Music Monday: Northern Lights

My Dad was always an early riser. Even on his days off from work, he’d be up by seven. I don’t think he knew how to lie in–the concept was foreign to him, I’m sure. I remember he used to have a “teasmaid” beside his bed that would help him get up. This device was essentially an alarm clock with a radio and a hot water dispenser. At a set time, the teasmaid would boil water then dispense it into a waiting mug containing instant coffee granules (or a tea bag). When the radio woke him up, my Dad would have a hot cup of coffee or tea waiting for him.

My parents’ bedroom was next to the room I shared with my older brother at that time. I remember sometimes waking up to the sound of my Dad’s radio filtering through the wall. Often I would roll over and go back to sleep, but occasionally a song would come on that I liked, and I would strain my ears to hear it. One song I remember hearing this way was “Northern Lights” by the British prog rock band Renaissance. The song was a top ten hit in the UK during the latter part of the Seventies, but didn’t chart anywhere else as far as I’m aware.

Contrary to what one might think, the “Northern Lights” referenced in this song are not the famous Aurora Borealis. Rather, they refer to the lights of northern England you might see as you leave the country by plane. At the time this song was written, lead singer Annie Haslam was engaged to Roy Wood, formerly of The Move and Wizzard. Can we just pause here for a moment to consider this coupling?:

Annie refers to the four years they were engaged as the funniest in her life. Anyway, the words to the song reflect Annie’s feelings as she would go off on tour leaving the north of England, and Roy, behind, longing to be back home.

The song has a distinctive sound to it that I like a lot. The open spacey feel to the verses, the tight, baroque-y feel to the bridge, and the change of instrumentation between the two. Annie’s vocal is perfect for the song too, giving the words just the right powerful, soaring quality.

If you want to play along at home, the song’s in E-major. The verses pretty much stick to an E – B/E – A/E – B/E riff. When you play this on the guitar (preferably a 12-string, if you have one), use this shape for the B/E:

Then slide that down to the fifth fret for the A/E. You’ll also use this shape to play the B and A chords in the introduction, even though the bass run starts on the root of each of those chords (usual caveat: I’m not trained in music transcription, but hopefully this is enough to give you an idea of how it goes):

Here’s the bass, melody, and chords for the first line to give you an idea of how the verses go:

And then the chorus bit that comes toward the end of the verse:

Then that bridge part:

You’ll notice I’ve written A/C#, B/D#, E/G# for some of the chords. Unless you want to do your own guitar arrangement, stick to playing a regular E, A, and B, and leave the bass guitar to do the bass notes. Here’s a full lead sheet (words and chords). Click to enlarge:

And finally, the song itself. I couldn’t find a complete music video (i.e., with intro and fade-out), so I took a Top of the Pops performance, mixed it with a clip of the promo film (plus some special effects), and synced this to the original track from CD. Notice that the guitarist plays the E chord up an octave (13th fret):

Here’s a live performance from 1979: