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FLYING IN THE NORTHERN SKY
or "It's hard to stay angry when there's so much beauty in the world"
The end of September, meaning leaves that have not yet fallen, but are almost there. The end of September, or the "Introduction" of the second album of the supreme Nick Drake. The wind slowly takes on a slightly blue tone, slightly cold. The sun sets a little earlier. In the morning you want to stay hidden under the covers a little longer. We wake up to "Hazey Jane II"... who knows why it comes before "Hazey Jane I", who knows why it is vaguely cheerful, perhaps the only slightly carefree song by the artist from Tanworth-In-Arden. We sing a song for Hazey Jane before the tree colors shift towards an autumn dreamed to the violin chimes of "At The Chimes Of A City Clock". We imagine a future for Nick Drake, hidden among the regrets of "One Of These Things First" and the delicate whispers of "Hazey Jane I".
"You feel like leftover of something that's gone", you feel as though immersed in the instrumental sunset of the title-track. It's time for one of the most beautiful songs, rather poems, I have ever listened to, read, dreamed. The heart opens up in the wide breath of "Fly", a flight that takes our breath away, leaving us open-mouthed, as if suspended in a dream-like limbo, as if a second chance in life, as if a second grace, like Richie Tenenbaum returning home by bus from the hospital after his suicide attempt, like the ephemeral illusion of discovering a second face. A face touched by a caress evaporated with the morning dew, sublimated with a background of black choirs in "Poor Boy", a wandering track through paths of brass and pianistic embroidery.
The work fades into the immense yet light breath of "Northern Sky". In the northern sky dances this "emotion held in the palm of my hand", it seems to fall, and then rises again, spins on itself, resurfaces at times, like the plastic bag in "American Beauty", like that brief sequence where we perceive the gentle touch of some deity.
Some deity that perhaps looks down on us hidden among the clouds of "Sunday" and finally smiles for us, still here struggling in this Milan immersed in the sweetest and most melancholic late September there is.
Postscript: surely more than my review, it's a stanza of "Northern Sky" and a quote from "American Beauty" that best convey the feelings evoked by this album:
"I never felt magic crazy as this, I never saw moons know the meaning of the sea nor held emotion in the palm of my hand or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree, but now you're here brighten my northern sky!"
"It's hard to stay angry when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes it feels like I see it all at once and it's too much... my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it... and then it flows through me like rain... and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life"
from "Fly"
"Come, come sit on the fence in the sun And the clouds will roll away and we'll never deny That it's really too hard to fly(...) I just need your star for a day So come on and jump on my car by the bay Because now I have to know how beautiful you are in your way And the sea's as sure as I am But she will not need to cry Because it's really too hard to fly"
(Nick Drake's lyrics translations are from http://nickdrake.altervista.org/, film references are "American Beauty" by Sam Mendes and "The Royal Tenenbaums" by Wes Anderson)
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
05 Hazey Jane I (04:31)
Do you curse where you come from,
Do you swear in the night
Will it mean much to you
If I treat you right.
Do you like what you're doing,
Would you do it some more
Or will you stop once and wonder
What you're doing it for.
Hey slow Jane, make sense
Slow, slow, Jane, cross the fence.
Do you feel like a remnant
Of something that's past
Do you find things are moving
Just a little too fast.
Do you hope to find new ways
Of quenching your thirst,
Do you hope to find new ways
Of doing better than your worst.
Hey slow Jane, let me prove
Slow, slow Jane, we're on the move.
Do it for you,
Sure that you would do the same for me one day.
So try to be true,
Even if it's only in your hazey way.
Can you tell if you're moving
With no mirror to see,
If you're just riding a new man
Looks a little like me.
Is it all so confusing,
Is it hard to believe
When the winter is coming
Can you sign up and leave.
Hey slow Jane, live your lie
Slow, slow jane, fly on by.
07 Fly (03:00)
Please give me a second grace
Please give me a second face
I've fallen far down
The first time around
Now I just sit on the ground in your way
Now if it's time for recompense for what's done
Come, come sit down on the fence in the sun
And the clouds will roll by
And we'll never deny
It's really too hard for to fly.
Please tell me your second name
Please play me your second game
I've fallen so far
For the people you are
I just need your star for a day
So come, come ride in my street-car by the bay
For now I must know how fine you are in your way
And the sea sure as I
But she won’t need to cry
For it's really too hard for to fly.
08 Poor Boy (06:09)
Nick Drake - Poor boy
Never sing for my supper
I never help my neighbour
Never do what is proper
For my share of labour.
I`m a poor boy
And I`m a rover
Count your coins and
Throw them over my shoulder
I may grow older
Nobody knows
How cold it grows
And nobody sees
How shaky my knees
Nobody cares
How steep my stairs
And nobody smiles
If I cross their stiles.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health.
You may say every day
Where will he stay tonight.
Never know what I came for
Seems that I`ve forgotten
Never ask what I came for
Or how I was begotten.
I`m a poor boy
And I`m a ranger
Things I say
May seem stranger than Sunday
Changing to Monday.
Nobody knows
How cold it flows
And nobody feels
The worn down heels
Nobody`s eyes
Make the skies
Nobody spreads
Their aching heads.
Oh poor boy
So worried for his life
Oh poor boy
So keen to take a wife.
He`s a mess but he`ll say yes
If you just dress in white.
Nobody knows
How cold it blows
And nobody sees
How shaky my knees
Nobody cares
How steep my stairs
And nobody smiles
If you cross their stiles.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health.
You may say every day
Where will he stay tonight.
Oh poor boy
So worried for his life
Oh poor boy
So keen to take a wife.
Oh poor boy
So sorry for himself
Oh poor boy
So worried for his health
Oh poor boy.
09 Northern Sky (03:47)
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you’re here
Brighten my northern sky
I’ve been a long time that I’m waiting
Been a long time that I’m blown
I’ve been a long time that I’ve wandered
Through the people I have known
Oh, if you would and you could
Straighten my new mind’s eye
Would you love me for my money
Would you love me for my head
Would you love me through the winter
Would you love me ‘til I’m dead
Oh, if you would and you could
Come blow your horn on high
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you’re here
Brighten my northern sky
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Other reviews
By NicholasRodneyDrake
The result was actually something that borders on absolute perfection... listening to it gives you almost the sensation of entering a parallel world.
'Northern Sky' is a beautiful love song centered on the complete acceptance of the other.
By andy66
What some consider a virtue, to me is the real great flaw of Nick Drake: the voice.
On a cheerful day, I would never dream of putting on this Bryter Layter.
By maxgit
I was blown away by this record.
"Bryter Layter" is a very beautiful record. Perfect. The best I have ever listened to.
By luludia
This is one of those rare cases where the whole exceeds the sum of its parts.
"Northern Sky" is a song full of hopes, but which does not neglect the subtle cracks, the too-tight shoes of the dream traveler.
By zaireeka
Bryter Layter represents an oasis, an interlude, a hope of happiness in Nick Drake’s world.
I see, I saw, in Nick Drake’s voice in that section, the voice of a mountain stream, and in the saxophone that accompanies it, a butterfly that follows it, painting light paths in the air.
