I thought Nick Drake was pretty good at the time but he didn't do as much for me as Ralph McTell or Bert Jansch. I think perhaps at 13 or 14 I just didn't get it. I don't know.

I suspect one of the reasons we hear so much about him nowadays is that many of the people who edit 'Adult Rock' magazines and who commission music for documentaries and TV adverts are people who were prog-folk fans or undergraduates in the early 70s so Nick Drake's music is fairly easy to reach for if you need a bit of mellow background guitar music. Other than that, I think most people have made up their minds by now whether they like him or not.

And it's quite correct to say that depression is no laughing matter. And it's no respecter of class.