Northern Sky
| "Northern Sky" | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Single by Nick Drake | |
| from the album Bryter Layter | |
| Released | 1971 |
| Recorded | 1970 |
| Genre | Folk |
| Length | 3:45 |
| Label | Island |
| Writer(s) | Nick Drake |
| Producer(s) | Joe Boyd |
"Northern Sky" is a song from the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake's 1970 album Bryter Layter, produced by John Cale. During the recording sessions for the album, the chronically shy and withdrawn songwriter formed a friendship and a mentorship of sorts with producer Joe Boyd. Boyd was an early supporter of Drake, and saw commercial potential in the acoustic and unaccompanied demo version of the song, and recruited former Velvet Underground member John Cale to produce. Cale added piano, organ and celesta arrangements, initially against Drake's wishes.
The song marked a strong redirection in Drake's sound and he was in the end very pleased with Cale's additions and enthused by indications that it would make the single that would break him commercially. However, Island Records did not release it as a single and the accompanying album, like its predecessor, received no marketing support and failed to sell. In response, having tried his hand at lush arrangements, he responded with the sparse and bleak, voice and guitar only final album Pink Moon, which received limited release before his death in 1974.
In the 1980s the track was pivotal in resurrecting interest in Drake's music which was, by then, 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." The song also features in the closing scene of Serendipity.
Northern Sky is written in Drake's favoured DADGDG tuning, with a middle eight composed by Cale during the recording. The accompaniment by the classically trained Cale reflects Drake's desire to move away from the pastoral sound of his 1969 debut album Five Leaves Left, which was a commercial failure. Cale's own career was similarly in tatters; he had just been fired from the Velvets by Lou Reed, and was yet to re-establish his reputation as a formidable producer. Drake sought to broaden his own appeal and tentatively agreed to Boyd's suggestion to include bass and drum tracks on recordings for Bryter Layter, and to experiment with a more pop or jazzy sound, which Boyd admitted he imagined would be "more commercial". Yet it essentially retains Drake's original acoustic style, being anchored by long term producers and arrangers Robert Kirby and John Wood's sharp and stripped-down sparse engineering and production values. Trevor Dann believes that the contrasting approach of the two men produced accompaniment that is "opulent without overpowering the fragile little song".
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