Mary Drake (born Mary Lloyd; 5 November 1915 – 4 June 1993), also known as Molly Drake, was an English poet and musician. She is known as the mother of actress

Gabrielle Drake Gabrielle Drake (born 30 March 1944) is a British actress. She appeared in the 1970s in television series '' The Brothers'' and '' UFO''. In the early 1970s she appeared in several erotic roles on screen. She later took parts in soap operas '' ...

and musician

Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridg ...

. Molly Drake never released any official publications of her poetry or compositions in her lifetime, but she had a profound impact on the musical style of her son. As Nick Drake's music gained a larger following after his death, Molly Drake's recordings have been released, revealing similarities in music and lyrics between her work and her son's.

Biography

Drake was born to father Sir Idwal Geoffrey Lloyd (13 January 1878, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire – 6 March 1946, Surrey) and mother Georgie Lloyd, in

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. She was christened "Mary", but no one used that as "Molly" was deemed more suitable. Both her parents were involved in the military, and the country was not considered the ideal place to raise Drake and her siblings, so the children were sent to England to be raised by the Dunn family, close associates of the Lloyds. Drake and her siblings were placed in the

Wycombe Abbey Wycombe Abbey is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private girls' boarding and day school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The school was founded in 1896 by Dame Frances Dove (1847–1942), who was previously headmistress of ...

Boarding School where she struggled as a student, but managed to obtain her School Certificate. Once her studies were complete, Drake returned to Rangoon and soon met her future husband, Rodney Drake. The couple's marriage was postponed until Molly Drake reached the age of 21, as required by her parents. On 14 April 1937 they married in the cathedral at Rangoon. In 1942, with

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

raging, Japan invaded Burma forcing Drake into refuge. She was separated from her husband, who enlisted for the

Burma Campaign The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of British rule in Burma, Burma as part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. It primarily involved forces of the Allies of World War II, Allies (mainly from ...

. Drake and her sister Nancy were evacuated to their uncle's home, which was in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

, India where the war hardly infringed on their lives. In order to find comfort, the sisters both sang and played the piano. They formed a duet, and Drake worked in her only musical career as a co-host on ''All India Radio''. Molly and Nancy were known as ''The Lloyd Sisters'' while hosting the station. However, no known recordings of the sisters performing exists. Although Drake enjoyed singing and playing the piano for friends and on the radio, composing pieces was a private affair. She would only share her drafts with her immediate family. Drake was reunited with her husband towards the end of the war, and she gave birth to her first child,

, on 30 March 1944. The family returned to Rangoon after the war and on 19 June 1948 their second child,

, was born. In 1952, the family moved to

Tanworth-in-Arden Tanworth-in-Arden (; often abbreviated to Tanworth) is a village and civil parish in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is south-southeast of Birmingham, north-east of Redditch and 8 miles (13 km) south-southwest of Solihull and is admin ...

, England where Molly Drake spent the rest of her life and wrote most of her compositions. Her home was a place of social gathering where Drake would play the piano for friends, but, again, she never showed interest in publishing or recording her work. Drake was supportive of her son's and daughter's career choices and encouraged Nick Drake's musical career. Nick Drake was closer to his mother than to his father. She often wrote songs to play for her children, one of Nick Drake's earliest influences. As her son suffered through depression, her poetry would reflect the turmoil she knew her son was going through, and the inability to help improve his condition. The toll of losing her son in 1974 took years to recover from, but through her family and composing, Drake was able to recover to live out the last part of her life. Drake died on 4 June 1993 and was buried in the Tanworth-in-Arden graveyard with her husband, who had died in 1988, and her son. On her tombstone it reads "Now we rise, and we are everywhere" as written by Nick Drake.

Official releases

Molly Drake's material first met exposure on the documentary pertaining to her son's life, ''A Skin Too Few'' in 2000. The first official inclusion in an LP release was on the 2007 album, ''

Family Tree A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...

''. Two of her compositions, "Poor Mum" and "Do You Ever Remember?", were included on the release. Nick Drake's increasing

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

led to further interest in his mother. In 2011, an album entitled '' Molly Drake'' was released with the intent of focusing solely on the work of Molly Drake. The nineteen songs were recorded on a rudimentary setup in the 1950s in seclusion at her home, engineered by her husband Rodney. Piano accompanies Drake's soft vocals on tracks that mainly last two minutes. The tracks are poetic and heavy-hearted, similar to her son's musical style. The album was first released on Bryter Music complete with a small book of poems in a black card portfolio. The album was first released in the USA by the Squirrel Thing Recordings label and was engineered by Nick Drake's past engineer, John Wood.

Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny who was in Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The ...

says this compilation is "the missing link in the Nick Drake story".

Compilation albums

* ''

'' (2007) * '' Molly Drake'' (2013) * ''The Tide's Magnificence: Songs and Poems of Molly Drake'' (2017)

In popular culture

The song "Little Weaver Bird" plays over the closing scene of the 2020 series '' Mrs. America''. '' The Songs and Poems of Molly Drake'' is a 2017 album by the English folk group,

the Unthanks The Unthanks (until 2009 called Rachel Unthank and the Winterset) are an folk music of England, English folk group known for their eclectic approach in combining traditional English folk, particularly Music of Northumbria, Northumbrian folk mus ...

. The band has, as of October 2017, released two albums of their recordings of Drake's songs. The song "I Remember" plays during the ending credits of "No Weddings and a Funeral", Season 2, Episode 10 (released on September 24, 2021) of Apple TV+’s series ''

Ted Lasso ''Ted Lasso'' ( ) is an American sports film, sports comedy-drama television series developed by Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence (TV producer), Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, and Joe Kelly. It is based on a character Sudeikis portrayed in a series ...

.'' Also, it plays in another series by Apple TV+, "

The Crowded Room ''The Crowded Room'' is an American psychological thriller miniseries created by Akiva Goldsman and inspired by the 1981 non-fiction novel ''The Minds of Billy Milligan'' by Daniel Keyes. Tom Holland, Amanda Seyfried, and Emmy Rossum lead a supp ...

", Season 1, Episode 9, "Family" (released on July 21, 2023). The song "Happiness" was played in ''Resident Alien'''s Season 2, Episode 9. Molly inspired

Xan Tyler Xan Tyler is a British singer-songwriter based in Scotland. Career Born and raised in South London, Tyler began her singing career as a backing singer. After working with numerous bands and as a session singer, she signed to Alan McGee's Creat ...

to write "Forever Things" which was released on 2024 in Glasgow.

Cover versions

In 2013

Tracey Thorn Tracey Thorn (born 26 September 1962) is an English singer, songwriter, and author. She is best known as a member of the duo Everything but the Girl, active from 1982 to 2000, and again from 2022. She was in the band Marine Girls from 1980 to ...

recorded two Molly Drake tracks for a documentary, ''The Songs of Molly Drake'', which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Molly 1915 births 1993 deaths Nick Drake English women poets English women singers English women songwriters Musicians from Yangon Writers from Yangon People from Tanworth-in-Arden 20th-century English poets 20th-century English women writers British expatriates in British Burma British people in colonial India