"Life in a Northern Town"

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A little research has told me there's some kind of intentional/unintentional political subtext behind this song that I, as an American, would not get in a million years. What I, as an American, remember this song for is a beautiful sequence in an episode of "King of the Hill" where Luann dances with the ghost of her dead boyfriend. *sniff* God, I love this song.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 2 April 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry, is this the Dream Academy song from the 80s?

― Eve Atley (Kilbey1), Friday, 2 April 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I love this song. well except for the background vocals which are kind of cheesy now.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 2 April 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it has to do with the Beatles cryogenically freezing John F. Kennedy....or something like that.

― kickitcricket, Friday, 2 April 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

TS: Life in a Northern Town (Dream Academy) vs. Beatles and the Stones (House of Love)

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 2 April 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

They followed it up with a not entirely worthless cover of "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want", you know.

― darren (darren), Friday, 2 April 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm going with classic. Dario G sampling it, on the other hand, dud.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 2 April 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey-a mam-mam-man oobedummmaya, Hey-a mam-a-mamma-maaaaaa

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 2 April 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

...or something

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 2 April 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a soft spot for that first album despite crappy-era Paul Simon production

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Friday, 2 April 2004 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know what it's about, either. Great song, though, backing vocals and all.

― rainman (rainman), Friday, 2 April 2004 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

the best kind of one-hit wonder, the kind whose hit is actually really REALLY good. Peter Buck played 12-string on some of their first album (maybe this song too? can't remember) - it's completely unmemorable.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 2 April 2004 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Paul Simon? No, David Gilmore.

Was this the same Peter Buck from REM?

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 2 April 2004 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I never much liked this song. I've since heard that it was inspired by Nick Drake, which (though an interesting fact) doesn't really sway my opinion either way.

I used to get Prefab Sprout and the Dream Academy confused.

― mike a, Friday, 2 April 2004 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw the SNL rerun on Comedy Central about a month ago on which Dream Academy performed "Life in a Northern Town." Considering it's 19 years old, it was almost impossible to tell when it was filmed. Except for some embarassing hairspray use, they were a modestly clothed band.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Friday, 2 April 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I WAS AT THAT SNL TAPING!!!! The Cult were also on!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 2 April 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

That was about `86.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 2 April 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

wow that is pretty cool.

That must have been a classic SNL lineup too.

― hector (hector), Friday, 2 April 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Buck never played on any of their albums, ever. And they followed "Life in a Northern Town" single wise with "The Love Parade".

― Nick Laird-Clowes, Saturday, 3 April 2004 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Was their cover of Lennon's "Love" the one with whale noises on it and hare krisna chants? if so, then i liked that one. Or maybe I'm thinking of "Sowing The Seeds Of Love". No, I don't think I am.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 3 April 2004 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Buck never played on any of their albums, ever

Well, according to the sleeve credits on the first album he played Rickenbacker electric 12 string on The party.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Saturday, 3 April 2004 09:19 (twenty-one years ago)

>>Well, according to the sleeve credits on the first album he played Rickenbacker electric 12 string on The party.

He was a real drunken prankster back then -- just walked in, futzed with the typesetting for the sleeve, then ran out the back.

>>That must have been a classic SNL lineup too.

Nope.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 3 April 2004 09:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I interviewed Dream Academy around the time "LIANT" was released. The interview went well, and at the 45 minute mark I checked my tape recorder...and realized the batteries were dead. Embarrassed and panic-striken, I asked Nick L-C and co to start over again and they cheerfully complied. Yeah, I know, Lester would've just made it up.

― lovebug starski, Saturday, 3 April 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, this song is great! i had a crush on the singer.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 3 April 2004 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the track, but have maybe never heard it all the way through.

I once asked Steady Mike what he knew about the Dream Academy - somehow I thought that if any could get me there, it would be - but I think he could only enlighten me on the ... difficult later years.

― the dreamfox, Saturday, 3 April 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

trashmonk started out very dream academy on their album(girl i used to know) but then it got really, really awful very, very quickly.

