100px|Nick Drake's grave in Tanworth-in-Arden
Nick Drake (1948–1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his sombre guitar-based songs. He failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, but now ranks among the most influential English singer-songwriters of the last 50 years. Drake released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. None of his first three albums sold more than 5,000 copies on their initial release. Drake suffered from depression and insomnia throughout his life, and these topics were often reflected in his lyrics. On 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. He died from an overdose of amitriptyline in 1974 (grave pictured). Drake was credited as an influence by numerous artists during the 1980s, including The Dream Academy, who in 1985 reached the UK and US charts with "Life in a Northern Town", a song written for and dedicated to him. By the early 1990s, Drake represented a certain type of "doomed romantic" musician in the UK music press. 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. (more...)
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1126:
Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty of China abdicated the throne in favour of his son Qinzong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Huizong_of_Song
1884:
Welsh physician William Price was arrested for attempting to cremate his deceased infant son; he was acquitted in the subsequent trial, which led to the legalisation of cremation in the United Kingdom. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Price_%28physician%29
1919:
World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opened in Versailles, France, to set the peace terms for the Central Powers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Conference%2C_1919
1943:
World War II: As part of Operation Iskra, the Soviet Red Army broke the Siege of Leningrad, opening a narrow land corridor to the city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Iskra
1958:
African Canadian Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the National Hockey League, breaking the colour barrier in professional ice hockey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_O%27Ree
1990:
In a sting operation conducted by the FBI, Mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry was arrested for possession of crack cocaine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
chiasmus (n): An inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chiasmus
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
"Elohim," the name for the creative power in Genesis, is a female plural, a fact that generations of learned rabbis and Christian theologians have all explained as merely grammatical convention. The King James and most other Bibles translate it as "God," but if you take the grammar literally, it seems to mean "goddesses." Al Shaddai, god of battles, appears later, and YHWH, mispronounced Jehovah, later still. --Robert Anton Wilson http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson