When a pre-fame Elton John covered Nick Drake
Elton John was practically an unknown entity in 1970. His debut album, Empty Sky, had been released the previous year to little notice, and it wouldn’t be until the end of 1970 that John’s first hit, ‘Your Song’, began to gain traction on radio. At that time, he and Bernie Taupin were still working as staff songwriters for various music labels, including DJM Records and Warlock Records.
The latter was owned by record producer Joe Boyd, who asked John to demo some songs for the label’s artists to record. Boyd picked tracks written by some of his own clients, most notably singer-songwriter Nick Drake. Drake had released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, with Boyd as his producer in 1969. The record wasn’t a critical or commercial success at the time, and Boyd felt that Drake would benefit from other artists recording his songs.
It just so happened that John was among a number of session players whose jobs included recording demos for other artists at the time. It’s strange to think of both John and Drake as underappreciated talents, but in 1970, neither had received the notoriety, acclaim, or lasting popularity that they would receive later. John got to experience his contemporaneously, while Drake’s would only come posthumously.
One of Drake’s songs that John demoed was ‘Saturday Sun’, closing track to Five Leaves Left. While Drake’s version is contemplative and stark, John’s is more lively and embellished, closer to the piano-forward styles of Carole King and his own Tumbleweek Connection era than Drake’s mournful folk. It’s fascinating to hear John interpreting Drake’s work, even if his demo doesn’t quite have the emotional heft of Drake’s version.
John’s version of ‘Saturday Sun’, along with the rest of his demos recorded at the same time, were later released on the 2001 bootleg collection Prologue. By the time his demos had gotten to some of his fellow performers, John’s career as a singer-songwriter in his own right began to take off. Drake would record two more albums, 1971’s Bryter Layter and 1972’s Pink Moon, before retreating from the music business and eventually overdosing on antidepressants in 1974.
Listen to John perform ‘Saturday Sun’ down below.
