13 Songs – 13

 Northern Sky – Nick Drake

I once spent a most wonderful afternoon driving from Peterborough to Tanworth-in-Arden (having stopped off for a whistle-stop press pass at a Web-offset printer in Kidderminster). The reason for heading to Kidderminster was to oversee the printing of Match magazine. The reason to then divert from my journey home to North London (where, as part of the NL liberal media elite I was a leading member of the sinister Wokerati movement that controls every aspect of British life, I personally oversaw a huge influx of Tofu and illegal immigrants into the UK), was to visit the hometown and final resting place of singer-songwriter Nick Drake.

Drake’s ashes are buried in a beautiful spot under an Oak Tree in the graveyard of the Church of St Mary Magdelene, in Tanworth-in-Arden. On the occasion of my visit, the sun was dipping and a light purple (lilac?) mist was settling in the vale beyond the graveyard. His grave itself had a few handwritten notes and a single rose, a couple of dead roll-ups, a spent joint and an empty bottle of pale ale. The comparison between this and the hedonistic overload of Jim Morrison’s tomb at Pere Lachaise was noticeable, so fundamentally understated, so utterly English. The inscription on the reverse reading, ‘Now we rise, now we are everywhere’. It was a remarkably tranquil late afternoon by the time I left. 

On my way home the first song that came on was ‘Northern Sky’, a wave of pure contentment washed over me. I’d heard the song before but hadn’t listened. There was a purity about this song, that I hadn’t sensed, I hadn’t absorbed – it lifted me to a different place. Some songs that I love I play a lot, some that I love I almost try and ignore, until I really need it. It was only some 15 years or so later that I really needed this song. I was in love, with an English Girl but stuck. This song came on and we just knew…

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons, knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky

I've been a long time that I'm waiting
Been a long that I'm blown
I've been a long time that I've wandered
Through the people I have known
Oh, if you would and you could
Straighten my new mind's eye

Would you love me for my money?
Would you love me for my head?
Would you love me through the winter?
Would you love me 'til I'm dead?
Oh, if you would and you could
Come blow your horn on high

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons, knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Nick Drake

Northern Sky lyrics © O/B/O Capasso, Reservoir Media Management Inc