― keith m (keithmcl), Saturday, 3 April 2004 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Oooh, classic. Except I don't like it as much as I think I do: it comes on VH1classic with incredible regularity, and I think 'yay! life in a northern town!' and then about three minutes in I get bored and change the channel.

― cis (cis), Saturday, 3 April 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

This is a classic example of a song where the verses are like 10,000x better than the chorus.

― The Rebukes of Hazard (mjt), Sunday, 4 April 2004 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Agree 100% with Rebukes... it's still good overall, but the verses are plain beautiful, whereas the choruses seem bombastic. And yep, the production doesn't help with this.

― Tom May (Tom May), Sunday, 4 April 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Maypole dancers, but, classic.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Sunday, 4 April 2004 13:17 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the "subtext" was probably gleaned from "researching" my blog and my postings here when i still used my real name on ILM :).

it's good, but they did better - "In Places On The Run" is incredible.

― phoebe dinsmore's bastard nephew (robin carmody), Sunday, 4 April 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Great song, and I think it has something to do with life in Northern England.

― Mark (MarkR), Sunday, 4 April 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

CLASSIC in a totally subjective way. First record I ever bought, first grade.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 4 April 2004 17:56 (twenty-one years ago)

The oddest thing is that most of the stuff mentioned in the song are my memories. Including leaving the northern town at the end. Sigh...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 5 April 2004 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

are there members of this band on ilm? some of the above posts might suggest that.

perhaps i am too gullible.

and...CLASSIC.. for the opening couplet as much as anything..

'the salvation army band played
and the children drank lemonade'...

i like the way the whole thing feels sepia-tinged, like memories do.

― hobart paving (hobart paving), Monday, 5 April 2004 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Life in a Northern Town

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.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 5 April 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

someone else mentioned Nick Drake, I always understood it was inspired by Northern Sky. Great song anyway

― chris (chris), Monday, 5 April 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow. Lyrics whose power is not much diminished when you read them in print apart from the musical context. That's a rare thing.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Monday, 5 April 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic Classic Classic.

― The Good Dr. Bill (Andrew Unterberger), Monday, 5 April 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I heard this for the first time in years late last night. I didn't remember it fondly, and maybe it was the fact that I was driving around Hollywood at 2:30 with no apparent purpose, but ... I *liked* it.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

And, yes, they did cover "Love." In 1991. With whale noises and krishna chants.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

This is a wonderful song.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

I do remember it fondly.

Someone please tell me why I associate this song so strongly with "25th December"? It's like there's a whole genre of intimate/communal/nostalgic pop that we Yanks haven't really accessed.

Or at least that's how it seems atm. American examples of this type of thing welcomed, but I suspect they'll be in a country vein...

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

they did a gorgeous cover of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want".

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

Beautiful song. I was a little too young to appreciate it when it was a hit (I would've been eleven), but I think's it fantastic now.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

Amazing song. I bought the 45 when it came out, and still have it. I like it way more than any Nick Drake song I've ever heard, for whatever that's worth.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 22 June 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

so classic.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

People who hate this song hate the 80s, and thus hate life.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Verse: Classic
Chorus: Dud

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

i love this song and album. Full stop.

Holds up very well considering it was from the eighties.

― doomie x, Thursday, 23 June 2005 11:14 (twenty years ago)

This song is classic. (should I really check out the album though?)

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Thursday, 23 June 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

This song really irritated me at the time, and I hated it, but I was a stupid tone-deaf teen. (Or at least WRONG.) Later I managed to sandwich it between Howlin' Wolf and Butthole Surfers during my first-ever college-radio program. There's something vaguely bleak and melancholy about those frostbitten backing vocals that can be subconsciously depressing if I'm predisposed that way (like 20 years ago, which explains my discomfort then) which is why I don't own a copy of it, and never have - I just let it creep up on me from the radio or wherever and do its work.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 23 June 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

Classic, but lightweight -- it's so great when you hear it, but then it fades away.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Thursday, 23 June 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

six years pass...

Peter Buck never played on any of their albums, ever. And they followed "Life in a Northern Town" single wise with "The Love Parade".
― Nick Laird-Clowes, Saturday, 3 April 2004 00:12 (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Nobody noticed....

