Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

An authentic reproduction of the 1969 first pressing with a 180-gram LP, shop poster and a reprint of Nick's handwritten lyrics to two songs

Plus a bonus voucher with a choice of download formats, including high-res 24-bit and dubbed from disc

Nick’s first album, named after the warning found toward the end of a packet of Rizla cigarette papers, was begun in July 1968 at Chelsea’s Sound Techniques studios, an 8-track studio built on the site of the old Chelsea dairy at 46a Old Church Street SW3. The finished album wasn’t released until over a year later.

Joe Boyd produced the album in terms of booking studios and hiring musicians but it was John Wood, the album’s engineer, who was responsible for the finished sound. Drake's bucolic autumnal shades in his debut album heralded a new signing for Island Records: not traditional enough to be folk, not weird enough to be psychedelic, Drake avoided the pitfalls of what was expected and collaborated with producer Boyd, orchestrator Robert Kirby and recording engineer Wood to make a singular and almost unique record released to a largely indifferent media.

Part Donovan, part Jim Webb, Drake articulated an aching romanticism at a time when progressive rock ran rampant. Beautiful melodies and fragrant accompaniment, in particular Robert Kirby's stunning string arrangements, enhance the artist's sense of longing in which warm, but understated, vocals accentuate the album's passive mystery.

Initially in-house arranger at Apple, Richard Hewson, was drafted to arrange the strings, but Nick wanted Cambridge friend Robert Kirby for the job. Despite Kirby’s youth (he was 19 at the time) and relative inexperience, Boyd was impressed with the results and Kirby was given the job. The four tracks Kirby arranged (for string quartet, bowed double bass and — on one track — flute) were recorded in a single 3-hour session with Nick playing live in the same room. One further string arrangement on "River Man" was done by Harry Robinson.

Other musicians brought in to fill out the sound included Fairport Convention’s Richard Thompson on electric guitar and Danny Thompson on double bass. The bass parts were overdubbed after Nick had recorded his guitar and vocal parts.

The cover image was shot by Keith Morris in a shoot on April 29, 1969.