Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.
When the day is done
Hope so much your race will be all run
Then you find you jumped the gun
Have to go back where you began
When the day is done.
When the night is cold
Some get by but some get old
Just to show life's not made of gold
When the night is cold.
When the bird has flown
Got no-one to call your own
Got no place to call your home
When the bird has flown.
When the game's been fought
You speed the ball across the court
Lost much sooner than you would have thought
Now the game's been fought.
When the party's through
Seems so very sad for you
Didn't do the things you meant to do
Now there's no time to start anew
Now the party's through.
When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.
Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridge. His debut album, Five Leaves Left, was released in 1969, and was followed by two more albums, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972). While Drake did not reach a wide audience during his brief lifetime, his music found critical acclaim and he gradually received wider recognition following his death.
Drake suffered from depression and was reluctant to perform in front of live audiences. Upon completion of Pink Moon, he withdrew from both performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November 1974, Drake was found dead at the age of 26 due to an overdose of antidepressants.
Drake's music remained available through the mid-1970s, but the 1979 release of the retrospective album Fruit Tree allowed his back catalogue to be reassessed. Drake has come to be credited as an influence on numerous artists, including Robert Smith of the Cure, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Kate Bush, Paul Weller, Aimee Mann, Beck, Robyn Hitchcock and the Black Crowes. The first Drake biography appeared in 1997; it was followed in 1998 by the documentary film A Stranger Among Us.
