Bryter Layter, recorded in 1970, was the second of three album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 musician Nick Drake

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...

. Like Five Leaves Left

Five Leaves Left

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 completely solo songs...

, the album contains no unaccompanied

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 songs: Drake was accompanied by part of the British folk rock

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

 group Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

 and John Cale

John Cale

John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

 from The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...

, as well as Beach Boys musicians Mike Kowalski

Mike Kowalski

Mike Kowalski is a percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the former drummers from the rock band The Beach Boys. He and saxophonist Joel C. Peskin recorded as The Backsters in 1984.-Early career:...

 and Ed Carter.

Reception

In 2000, Q placed Bryter Layter at number 23 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Q (January 2001, p. 95) - Included in Q's "5 Best Re-Issues of 2000".

In 2003, the album was ranked number 245 on Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...

.

NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

(18 September 1993, p. 19) - Ranked #14 in NME's list of The Greatest Albums Of The '70s. In 2000, NME included "One of These Things First" on a CD titled NME Presents Under the Influence, which included songs by some of most influential musicians and bands in music history.

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

(12 May 2000, p. 24) - "The exquisiteness of the first album is expanded upon in 'Hazey Jane I', 'Fly' and a genuinely optimistic love song, 'Northern Sky'." - Rating: B+

Mojo

Mojo (magazine)

MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...

(July 2000, p. 99) - "Certainly the most polished of his catalogue....[It] begins to suggest a whole other tableau of unexplored possibilities....God, how damn confident it all sounds. He knew how good he was."

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

Q

Q (magazine)

Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...

(May 2007, p. 135) - "Drake and producer Joe Boyd ratcheted up the production from the singer's debut album for this slick pop-folk set inspired by stoned late-night rambles around London. Hazey Jane II and At the Chime of a City Clock offered more hooks than a pirate convention, but mainstream success proved tellingly elusive."

Track listing

All songs written by Nick Drake.
Side one

1. "Introduction" – 1:33
2. "Hazey Jane II" – 3:46
3. "At the Chime of a City Clock" – 4:47
4. "One of These Things First" – 4:52
5. "Hazey Jane I" – 4:31

Side two

1. "Bryter Layter" – 3:24
2. "Fly" – 3:00
3. "Poor Boy" – 6:09
4. "Northern Sky
   Northern Sky
   Northern Sky is a song from Nick Drake's 1970 album Bryter Layter. The song, written in DADGDG tuning, features piano, organ and celesta, performed by former Velvet Underground member, John Cale....
   
   " – 3:47
5. "Sunday" – 3:42

Personnel

Nick Drake performs vocals and guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, except where indicated otherwise.

• "Introduction"

  Nick Drake – guitar

  Dave Pegg

  Dave Pegg

  Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, arguably most visible as a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the pre-eminent electric folk band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of important folk and rock groups including The Ian Campbell...

  
   – bass guitar

  Bass guitar

  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

  
  

  Dave Mattacks

  Dave Mattacks

  Dave Mattacks is a rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician, and as a performance artist...

  
   – drum

  Drum

  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

  
  s

  Strings

  String instrument

  A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...

  
   arranged

  Arrangement

  The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

  
   by Robert Kirby

  Robert Kirby

  Robert Kirby was a British born arranger of string sections for rock and folk music. He is best known for his work on the Nick Drake albums, Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter, but has also worked with Elton John, Ralph McTell, Strawbs, Paul Weller and Elvis Costello.-At Cambridge:Patrick...

  
  

• "Hazey Jane II"

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Dave Mattacks – drums

  Richard Thompson – lead guitar

  Lead guitar

  Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...

  
  

  Brass

  Brass instrument

  A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...

  
   arrangement by Robert Kirby

• "At the Chime of a City Clock"

  Ray Warleigh

  Ray Warleigh

  Raymond 'Ray' Kenneth Warleigh , is a leading UK-based alto saxophonist and flautist...

  
   – alto sax

  Alto saxophone

  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

  
  

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Mike Kowalski

  Mike Kowalski

  Mike Kowalski is a percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the former drummers from the rock band The Beach Boys. He and saxophonist Joel C. Peskin recorded as The Backsters in 1984.-Early career:...

  
   – drum

  Drum

  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

  
  s

  Strings arranged by Robert Kirby

• "One of These Things First"

  Paul Harris

  Paul Harris (musician)

  Paul Harris is a keyboards player and session musician.Harris appears on several albums of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s by leading artists such as Stephen Stills, B. B. King, Judy Collins, Al Kooper, ABBA, Eric Andersen, Rick Derringer, Nick Drake, John Sebastian, Joe Walsh, Seals & Crofts and Dan...

  
   – piano

  Piano

  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

  
  

  Ed Carter – bass

  Mike Kowalski – drums

• "Hazey Jane I"

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Dave Mattacks – drums

  Strings arranged by Robert Kirby

• "Bryter Layter"

  Nick Drake – guitar

  Lyn Dobson

  Lyn Dobson

  Lyn Dobson is a British musician, noted as a jazz-rock flautist and saxophonist. He appeared with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and Manfred Mann in the mid 1960s and then with Soft Machine and Keef Hartley as well as playing on albums by Nick Drake and John Martyn.After the 1970s he worked in...

  
   – flute

  Flute

  The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

  
  

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Dave Mattacks – drums

• "Fly"

  John Cale

  John Cale

  John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

  
   – viola

  Viola

  The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

  
   and harpsichord

  Harpsichord

  A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

  
  

  Dave Pegg – bass

• "Poor Boy"

  Ray Warleigh – alto sax

  Chris McGregor

  Chris McGregor

  Christopher McGregor , was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.- Early influences :...

  
   – piano

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Mike Kowalski – drums

  Pat Arnold

  P. P. Arnold

  P. P. Arnold is an American-born soul singer who enjoyed considerable success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and beyond.-Early life:...

  
   and Doris Troy

  Doris Troy

  Doris Troy was an American R&B singer, known to her many fans as "Mama Soul".She was born as Doris Higginson in The Bronx, the daughter of a Barbadian Pentecostal minister. Her parents disapproved of "subversive" forms of music like rhythm & blues, so she cut her teeth singing in her father's choir...

  
   – backing vocals

• "Northern Sky"

  John Cale – celeste

  Celesta

  The celesta or celeste is a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard. Its appearance is similar to that of an upright piano or of a large wooden music box . The keys are connected to hammers which strike a graduated set of metal plates suspended over wooden resonators...

  
  , piano and organ

  Organ (music)

  The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

  
  

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Mike Kowalski – drums

• "Sunday"

  Nick Drake – guitar

  Ray Warleigh – flute

  Dave Pegg – bass

  Dave Mattacks – drums

  Strings arranged by Robert Kirby

Release history

> >

Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalogue
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...		Island Island Records Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...	LP	ILPS 9134
			CD	CID 9134
				IMCD 71