@ctlizyrd I lived (born and grew up) in Tanworth-in-Arden .... It is not a town ...it is a very affluent and sleepy little village about 15 miles South of the centre of Birmingham and not a Northern Town as the song suggests. (Unless you live in London and therefore anything North of Watford is considered The North..lol). I don't have any recollections of Nick Drake singing out in the open there, to small groups of followers (nor do others I know, living there). In fact by the time he was at boarding school and then University, he rarely visited or stayed home. The song (and the video) really belies the fact that he came from a privileged upbringing. "Far Leys" his parents home in Tanworth-in-Arden is a large country house, not your 2 up, 2 down terraced house that you find in most Northern Industrial towns.
@SirMuttley 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....
@SirMuttley 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.
@ctlizyrd I lived (born and grew up) in Tanworth-in-Arden .... It is not a town ...it is a very affluent and sleepy little village about 15 miles South of the centre of Birmingham and not a Northern Town as the song suggests. (Unless you live in London and therefore anything North of Watford is considered The North..lol). I don't have any recollections of Nick Drake singing out in the open there, to small groups of followers (nor do others I know, living there). In fact by the time he was at boarding school and then University, he rarely visited or stayed home. The song (and the video) really belies the fact that he came from a privileged upbringing. "Far Leys" his parents home in Tanworth-in-Arden is a large country house, not your 2 up, 2 down terraced house that you find in most Northern Industrial towns.
I just posted something along these lines. Hardly a northern industrial town, in fact it only just about gets in the Midlands.
I just posted something along these lines. Hardly a northern industrial town, in fact it only just about gets in the Midlands.
@SirMuttley 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....
@SirMuttley 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.