Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake
by Trevor Dann

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Book Reviews of Darker Than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake

Book Review: New, original & controversial!
Summary: 4 Stars

On the reservations side, there are unsubtantiated claims that Nick was a heroin addict, suffered from schizophrenia and also, there are various digs at his character. The source of the heroin-user claim is not revealed, so presumably it could come from either of three sources: John Cale, Velvet Underground keyboardist who appears with Nick Drake in the popular track, Northern Sky who refers obliquily to it, Scott Appel - who gets a mention in the book - but as far as I can see, Scott in his attempt to 'reveal the truth' was actually blurring Nick with himself, e.g., the 'speedballs' and 'demerol', etc., these sound very American in description. If the source is Gabrielle, and this is possible, because the letter she read out in the film 'A Skin Too Few' is reproduced here, there is clearly active input from Nick Drake's Estate. Many details possibly could only have come from Gabrielle, in which case, the claims are probably more substantial than if they were merely speculation based on hearsay. Dann's view that ND had schizophrenia caused by too much cannabis use is, he says, based on recent research, however even more recent research suggests that there is actually no link between cannabis use and mental illness, at all.

The latter part of the book has a brief track-by-track analysis of Nick's work.

All in all, the book is in easy to read print, which makes it a rather short book, but is better than I expected it to be, over all. There are many new and interesting photographs included.

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