exacerbated things that, in other people doing the same substances, won't necessarily be triggered, I do feel that Nick displayed what we know now, in the 21t century, to be strong Asperger traits.

But nobody in the late 1960s and early 1970s knew a single thing about that end of the spectrum. The only people in those days who were diagnosed with any level of autism were usually the clear cases of more severe autism. The Asperger end of the scale, though conceived of decades earlier, still wasn't even on the radar of the average person, even the professionals. I hate to "diagnose" when I'm no professional myself, but to me so many anecdotes of Nick Drake's life positively scream Asperger's.

He hated performing onstage, hunched over, never meeting the eyes of the audience; refused to do shows. He was withdrawn at social gatherings --was okay being there, but didn't say much, and then would suddenly just bolt. He would leave without warning as if he'd just had enough. He was introspective and could sometimes just sit staring at a wall -- he once was found doing this while refusing to answer his doorbell, when the visitor peered into the window he saw Nick in there just staying very still as if hoping the caller would go away. Oh lawdy have I done that so many times. He suffered from depression which escalated, often a co-morbid of ASD and especially of undiagnosed spectrum issues.

I could go on. I'm just so struck by how strongly Aspie all the traits his friends describe sound to me.

.

...I got diagnosed " paranoid schizophrenic " and locked away in a loony bin and stuffed full of Thorazine and Mellaril for my aspie-ness and my life destroyed ~ Commited frequently , since I'd been committed before and obviously , then , must be crazy
I never got to " withdraw " and be protected "