| "Northern Sky" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Song by Nick Drake | |
| from the album Bryter Layter | |
| Released | 1971 |
| Recorded | 1970 |
| Genre | Folk |
| Length | 3:45 |
| Label | Island |
| Songwriter(s) | Nick Drake |
| Producer(s) | Joe Boyd |
| Official audio | |
| "Northern Sky" on YouTube | |
"Northern Sky" is a song from the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake's 1971 album Bryter Layter, produced by Joe Boyd. During the recording sessions for the album, the chronically shy and withdrawn songwriter formed a friendship and a mentorship of sorts with producer Joe Boyd, an early supporter of Drake. Boyd saw commercial potential in the acoustic and unaccompanied demo version of the song, and recruited former Velvet Underground member John Cale as producer. Cale added piano, organ and celesta arrangements, initially against Drake's wishes.[1]
The song marked a strong redirection in Drake's sound. He was pleased with Cale's production and anticipated that the song would be his commercially successful breakthrough. However, Island Records decided against releasing it as a single, and the accompanying album, like its predecessor, did not receive marketing support, and so failed to sell. Having tried lush arrangements, Drake's following album Pink Moon is characterised by bleak vocals and sparse guitar parts, but again only received limited release.
In the 1980s "Northern Sky" became pivotal in resurrecting interest in Drake's music that until then had been largely forgotten. Biographer Patrick Humphries describes the song as "the finest ... to which Nick Drake ever lent his name. Again sounding alone and vulnerable ... he pleads for the brightness to come."[2]
- ^ Cale, John. What's Welsh for Zen. Bloomsbury, 2000. ISBN 1-58234-068-4
- ^ Humphries, p. 115