I was only vaguely familiar with Nick Drake before tonight. I’ve heard a few of his songs before through things: “Fly” in The Royal Tenenbaums and “From the Morning” in an AT&T commercial. I didn’t really know anything about him or heard his music by itself, though.
“River Man” is really good, though. Like, really, really, really good. The melody is great, the harmony is great, those strings are great, everything is great. Wow.
From his Wikipedia article:
Although he failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, Drake’s work has gradually achieved wider notice and recognition; he now ranks among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years.
…
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 30 years.
Crikey.