Nick Drake-Maximum Nick Drake (2004)
Artist: Nick Drake (Written by Keith Rodway, Read by Sian Jones)
Title: Maximum Nick Drake
Label: Chrome Dreams
Format: CD
Cat #: ABCD187
Year of Release: 2004
Country and Year of Edition Issue: UK 2004
Listed Condition: VG+/VG+
Sell Date: 12/10/25
Sell Price: $5.76
Discogs Last Sold: 3/30/24 VG+/VG $3.00
Low: $3.00
Median: $5.76
Average: $4.71
High: $5.76
Current low price: $3.50
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 6
Have/Want: 23/6
Where Sold: Huntington, NY
Time it took to sell: 2 years
Where and When Bought: $2 cd lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: D-
Sad To See It Go: No
Chrome Dreams "Maximum..." series is the type of thing you find in a bookstore cutout bin. This one, like I suspect all others, consists of no music and a drug store biography of the performer in question. The books-on-tape reader sounds like she possibly never heard the artist she was reading about and reads the text like a haughty schoolteacher's aide. She never fails to accent a single sentence without emphasis on the last word. The Martin Leach/British Formal Reading style lords over the author Keith Rodway's 2004 rock critic observations for the masses tying Nick Drake to Coldplay and Radiohead "today."
This doesn't get a full F, however tempting, because there is some extreme detail to describing the outtake catalog beyond the three releases in Nick's lifetime. Interestingly the "Pink Moon" Volkswagen commercial was out five years before this, but there is no acknowledgment of this being the true reason Nick Drake was able to join such luminaries as Madonna and Metallica to join the prestigious Maximum series from Chrome Dreams. There is precious little insight of the musicians outside of their mention, given the unauthorized nature of the release. Joe Boyd, Fairport, Richard Thompson, John Cale, Sandy Denny, John Martyn, Island Records and Nick's last meal (a bowl of cereal eaten at 4:30am) and cause of death (overdose of Amitriptyline) in November 1974 are all duly noted. Nobody tied to anything would have anything to do with this to give reader Sian Jones anything to say. Sian has lent her talents to Dr. Dre and Franz Ferdinand accounts as well. I'm sure there are fans out there that have all three accounts in their collection.
We also get a couple inaudible Drake interview clips, that remained inaudible when I put on headphones to make sure. Think tape hiss over a mumbling Drake with a few words you can understand. Then the well-heeled Englishwoman Jones reads for about 45 minutes, then we get another hissy interview except. Then a pithy male announcer thanks us for joining and gives us the Chrome Dreams website.
I bought this in a $2 facebook marketplace CD lot where I quickly listed the 10-15 artists of note of stacks of exposed spine CD's to buy in a $30 box. I got a few Nick Drake titles this way, I probably wasn't being too picky about what I was getting. It never got played, and I forgot I even had it when it sold. I haven't even got around to unfolding the CD booklet to see the "free poster" in all it's 10" x 10" glory. Fortunately, I put the few hundred CD's sitting in boxes in the back room in letter sorted order last week, so I found this in a D pile quickly. Glad it went for six bucks. I would not buy anything in the "Maximum" Chrome Dreams series again.
Why tempt fate twice with having this laying around untouched until the end of my days?
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
Nick Drake-Five Leaves Left (1969)
Fairport Convention-Fairport Convention (1968)
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