This Is This

It was hard to pick a Nick Drake song, because there are so many of them that I love.

You’ve got the haunting strings and mysterious lyrics of Riverman, the lovely slide guitar and happy resignation of Time Has Told Me, the relaxed fatherly pace of Pink Moon. There’s a job knowing where to start or end.

It should tell you something to reveal that while for years no one claimed to dislike novelty ringtones more than me, it’s the opening seven notes from Black Eyed Dog that gently asks for my attention every time I get a text message.

But you have to start somewhere and no song collection of mine would be complete without some Nick Drake, so I chose Northern Sky for its relaxed familiarity extending an informal invitation to whatever you want it to mean.

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.

Listen: Northern Sky

—
Related pages
Weekend Song archive

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 9:16 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or you can skip to the end and leave a comment yourself.