Northern Sky

To me, this exquisite piece of work is hands-down the most hopeful and optimistic of his songs. I don't think this one really needs to be overthought - they're the thoughts of a lover in love. Knowing Nick's personal history, I think it was more abstract than concrete, but he was an intelligent, thoughtful man and doubtless longed, as we all do, for someone to understand him and love him despite what he considered unlovable in himself. He's reaching for an ideal; it's a timeless concept that we can all relate to.

I think this is perhaps one of the few "love songs" I like, because rather than stating how what he'd like to do to her, how beautiful she is, etc., it shows the new apriciation of life that can come with love. I also the insecurity, or uncertainty of love the third verse points at.

Love this song. Just something nobody has mentioned, he paraphrases William Blake's Auguries of Innocence in this:

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.

Just like that fact, and it is very Romantic lyrically in the literary sense of the word.

Is it an unbelievably cruel twist of fate that the man who wrote and performed the most gorgeous and romantic song ever died without having been able to express that love for another person.

So, so beautiful. Its just about blissfully happy love, and being thankful for that person that makes you genuinely happy and makes you experiences emotions and feelings that you've never quite experienced before.

Amazing, i'd quite like to fall in love to this please :]

To me this is a very genuine expression of falling in love and about how it changes the way you feel about life/the world. The lines are very profound, with the refrain evoking the feeling using very beautiful metaphors ("felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree"). Even lines such as "Been a long time that I've wandered through the people I have known" very profoundly captures the sentiment of looking back on one's life before having met and the feeling of having been searching for someone, but almost in a casual/understated way sort of way even though this has very deep meaning. As to the line "Oh, if you would and you could straighten my new mind's eye" to me this means with the new found sentiment can his new love lead him in the right direction to further his discovery of life.

Nick Drake's lyrics have been a constant amazement to me as I listen to his work, in his all too short life he released only three studio albums, all of which classics filled with beautiul poetic lyrics. This song is no exception, it is filled with his love for someone that has filled his mind with new feelings and emotions and he feels on top of the world.

Very influenced by William Blake. Reminds me of a passage from Auguries of Innocence:

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.

A great reason why Nick's lyrics are so poetic.

does anyone notice a striking resemblance in the sound of belle & sebastian to that of nick drake? i just watched the movie "serendipity" and this song (northern sky) was in it and i had to watch the credits to see if it was nick drake or belle & sebastian that were singing. it's just very similar, almost to the point that it sounds as if b & s melded themselves after drake. just a thought...

a lot of people think b&s sound like nick. i think that is mostly due to stuart murdoch's (of b&s) voice.