Life in a Northern Town

[bitflipper]

When this song was originally released, I had never seen Saturday Night Live because I was a working musician and Saturday nights were spoken for. But I had bought the first videotape machine I could afford and began recording SNL episodes and watching them on Sunday. It was a Sony Beta, which my technoid brain assumed would become the prevailing videotape format, being technically superior to VHS. That thing cost over a grand and didn't even have a wireless remote.

I can still vividly recall playing back an SNL episode that featured a band named Dream Academy, playing Life in a Northern Town. I stood there slackjawed, thinking this was the best thing I'd ever heard on that show. Rewound and played it over and over, then ran out that afternoon and bought the album on cassette. Only to find that Life in a Northern Town was the only good song on the album.  The band vanished, leaving only this one masterpiece as their legacy.

Here's Justin Hayward covering it 40 years later, with an orchestra and still sounding remarkably mellifluous for an old man.

 

[Salvatore Sorice]

It's a very simple song (which most great songs are). Great lyrics - and this is an excellent interpretation.

[Jeremy Oakes]

I believe this is the version (audio only) from an 1985 US TV broadcast. I have to say it I find Justin Hayward's version too "spoken" and not sung enough.

But what a great song.

J