Northern Sky

Northern Sky

Author: BBC Radio 4 April 27, 2024 Duration: 27:49

"I never felt magic crazy as this....."

For some it's a beacon of hope, for others a metaphor for love. 'Northern Sky' is the penultimate track on Nick Drake's 1971 album 'Bryter Layter'. The sound was shaped by the Velvet Underground's John Cale who added the piano, organ and celeste. His records didn't sell well much to Nick's disappointment, but after his death in 1974 his music and genius became much better-known. These are just some of the stories from whose lives have been profoundly touched by this iconic track.

Gordon Hunter had a difficult childhood and says hearing 'Northern Sky' brought a meditative sense of calm to his life, like "finding treasure."

Nick Drake's producer Joe Boyd remembers how John Cale became involved in the recording, and his sadness that Nick never got the recognition he deserved in his own lifetime.

Singer-songwriter Alex Hart took a job on the Covid-19 111 helpline during the first lockdown and listened to 'Northern Sky' on the drives home. Alex covered the track for one of her albums.

Musicians Neil MacColl and Kate St John fell in love on the 'Way To Blue' tour in 2011 and discuss their performance of 'Northern Sky' and Kate's string arrangements. Neil walks us through Nick's guitar tunings and the song's lyrics.

It's a song that reminds Laura Barton of spring and the first rush of love which she experienced as a student in Oxford.

"Brighten my northern sky."

Producer: Toby Field for BBC Audio Bristol Technical Producer: Michael Harrison Editor: Emma Harding


There’s a certain piece of music that, when you hear it, seems to stop time. It might be a melody from your childhood, a song that played at a pivotal moment, or a composition that simply reaches into your chest and grips your heart. Soul Music, from BBC Radio 4, is built around that very phenomenon. This isn’t a program about genres or charts; it’s an intimate exploration of why specific pieces of music carry such profound emotional weight. Each episode focuses on a single, iconic work-from classical adagios to folk ballads, from film scores to pop anthems. The podcast weaves together the voices of people whose lives have been indelibly marked by that music: listeners share personal, often moving stories of grief, joy, love, and remembrance, while composers and performers might shed light on the piece’s creation. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, but framed in a way that reveals its deeper resonance in human experience. It’s a quiet, thoughtful series that reminds us how soundtracks our inner lives. Tuning into this podcast feels like being part of a conversation about the invisible threads that connect us all through notes and rhythms, exploring how a sequence of sounds can become a vessel for collective memory and feeling.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Soul Music
Podcast Episodes
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:47
Landslide was written by Stevie Nicks in 1973, on the cusp of huge change in her life. Penned while she was depressed and struggling financially in the snow-covered mountains of Aspen, Colorado, the song captured a momen…
Wild Mountain Thyme [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:34
"Oh the Summer time is coming. And the trees are sweetly blooming" Wild Mountain Thyme also known as Will Ye Go Lassie Go? is a much loved song around the world with its rousing chorus "And we'll all go together". It was…
Sweet Caroline [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:38
Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline was released in 1969, but it wasn't until the 1990s that it became a theme song for the Boston Red Sox, spreading to other other countries and sports, including the England football team. Da…
Rasputin by Boney M [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:43
Rasputin was a massive disco hit for the British-German Caribbean group Boney M in 1978. Nearly fifty years later it remains a much loved symbol of happiness and freedom for a a truly global audience. This edition of Sou…
Make You Feel My Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:46
"When the rain is blowing in your face / And the whole world is on your case / I could offer you a warm embrace / To make you feel my love"Written by Bob Dylan for his Time Out of Mind album, 'Make You Feel My Love' went…
Cranes in the Sky by Solange [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:28
Marking 25 years of the award-winning series, Soul Music features songs from the last 25 years. “I tried to drink it away... I tried to run it away...” Solange’s hit song, written in 2008 and released eight years later,…
Yellow by Coldplay [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:41
"Look at the stars, look how they shine for you..."True stories of what Yellow, one of Coldplay's most iconic songs, means to people 25 years on from its release.It's December 1999 and a relatively unknown band called Co…
Porcelain by Moby [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:27
A song that was everywhere after it was released as a single in 2000. Moby's Porcelain has been used in films, TV and adverts yet remains a much loved melancholic downbeat electronic ballad. Reportedly written about the…
Soul Music at 25 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:46
This hour long special celebrates a quarter of a century of the programme and charts the course of a human life through pieces of music. Cerys Matthews introduces a compilation of some of the diverse pieces of music we'v…
Bésame Mucho [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:50
The Mexican pianist and composer Consuelo Velázquez was only 16 years old when she wrote Bésame Mucho, and she was yet to have her first kiss. Composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez remembers hearing the song on t…