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Fruit Tree Lyrics

Artist: Nick Drake
Album: Five Leaves Left

Fame is but a fruit tree
So very unsound.
It can never flourish
Till its stock is in the ground.
So men of fame
Can never find a way
Till time has flown
Far from their dying day.
Forgotten while you're here
Remembered for a while
A much updated ruin
From a much outdated style.

Life is but a memory
Happened long ago.
Theatre full of sadness
For a long forgotten show.
Seems so easy
Just to let it go on by
Till you stop and wonder
Why you never wondered why.

Safe in the womb
Of an everlasting night
You find the darkness can
Give the brightest light.
Safe in your place deep in the earth
That's when they'll know what you were really worth.
Forgotten while you're here
Remembered for a while
A much updated ruin
From a much outdated style.

Fame is but a fruit tree
So very unsound.
It can never flourish
Till its stock is in the ground.
So men of fame
Can never find a way
Till time has flown
Far from their dying day.

Fruit tree, fruit tree
No-one knows you but the rain and the air.
Don't you worry
They'll stand and stare when you're gone.

Fruit tree, fruit tree
Open your eyes to another year.
They'll all know
That you were here when you're gone.

Comments/Interpretations

by Matt on 7/29/2008 8:56am
If only the first listeners of this song realized that he was talking about suicide
by kyle on 8/1/2008 3:05am
Safe in the womb
Of an everlasting night
You find the darkness can
Give the brightest light.
Safe in your place deep in the earth
That's when they'll know what you were really worth.

....he couldnt have it more obvious
by Bob on 9/1/2008 8:25pm
But, why did he care? He didn't seem the type to care what others saw, or felt about him...did he?
by joe on 9/10/2008 8:32pm
fame is a fruit tree that can't flourish till its STALK is in the ground, how does stock fit at all?
by Caroline on 9/10/2008 9:57pm
There were subtle ways that he showed that he cared - like showing up in the Island Records office and just sitting there, staring at the wall. He cared so much, he just couldn't find a way to communicate that to others outside his music (and in the context of performing music, which he absolutely hated...)
by berta on 9/14/2008 4:40pm
I think he did. I think it's pretty obvious he was a very sensitive person ..
by JK on 9/29/2008 4:46am
Forget about the artist for a while and concentrate about the songs on its own: its dark, stark, and touching, as it speaks the truth about a lot of things that come to public eye when they are gone.
by jeezy jay on 11/10/2008 11:34pm
i recall reading a quote made by him that said something to the effect of "what i want most in the world is just is that my music changed the life of at least one person" something like that.
by guy on 1/14/2009 8:04am
I think he said his message, made sure they would be forever heard, suffered his agony and went back to where he came, where they had very much not lost that magic, many, many years ago. I will love him forever
by kirsty on 2/2/2009 6:04pm
fruit trees grow on root stocks, he was being quite precise in that line he did study English at oxford!
I totally agree with Guy, he was too gentle and magical for this world

by Petra on 10/26/2009 4:05am
Oxford? No way, he studied at Cambridge! :))
by Mato on 11/25/2009 11:48am
He is singing about unrecognized artists, and a speeding, thoughtless world - to me this is fortified by the title "fruit tree", and "it being unsound" - people only see it as "profit" to be delivered (fruit, harvest) oblivion to what sows the seed. Only if something goes past or is of use, there can be an emotional attachment to it.
this can contain suicide but is not a necessity. This song is much more than a statement on suicide.
by Gobnait on 1/26/2010 10:14am
A much under appreciated artist - a truly talented guy. What a loss!
by vance on 5/21/2010 11:59pm
what a beautiful tormented soul.i too was 'born to love magic'
by HaLu on 6/9/2012 4:56pm
Firstly: many people think that people like us ("Drake's cult following) see too much into his music. But their argument is void, becuase we know what we see. Drake basically came to earth for 26 years to give the world what it needed (and still needs): truth and true music. I think here it is all about making life count. Don't chase fame, rather aspire to make a difference. (which he did) And further, "Seems so easy
Just to let it go on by
Till you stop and wonder
Why you never wondered why." is very self-explanatory. Don't let life simply glide by. Pause and examine it. Interesting: how do I know that we aren't simply imagining things? I formed the exact same opinion as "guy" of Drake suffering on this earth in order to help others and leave a legacy. How else do two different people form the same opinion?
by Christine on 5/11/2013 2:00am
I think Nicks music is so beautiful, if a bit melancholy. I love listening to the words and trying to make out what he is trying to say. They all tell a story. I will never tire of this man and his music.
by Josh on 10/4/2013 7:22pm
Yolo
by alicia on 11/17/2013 7:17pm
i love you mr drake
by lera on 12/18/2013 12:50pm
this should be like a sign to us to pay more attention on the words people around us choose to say. they might mean more than they seem at a first look.
by lera on 12/18/2013 1:21pm
This is a very, very deep and strange thing, the fact that we can tell what this song is about only because he is dead. Could there have been any way that someone would read between his lines and tell what he was going to do? Things are sliping away right in front of our eyes. It is sad indeed how little attention we pay on the things surrounding us. What Nick consider was that the fruits are temporary and passing, while the root is strong and forever planted in the ground. I think this happened because he couldn't see that his songs rose from his beautiful and forever-lasting soul, and that is the reason why people are still listening to his music.
by rohal on 2/18/2014 3:07pm
You guys all do realize that this song was on his FIRST album, which was released in 69. Nick died in 1974, so it doesn't really make sense to say "oh if people had only paid attention to his words".
by Wendi on 4/3/2015 8:08am
I like lyrics of this song especially the part of sentences "you find the darkness can give the brightest light". It's so deep








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