The 1971 song Nick Drake wished had turned out differently: “Oh poor boy”

The 1971 song Nick Drake wished had turned out differently: “Oh poor boy”An artist singing ahead of his time, or simply a person who was born out of the time he belonged in, it can be hard to know exactly where to place Nick Drake in the pantheon of great musicians and songwriters. Incidentally, Drake’s second album, Bryter Layter, was released a few months before Songs of Love and Hate, although Cohen’s influence could be heard on the record’s eighth song, ‘Poor Boy’. Joe Boyd, who produced the album, once remembered that, “On his original demo of ‘Poor Boy’, Nick sang the line, ‘Oh poor boy. Similarly, Nick Drake wasn’t overly keen on the extra voices which had been added to ‘Poor Boy’ by his own producer, Boyd, who remembered, “Nick said, ‘Do you think so?’ and in retrospect I think that may have been him saying, ‘I don’t think so’”.