According to Robert Kirby, friend and arranger for Nick Drake, both he and Nick were involved in sessions for the educational double LP recording Interplay One (Longman, 1972). Kirby remembered the following in regards to the session:
'The other session I got for Nick was for Longman, the educational publishers. I was singing, pretending to be a swagman, Nick played guitar, and a childhood friend called Rocking John played banjo ….. I was going out with a girl who was an editor at Longman, and it was recorded, I think, at their offices in Harlow. It was done within a year of us leaving Cambridge, so 1970/71.’ (Patrick Humphries, Nick Drake - the biography, Bloomsbury, 1998, 145-6)
Precise recording dates are unknown – Kirby vaguely refers to 1970/71, whilst the LP label cites the patent date as 1971, and the booklet accompanying the double album indicates 1972. This suggests that the music was perhaps recorded during the latter part of 1971, and the final product made available early in 1972.
Interplay One was an educational kit (teaching anthology) produced for use in junior secondary school. It was compiled by John Watts and included music (a double album of recorded speech, sounds and music), two booklets containing text (stories, poems, song lyrics) and teacher’s notes, along with film strips of images to accompany the music and words. The material was divided into 18 units, with each unit having a theme as expressed in its title. These units usually corresponded with the titles of the songs featured on the albums, though additional songs were also included. The 18 units were:
Humphries notes that Nick Drake played guitar on the following songs during the session:
Robert Kirby sang on one song – With a Swag all on My Shoulder - whilst the female singer Vivian Fowler was heard on the other two. Only Full Fathom Five is listed on the inner sleeve of the album and the lp label. There is no reference to the other two songs on the album, neither is there any listing of the various musicians involved, either on the album or within the accompanying booklet. We therefore have only the Humphries and Kirby information to assist in this area. The three songs involving Nick Drake are described in detail below. MP3 versions of the songs are available at Peter Borman's web site, at the following address: http://home.hetnet.nl/~peter.borman/. These were taken directly from a mint version of the lp during December 2001.
Unit 10 - Full Fathom Five. Record 2, side 1, track 1. Length: 1 minute 10 seconds. A folk song featuring Vivian Fowler on vocals and Nick Drake on guitar. The words of the song are extracted from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, as follows:Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral
made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Nothing of him that doth
fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and
strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Hark! Now I hear them
–
Ding-dong bell.
This song, though brief, features some lovely guitar playing from Nick Drake, behind Vivian Fowler's vocal. It is a haunting sea shanty in the folk tradition.
With My Swag all on My Shoulder
Unit 18 - Into the Unknown. Record 2, side 2, track 4. Length: 2 minutes 32 seconds. According to Humphries, this traditional Australian pioneer song features Robert Kirby on vocals, pretending to be a swagman, and Nick Drake on guitar. It is a beautiful song with an Irish flavour, featuring some nice picking by Nick. The song is not listed on the record label or mentioned in the accompanying booklet. This song had been made popular in Britain by the Australian group The Seekers during the 1960s.I Wish I was a Single Girl Again
Unit 7 – Only a number to the postman. Record 1, side 2, track 3. Length: 2 minutes. This song is not listed on the lp label, but is noted in the accompanying booklet. According to Humphries, it features 'Rocking John' on banjo and Vivian Fowler on vocal. A rhythm guitar bass line is also heard in the background, mostly likely by Nick Drake. This is a song in the traditional hillbilly / American country and western format, with the vocal tending towards yodelling. It is unrecognisable as a Nick Drake track as he does not feature.Interplay One is perhaps the rarest of all Nick Drake
recordings. This is due to its limited circulation as an educational kit for
schools, it not being a purely pop or music album, and the fact that it was
basically unknown to Nick Drake fans prior to the publication of Humphries'
biography in 1997. The two songs Full Fathom Five and With My Swag all on My
Shoulder are important additions to the relative small collection of just 31
songs Drake is known to have recorded and issued during his lifetime. Though not
Nick Drake songs as such, they feature his playing and are of sufficient quality
to interest his many fans.
email: Michael Organ, Site last updated 28 October 2006.