| The Dream Academy – Life in a Northern Town Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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@[SirMuttley:28927] Please note that the character in the song (presumably meant to represent Nick Drake) does not LIVE IN the northern industrial town--he arrives and leaves by train. This visitor, who has a fabulous voice like the early Sinatra, is heard singing from a window, presumably in the house he is visiting. He then goes out to reminisce with townspeople about the 60s. This is a bleak little town, where a Salvation Army band is the main attraction and the jobs are mostly gone. The visitor talks of the days of Kennedy and the Beatles--days of hope and excitement. The feelings he conveys temporarily lift the town's mood. They accompany him to the train station, even in the rain, and are sorry to see him go. The song could be based on an actual visit Drake made to a northern England town. Or it could be a metaphor about how small moments can light up people's lives. If so, that would fit well with Nick Drake's songs. I'm new to Drake and have only listened to a few of his songs, but titles like Pink Moon and Bryter Layter suggest that though things may look bleak now, they will get brighter and better. It's like he's trying to reassure himself, trying to make it through depression to the light he knows is at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, he never made it out. I've gone far afield from the main point I wanted to make, which is that Nick's family's prosperity does not make the song ironic or hypocritical. It is a song about bright spots in a gloomy world, whether the gloom surrounds a northern rust belt town or a mind clouded by depression. |
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