The “beautiful” Nick Drake song Paul Weller couldn’t live without
When you revisit old footage of Paul Weller jumping around on stage with his Rickenbaker and offensive sideburns, spouting furious rock and roll, you probably don’t think, ‘There’s a man who enjoys gentle folk songs about rivers’. As it turns out, you would be dead wrong, as Paul Weller has outed himself as a dedicated follower of Nick Drake, one of the greatest folk musicians to ever grace the airwaves.
Weller’s character does not seem to lend itself naturally to the gentle stylings of Nick Drake or folk music in general. After all, The Jam frontman rose to prominence within the abrasive, revolutionary punk rock scene of the 1970s, taking his Burton suit and Italian loafers to the sticky floors of The Roxy Club.
Even after the break-up of the mod revivalists, Weller’s Style Council project leaned more towards energetic funk and soul, not mellow acoustic guitars and tender vocals. Admittedly, though, the Modfather has seemingly slowed down with age, with his more recent solo work treading the line of folk, which might reflect his interest in Nick Drake.
For the uninitiated, Nick Drake was an incredibly talented guitarist and groundbreaking songwriter who went criminally underrated during his lifetime. After releasing three albums from 1969 to 1972, failing to make virtually any impact on the musical landscape in the UK, Drake succumbed to his long-term struggles with depression, overdosing on antidepressants at the age of only 26. As has been the case for all of history’s greatest artists, Drake was revered after his death, with his limited discography hailed for the genius it so clearly held.
That songwriting genius has certainly not been lost on Paul Weller. Appearing on BBC Radio Four’s long-running series Desert Island Discs back in 2007, the Modfather selected Drake’s ‘River Man’ as one of eight tracks he would take to a desert island with him. Among Weller’s picks were some predictable tracks, including The Small Faces’ ‘Tin Soldier’, without which The Jam might never have existed, as well as classic soul tracks by James Brown.
Within the programme, Weller did not really expand on the specific reasons for choosing ‘River Man’ – as has been the case throughout his career, he tends to prefer expressing himself through his music than in interviews. He did, however, call it “a beautiful song” and, upon being asked which of the tracks he would save from the waves, said, “Out of loyalty The Small Faces, musically Nick Drake.”
‘River Man’, from Drake’s 1969 debut Five Leaves Left, is among his most beautiful and popular tracks, so its place on the desert island with Weller can hardly be disputed. Although the Jam frontman might seem an unnatural lover of folk, there cannot be many people on Earth who are able to deny the musical brilliance of Nick Drake.