Lyrics for Life In A Northern Town as interpreted by karnasaur

Life In A Northern Town Lyrics
A Salvation Army band played
And the children drank lemonade
And the morning lasted all day,
All day
And through an open window came
Like Sinatra in a younger day,
Pushing the town away
Ah -

(Chant)
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.

They sat on the stoney ground
And he took a cigarette out
And everyone else came down
To listen.
He said "In winter 1963
It felt like the world would freeze
With John F. Kennedy
And the Beatles."

(Chant)
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.
Ah hey ma ma ma
All the work shut down.

The evening had turned to rain
Watch the water roll down the drain,
As we followed him down
To the station
And though he never would wave goodbye,
You could see it written in his eyes
As the train rolled out of sight
Bye-bye.

(Chant)
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.
Ah hey ma ma ma
Life in a northern town.

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  • 10 Comments
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karnasaur
03-09-2002

Rated +1 
It's a good song. It's about Nick Drake.

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fixxxer327
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
One of my favs from the 80's. Simply amazing.

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kupo75
01-15-2005

Rated 0 
Just like the title says, it's a song describing what life was probably like in a rural northern town in the 1960s. In 1963 it seemed like the innocence was gone when JFK was killed and the "British Invasion" came. The singer is nostalgic for those days.

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Josega
02-01-2005

Rated 0 
Great song...

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schonenberg
10-03-2006

Rated 0 
http://www.medi-vet.com/FrontlineFleaControl.html

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schonenberg
10-03-2006

Rated 0 
frontline

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ctlizyrd
09-10-2007

Rated +2 
This song is - pure and simple - about Nick Drake, a songwriter who died in 1974 (possible suicide on anti-depressants of all things!)

If you haven't listened to Drake's work, and you like Dream Academy, you should give a listen. It may not be as polished, but it's got 'the stuff'. Other artists directly influenced and affected by Drake's work include, The Cure (their very name comes from a Drake song!), Duncan Sheik, Howard Jones, and American Music Club.

Nick had is own small following - and it was small enough that he would often play out in the open of his small Northern England town of Tanworth-in-Arden. Here, Nick Laid-Clowes of the Dream Academy imagines what it must have been like to have sat down and listened to him.

Nick Drake never 'waved goodbye', and he never knew how successful he'd be some 30 years later, but he influenced a LOT of musicians and here the Academy pays homage to his memory.

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northeastnostalgia
12-05-2007

Rated 0 
The last post says it all

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Kestrel1971
01-19-2008

Rated 0 
The Dream Academy wrote it with Drake in mind, no question, but it's resonance is far broader, isn't it?

What was Britain like in 1984/85 when it was recorded and released? Thatcher, miners' strike, and so on. It looked back on 1960's not so much nostalgically, as a time when something broke and nothing was ever the same again. Places once full of life and hope maybe, but now there's no more work. So what are you left with but "the stony ground". It could be about any working class, industrial town really.

Incidentally, I wish I could find find the 'hidden' lyrics; those Nick Laird-Clowes sings towards the end when the chanting and drums are in full swing... "Make it easy on yourself..." (Drake again)

It always hits me square in the heart this one.

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kegbot1
03-26-2009

Rated 0 
This is why I love this site. This has always been one of my favorite songs of all time and now I know why. Now I have some homework to do about Nick Drake.

As a person who returned home after 10 years to my snow NE Ohio town this song also hits me in the gut every time I heard it. It reminds me of my past and what this town used to be like when I was growing up in the 1970s. It's simply a beautiful song and now I know it's also a beautiful tribute.

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