The Making Of Five Leaves Left, a project nine years in gestation, will be released July 25 via Island/UMe. This Nick Drake Estate authorized edition comprises more than 30 previously unheard outtakes from the sessions which gradually became Nick Drake’s debut album, Five Leaves Left, and will be available as 4CD and 4LP boxed sets. The reason for the lack of any previous typical anniversary-related ‘deluxe’ set, was the Estate’s wish that the listener concentrate on the beauty within the original released studio recordings. However, following the discovery of remarkable tapes from two new outside sources, plus a comprehensive reordering of the Universal tape library, Nick’s sister Gabrielle felt that now was the time to reveal the origin story of the album.
It should also be noted that that the choice of tracks was made in order to tell the story as faithfully as possible, and not simply to release all the takes on all of the tapes.
The final disc in each package is the original Joe Boyd-produced album. The whole set has been mastered by John Wood and Simon Heywood and both vinyl and CD versions will be housed in the same beautiful packaging.
This lovingly put together set features studio outtakes and previously unheard songs that tell the story of how Nick Drake’s debut album came to be released on Island Records in July 1969. The set includes Nick’s first ever session at Sound Techniques – found on a mono listening-reel which Beverley Martyn had squirrelled away over fifty years ago. It also contains the full reel recorded at Caius College by Cambridge acquaintance Paul de Rivaz which had lain in the bottom of a drawer for decades, accompanying him and his family around the world.
The Making Of Five Leaves Left will feature full recording details, charts and the recording history across an illustrated 60-page book. The book, printed on special textured paper stock, which is 100% recyclable and biodegradable, was written by Neil Storey in collaboration with Richard Morton-Jack after new research, undertaken for the latter’s acclaimed biography “The Life,” revealed new insights.
Legend tells of multi-tracks and master tapes from the 1960s onwards being calculated by accountants as having no value, loaded onto lorries before being taken away and crushed to create more easily managed space. When we began the process during 2016 – the search into what may or may not have survived from the Five Leaves Left sessions – no one had any idea what might be found. One starts a project such as this with fingers firmly crossed, hoping for the best but knowing the well of disappointment could be around the next corner. Thankfully, almost all of the reels associated with Five Leaves Left exist. Not all but most.
The next stage was the analog/digital reel transference. Once completed the music contained on the reels – a combination of 1⁄2″ 4-track multi-tracks, 1⁄4″ mono and stereo mixes, two 1⁄4″ mono masters and a single 1″ 8-song reel – created an interesting conundrum. What should we include, what should be left out? It was established very early on we couldn’t – and more importantly wouldn’t – include every outtake found; as much as that might please the purist, it wouldn’t respect Nick.
In any studio what happens behind the closed door of a session is always the same. Some takes go down perfectly, some don’t. It’s the nature of the process. On these reels, no one was surprised to find Nick occasionally miscuing a vocal or guitar part, Danny Thompson blundering over a bass line or a string section coming in half a bar behind. All that happened. Not often, but it did. Even so, those few-and-far-between gaffes were part of the story because the chosen music would detail the evolutionary process of Five Leaves Left. Next step – sequencing.
DISC ONE
The opening six songs contain Nick’s first ever session at Sound Techniques that were found on the mono listening-reel which Beverley Martyn had squirrelled away in a drawer over fifty years ago. It is safe to assume it’s in exactly the same order as Joe Boyd and John Wood recorded it. Certainly “Mayfair” and “Time Has Told Me,” which segue into one another, are the first two tracks they recorded – otherwise why would Joe say what he says right at the very start?
The following six songs open with a radically different take of “Strange Face.” Never finished but showing how it could have ended up if Nick had chosen to continue down that particular musical path. While the Richard Hewson session was aborted an element has to play a part, otherwise we’d not be telling the story properly. How best to illustrate this? To demonstrate how one of Nick’s songs developed, we married Richard’s original orchestration of “Day Is Done” which features Nick singing but not playing via his and Danny Thompson’s second stab at it in November before Robert Kirby’s strings accompany Nick’s guitar as sessions for the album were coming to a close almost a year later. This led us to the undated Paul de Rivaz reel – the likely purpose of which was to help Nick and Robert better prepare for a concert planned for February 23, 1968.
