(Credits: Far Out / Bert Verhoeff)
Mon 20 April 2026 6:00, UK
On varying ends of the musical spectrum sit Elton John and Nick Drake, the former the prince of flamboyance, delivering his string of piano-tinged hits while wearing feather boas and glittering jumpsuits, celebrating the opulent glamour of music entertainment.
The latter was not only unlikely to be found wearing such a glamorous outfit, but to have even been on stage at all. Drake’s legacy existed solely within his body of music and nothing else at all. He was the most enigmatic figure of the music industry, while Elton was the most open. Elton made his methodology work, however, and ultimately, it was in line with his own personality, which used the extroverted nature of music to break out of a crippling social anxiety that had made up most of his early life.
But the music industry couldn’t help but envy Drake, who was one of the premier songwriters of the era, garnering widespread critical acclaim for records that were backed with little to no promotional push. Bryter Layter and Pink Moon came out in 1971 and ‘72, respectively, and instantly set a songwriting standard for the rest to follow.
At that point, Elton was laying the foundations of his iconic career with his self-titled record and follow-up Honky Chateau, which, while impactful records, had nothing of the immediate songwriting reverence of Drake’s two albums. Elton watched in awe, wondering how on earth he could balance such innovation with mystery.
He knew better than to copy, however, which, unfortunately, was a memo his label missed. They saw the chance to commercialise Drake’s authenticity by dressing it up in a flamboyant musical outfit and having Elton cover it in a more chart-friendly manner. Rightly, he refused.
“I did cover versions, and Island paid me to do them to try and make them more viable for other people to record,” he explained, “But once you hear a Nick Drake record, you can’t do any better than that. That was a failed experiment, even though I loved recording those songs because they are such brilliant songs.”
If you worry that the modern age is riddled with nasty corporate attempts to commercialise and exploit a trend, then don’t worry, because this is cyclical behaviour. It’s a longstanding problem, particularly in the music industry, where labels are essentially trying to profit off cultural movements.
At this moment in time, it was the ‘folk wave’, a culture booming in the slipstream of Bob Dylan’s 1960s emergence and now pioneered by the elusive Nick Drake. But what the labels failed to realise, and what Elton could luckily see, was that Drake, in particular, was not a commodity.
His popularity was deeply rooted in his ability to pen songs with emotional intimacy and authenticity, making it simply impossible to replicate. Not even Elton John could turn his songs into a commercial powerhouse, and that was the key element of Drake’s reverence within the industry, a one-of-a-kind artist who didn’t spearhead trends but bucked them.
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