SXSW PANELS
Nick Drake Remembered
Austin Convention Center, Saturday, March 17
“Why now?” That was the central problem tackled during Saturday’s Nick Drake panel. Not that this is really an issue, but why is it that Drake only becomes more popular as time progresses? Producer Joe Boyd pointed out that Drake’s album sales consistently go up every year, and nobody pretended that the Volkswagen TV ad with “Pink Moon” didn’t help, but it was a little peculiar that nobody thought to mention that the world’s population had nearly doubled since Drake overdosed on antidepressants and died in 1974. Additionally, Boyd had an interesting story of how John Cale became part of Bryter Layter, and the panel also featured Robyn Hitchcock; anything featuring the English pop savant becomes, whether intentional or not, a platform for him to say interesting and often humorous things. His best quip here had more to do with British national identity than with Drake himself but might have nevertheless provided the best answer to the question put forth: “Our parents had the war. We had drugs. And our kids have irony.”
This article appears in March 23 • 2007.