Sonically, there is a major difference from recordings made at Sound Techniques and those in a fellow undergraduate’s room captured on rudimentary equipment. To ease that transition we have Nick explaining how he sees “My Love Left With The Rain” evolving, suggesting he’d like “to get as expansive a sound as possible.”
DISC TWO
The first seven songs are all from the de Rivaz reel and the following five are the best never-before-heard takes from the first two days of Nick’s collaboration with Danny Thompson.
DISC THREE
For the next eight songs, we’ve more or less stayed in sequence of recording dates. There is no way of being certain, but since “River Man” had not been previously recorded possibly indicates Nick had only recently completed writing it.
Strictly speaking, the final four titles are out of sequence. “Way To Blue” can be narrowed down to an unspecified date during the winter of 1968. As the recording dates show, “Saturday Sun” was the final track on the album to be recorded yet, it didn’t feel right to conclude the story of The Making Of Five Leaves Left with anything other than the first full take of Harry Robinson’s orchestration of “River Man.”
DISC FOUR
The final disc completes the cycle. It is Five Leaves Left just as Joe and John sequenced it, as Nick first heard it in completed form, and the same as he handed his sister in her London flat in mid-June 1969.
Gabrielle Drake: “I suspect I got the very first copy. Nick must’ve had that moment of seeing himself on the cover, his music inside, and, it is so typical of Nick because all he said was, ‘Well… there you are.’ As I’ve said many times, he really was a man of few words.”
The remaster dates from 2000 when all of Nick’s albums were remastered for CD by John Wood and Simon Heyworth. When John went to Abbey Road in 2013 to remaster the tapes for vinyl reissues, he discovered the original analogue masters had, fractionally, deteriorated. Tapes degrade over time, both the oxide layer and the tape base can be affected by age. Therefore, the 24bit files captured from 2000 remain the superior version – Five Leaves Left sounding as good as it can be.
The Making of Five Leaves Left Tracklist:
LP1 – 1st Sound Techniques Session — A.K.A. The Beverley Martyn demo & Alt Takes from February 1968 to April 1969
Side A
01. Mayfair – 1st Sound Techniques Session – March 1968
02. Time Has Told Me – 1st Sound Techniques Session – March 1968
03. Man In A Shed- 1st Sound Techniques Session – March 1968
04. Fruit Tree – 1st Sound Techniques Session – March 1968
05. Saturday Sun – 1st Sound Techniques Session – March 1968
06. Strange Face – 1st Sound Techniques Session – March 1968
Side B
01. Strange Face – Rough Mix with Guide Vocal – September 1968
02. Day Is Done – Take 5 – April 1968
03. Day Is Done – Take 2 – November 1968
04. Day Is Done – Take 7 – April 1969
05. Man In A Shed – Take 1 – May 1968
06. My Love Left With The Rain – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
LP2 – Paul de Rivaz Reel – October 1968 / Out-Takes November 1968
Side A
01. Blossom – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
02. Instrumental – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
03. Made To Love Magic – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
04. Mickey’s Tune – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
05. The Thoughts of Mary Jane – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
06. Day Is Done – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
07. Time Has Told Me – Cambridge, Lent Term 1968
Side B
01. Three Hours – Take 2 – November 1968
02. Time Has Told Me – Take 4 – November 1968
03. Strange Face – Take 1 – November 1968
04. Saturday Sun – Take 1 – November 1968
05. Fruit Tree – Take 4 – November 1968
LP3 – Out-Takes from December 1968 to April 1969
Side A
01. Time of No Reply – Take 3 into Take 4 – December 1968
02. ‘Cello Song – Take 4 – January 1969
03. Mayfair – Take 5 – January 1969
04. River Man – Take 1 – January 1969
Side B
01. Way To Blue – Cambridge – Winter 1968
02. The Thoughts of Mary Jane – Take 2 – April 1969
03. Saturday Sun – Take 1 into Take 2 – April 1969
04. River Man – Take 2 – April 1969
LP4 – The Original Album – Released 3rd July 1969
Side A
01. Time Has Told Me
02. River Man
03. Three Hours
04. Way To Blue
05. Day Is Done
Side B
01. ‘Cello Song
02. The Thoughts of Mary Jane
03. Man In A Shed
04. Fruit Tree
05. Saturday Sun
