The Dream Academy - "Life in a Northern Town"

Back to the 80's today. I loved this song long before I knew what it was about. Someone once wrote of The White Stripes' song "Seven Nation Army" that it didn't seem like Jack White had written the main riff so much as he had uncovered one that had existed since the dawn of time, because it was so primal and so immediately recognizable. I feel that way about the chorus of this song; musically speaking, the verses seem to exist only to bring things down so they can build back up to that chorus. And the chorus is primarily gibberish, but it's immediately recognizable...even if you didn't know the name of the song, you'd probably recognize that chorus anywhere.

Well, it turns out that the song was written as a tribute to Nick Drake, who happens to be one of my favorite artists. His story is quite sad, ending with his death in 1974 at the age of 26 via an overdose of amitriptyline, an antidepressant. His music is hauntingly beautiful, though, and as soon as I can find a youtube clip of his work with some decent audio, you can be sure I'll be posting some of his songs on this blog. For the time being, here's a song dedicated to him (which, by the way, doesn't resemble his music in any fashion). This video (not the official video) is a bit distracting, but try to enjoy the music!