― Mark G, Monday, 11 July 2011 09:21 (fourteen years ago)

They basically sound just like Crowded House.

― I'm A Genius, Too! (Jamie_ATP), Monday, 11 July 2011 09:36 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

fuck this song

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:03 (twelve years ago)

always thought it was some mid 80s billy joel crap

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:04 (twelve years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doVR01oXTQU

― xhuxk, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:09 (twelve years ago)

except that it sounds nothing like billy joel oh well.

― pplains, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:11 (twelve years ago)

"sounds", I mean it's some false sentimental crap.

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:12 (twelve years ago)

lmao so this song's about nick drake?!?!

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:14 (twelve years ago)

80s billy joel, Elton, Phil, Pete cetera whatever, I'm talking about Disney stuff

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:16 (twelve years ago)

should've posted this crap to the Kokomo thread

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:17 (twelve years ago)

Nah -- When I first heard "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys, it belonged in the same headspace as this song (which had hit only a few months earlier): Something rainy and hungover about England and its geography, probably on a sad, dreary Sunday afternoon, that as an American I didn't really get, but which somehow managed to draw me in.

― xhuxk, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:26 (twelve years ago)

Maybe it is an envonment thing. To me, it sounds like being in a hot car in traffic with a headache. And the sun is bright.

― brimstead, Sunday, 17 March 2013 04:31 (twelve years ago)

Could someone explain the Nick Drake connection/allusion? Wasn't Drake from the Midlands (i.e., not a Northern town)? Or is the song just a loose inspiration or vague tribute?

I do enjoy the subtle "tick-tock" synth arpeggiation that comes in circa verse 2, in retrospect, it's a very Glass Candy-ish sound.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 17 March 2013 05:45 (twelve years ago)

I love this song.

I am not a britishes.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 17 March 2013 07:21 (twelve years ago)

This song rules. Fools.

― Jamie_ATP, Sunday, 17 March 2013 12:10 (twelve years ago)

http://www.steffmetal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/metalhead.jpg

brimstead, earlier today

― poking pocong (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 17 March 2013 12:20 (twelve years ago)

Could someone explain the Nick Drake connection/allusion? Wasn't Drake from the Midlands (i.e., not a Northern town)? Or is the song just a loose inspiration or vague tribute?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 17 March 2013 05:45 (15 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, Nick was from Tamworth-in-Arden, which is somewhere up near Birmingham. Not that you'd know it from his accent - his speaking voice was so plummy he makes Prince Charles sound like an East End market trader.

Put me in the "like the verses better than the chorus" crowd for this song, to me it always seems to be striving a little too hard to be anthemic. My favourite part is that switch to a suspended minor chord coming in on the "As the train rolled out of sight / Bye-bye" bit - spine tingly.

― Pheeel, Sunday, 17 March 2013 22:17 (twelve years ago)

nine years pass...

I knew this thread had to exist somewhere. I just heard this song for probably the first time in 25 plus years. Still sounds fresh. Classic. The debut album as a whole is a grower.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 31 March 2022 21:19 (three years ago)

Hi!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZbT4mMwlW4

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 31 March 2022 22:43 (three years ago)

I really like "The Love Parade" from the first album, synth pop meets Gainsbourg. "Indian Summer", the single from their next album, was a strained attempt at imitating "Life in a Northern Town"'s nostalgia, but warm instead of damp.

― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 31 March 2022 23:26 (three years ago)

I like this remix of Life In A Northern Town.

https://soundcloud.com/marshall_watson/life-in-a-northern-town_marshall_watson_rework

― brotherlovesdub, Friday, 1 April 2022 02:09 (three years ago)

I had and sold their debut eons ago, but a few years back heard "The Morning Lasted All Day: A Retrospective" compilation and it re-contextualized them for me. The best bits share the unspoken comfort of "Life In A Northern Town" and much of the later stuff, which I had never heard, displayed a great growth as songwriters. But really, it's the winsome vocals that pull me in usually.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 1 April 2022 15:36 (three years ago)

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"Life in a Northern Town" - C/D?