Life in a Northern Town

"Life in a Northern Town" is the debut single by British band The Dream Academy, released in March 1985. It appears on the band's self-titled debut studio album, The Dream Academy. The song was written as an elegy to British folk musician Nick Drake. Written by band members Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel, the song was produced by Laird-Clowes with help from Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. The single reached No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986 and reached No. 15 on the UK charts. It is the band's highest charting single in the UK, the US, and Ireland.

American country music artists Sugarland, Little Big Town, and Jake Owen recorded a live cover version of "Life in a Northern Town" that became a minor U.S. hit in 2008.

Original version
The Dream Academy released the original version of "Life in a Northern Town" as a single in 1985. The song was included as a track on the band's self-titled album. The single peaked at number seven on the US charts and number 15 on the UK charts.

Composition
"Life in a Northern Town" was written as an elegy to British folk musician Nick Drake, who died in 1974. Nick Laird-Clowes said he wrote it on a guitar that Drake had been holding on one of his album covers, that Laird-Clowes "bought for £100 and still had his tuning ... I still have that guitar."

Gilbert Gabriel, a member of the Dream Academy and co-writer of "Life in a Northern Town,” said that the inspiration for the tune came from his experience at Dartington College of Arts. According to Nick Laird-Clowes, "We had the idea, even before we sat down, to write a folk song with an African-style chorus. We started it and when we got to the verse melody, there was something about it that reminded me of Nick Drake." Laird-Clowes has stated that the song is about the collapse of the shipping industry in the United Kingdom.

The song includes elements of classical music, an "African-esque" chant of "hey ma ma ma ma” (which was later sampled by dance duo Dario G for their track "Sunchyme" and by the duo Tritonal), and hints of psychedelia. "Life in a Northern Town" is written in the key of E major with a main chord pattern of E-A$maj7$-E.

Laird-Clowes told Mojo that his mentor Paul Simon spurred him to come up with the title. “I played him the song and he asked, 'What are you going to call it – Ah Hey Ma Ma Ma?' I told him that we intended to name it 'Morning Lasted All Day.' 'That’s no good,' he said and so I came up with 'Life In A Northern Town,' which he thought was a great title.”

Track listing
7" single
 * 1) "Life in a Northern Town" – 4:17
 * 2) "Test Tape No. 3" – 5:01

12" single
 * 1) "Life in a Northern Town" (Extended) – 5:19
 * 2) "Test Tape No. 3" – 5:03
 * 3) "Life in a Northern Town" (7" Mix) – 4:14
 * 4) "Poised on the Edge of Forever" – 3:32

Music video
Two videos were released to promote the single. The earlier version features the group performing the song in various locations in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. The second version, released in November 1985, features the group performing at a concert while clips play featuring footage of Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester, and Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.

Personnel
Credits sourced from "One Two Testing" and Mix.

The Dream Academy
 * Nick Laird-Clowes - lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitars
 * Gilbert Gabriel - backing vocals, ARP Solina String Ensemble, Roland JX-3P synthesizer, E-mu Emulator II
 * Kate St John - backing vocals, cor anglais, piano

Additional Musicians
 * Ben Hoffnung - timpani, percussion
 * George Nicholson - Roland TR-808 programming
 * David Gilmour - sound effects, tape effects

Reception
Stephen Holden of The New York Times described "Life in a Northern Town" as a "richly textured nostalgic ballad...that looks back warmly on 'winter 1963, when it felt like the world would freeze with John F. Kennedy and the Beatles'".

According to SingersRoom.com, the song's "haunting, ethereal melody and poetic lyrics...create a sense of wistfulness..." ClassicFM.com describes the song as "brimming with nostalgia, something that's mainly achieved, somewhat unexpectedly, with the wistful sound of an oboe".

Sugarland cover version
The song was covered in 2007 by the country music duo Sugarland, along with Little Big Town and Jake Owen, on the Sugarland Change for Change Tour. A live performance from 2007 was made into a music video by Becky Fluke for the network Country Music Television.

This performance was included on the Deluxe Fan Edition of Sugarland's 2008 album Love on the Inside and on Capitol Records' late 2008 re-release of Little Big Town's 2007 album A Place to Land. It was nominated for Vocal Event of the Year at the Country Music Association awards, Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 51st Grammy Awards, and Vocal Event of the Year at the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music awards.

Other versions

 * In 2005, Rick Springfield included a version of the song on the covers album The Day After Yesterday.