Five Leaves Left

Untitled

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
BBC Music	(favourable) link
Entertainment Weekly	(A)
Sputnikmusic	link

Five Leaves Left, recorded in 1969, was the first of three albums by British folk musician Nick Drake. Like Bryter Layter but unlike Pink Moon, this album contains no unaccompanied songs. Drake was accompanied by members of the British folk-rock groups Fairport Convention and Pentangle.

Reception and influence

Five Leaves Left was ranked 85th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 280 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

NME (2 October 1993, p. 29) - Ranked #74 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.'

Q (November 1999, p. 162) - Included in Q's Best Folk Albums of All Time - "The pinnacle of a melancholy canon of work so distinctive that admirers can only speculate miserably on what might have been."

Entertainment Weekly (12 May 2000, p.24) - "On his ageless debut, everything - Drake's lispy voice and delicate guitar fingerpicking, arranger Robert Kirby's stately strings - feels shrouded in mist....Drake's most glorious miniatures." - Rating: A

Alternative Press (March 2001, p.88) - "With a voice paradoxically feather-light and grave, [one] of the most beautiful and melancholy albums ever recorded."

Mojo (July 2000, p.99) - "Represents the first flourish of promise....God, how damn confident it all sounds. He knew how good he was."

Rate Your Music, a metadatabase which aggregates the votes and reviews of its users, ranks the album fifth in the folk genre, seventh for albums released in 1969, and 56th overall. It has scored an average rating of 4.20 out of 5, which was calculated from 5957 ratings.

"Five leaves left" is a reference to the old Rizla cigarette papers packet - which used to contain a printed note near the end saying "Only five leaves left". The album title could also be a reference to an O'Henry short story entitled "The Last Leaf".

Track listing

All songs written by Nick Drake.

Side one

1. "Time Has Told Me" – 4:27
2. "River Man" – 4:21
3. "Three Hours" – 6:16
4. "Way to Blue" – 3:11
5. "Day Is Done" – 2:29

Side two

1. "Cello Song" – 4:49
2. "The Thoughts of Mary Jane" – 3:22
3. "Man in a Shed" – 3:55
4. "Fruit Tree" – 4:50
5. "Saturday Sun" – 4:03

Personnel

Performers

Nick Drake performs vocals and acoustic guitar on all songs, except "Way To Blue" and "Saturday Sun".

• "Time Has Told Me"

  Paul Harris – piano

  Richard Thompson – electric guitar

  Danny Thompson – double bass

• "River Man"

  Danny Thompson – double bass

  Harry Robinson – string arrangement

• "Three Hours"

  Danny Thompson – bass

  Rocky Dzidzornu – congas

• "Way to Blue"

  Robert Kirby – string arrangement

• "Day is Done"

  Robert Kirby – string arrangement

• "Cello Song"

  Clare Lowther – cello

  Danny Thompson – bass

  Rocky Dzidzornu – congas, shaker

• "The Thoughts of Mary Jane"

  Robert Kirby – arrangement

• "Man in a Shed"

  Paul Harris – piano

  Danny Thompson – bass

• "Fruit Tree"

  Robert Kirby – arrangement

• "Saturday Sun"

  Nick Drake – piano

  Danny Thompson – bass

  Tristan Fry – drums, vibraphone

Production

• Simon Heyworth – mastering
• Joe Boyd – production
• John Wood – engineering

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalogue
United Kingdom	1 September 1969	Island	LP	ILPS 9105
	March 1987		CD	CID 9195
	26 June 2000			IMCD 8

External links

• Five Leaves Left at MusicBrainz
• A radio special about Five Leaves Left with Nick Drake biographers Trevor Dann, Patrick Humphries, and Peter Hogan on The Marketplace of Ideas
• [1] BBC Music review of Five Leaves Left