Project Rewind - The Dream Academy - Life In A Northern Town
I remember the first time I heard this song on the radio. I was sitting on my canopy bed in my childhood bedroom with the pink walls. It was much different than any other song I had heard at the time and for some reason when I listened to the lyrics it made me feel very old. I was eleven. The video for this song was an extension of this feeling. "Life in a Northern Town" is a song by The Dream Academy, a British Folk rock group. The song was the opening track to their 1985 debut album, The Dream Academy. Reaching #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986, it was their biggest song.
The melancholy folk guitar line is evocative of the beginning to the Beach Boys' "California Girls." Every note in the song sets the mood for the lyrics, which are references to Tanworth-in-Arden (England) native Nick Drake, who tragically died of an antidepressant overdose in 1974.
The Dream Academy intended the song as a tribute to him. The "Northern Town" in the song is clearly Drake's hometown, and the references to the young Sinatra figure who lures the people of the village to "sit on the stony ground and listen" is unmistakably Drake. The end of the song, where rain falls on the town and the Sinatra figure leaves for good on a train references Drake's death.
The song harkens back to the wistful folk of the 1960s. A dance remix of the song, "Sunchyme" was released in 1997 by Dario G.
There were two different versions of the Music Video. The first one was made in 1984 and was filmed near Halifax in Yorkshire, UK. It was directed by Tim Pope [1] and featured footage from one of their first TV appearances, on the British music show, The Tube [2]. The second version was filmed in 1985 and was directed by Leslie Libman and Larry Williams [3]. It was filmed in and around Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK and in the USA. Of worthy note is that the second version is actually shorter than the first version and the actual song. [Info courtesy: wikipedia.org] ... (more)
