“Northern Sky” is written in Drake's favoured
CGCFCE tuning with a
capo on the third fret. The
middle eight was composed by Cale during the recording. The accompaniment by the classically trained Cale reflects Drake's desire to move away from the
pastoral sound of his 1969 debut album
Five Leaves Left, which was a commercial failure. Cale's own career was similarly in tatters; he had been fired from the Velvet Underground by
Lou Reed two years earlier, and was yet to re-establish his reputation as a formidable producer. Drake sought to broaden his own appeal and tentatively agreed to Boyd's suggestion to include bass and drum tracks on recordings for
Bryter Layter, and to experiment with a more pop or jazzy sound, which Boyd admitted he imagined would be "more commercial". Yet it essentially retains Drake's original acoustic style, being anchored by long term producers and arrangers
Robert Kirby and
John Wood's sharp and stripped-down sparse engineering and production values.
Trevor Dann believes that the contrasting approach of the two men produced accompaniment that is "opulent without overpowering the fragile little song". The song was probably written during Drake's brief period of living in
Hastings with
John Martyn and his wife
Beverley. According to Beverley Martyn, "He wrote that one around us. We had a tree in the garden across the pavement – hence the line, 'Smelt sweet breezes at the top of a tree.' The top of the tree came to the window where Nick was, and you could see the full moon on the sea at night." There has been speculation as for whom the song was written, with
Linda Thompson as the most often mentioned candidate. There is no real evidence for this however, and he was at the time friendly with a number of women. He had platonic friendships with both Sophia Ryde and Beverley Martyn, with whom he was particularly close, although neither of these relationships developed. Boyd was at the time working as co-producer with John Cale on
Nico's
Desertshore album. Boyd sent the recently ex-
Velvet Underground member a demo recording of a few of the tracks that were to form
Bryter Layter. The morning Cale received them, he rang Boyd asking "Who the fuck *is* this guy? I have to meet him, where is he right now." Boyd phoned Drake, and was given consent – Boyd claims Drake's only words during the conversation were "Oh, uh, OK". He arranged a recording session for the following day, on the condition that Cale would be allowed to add accompaniment to the tracks. Although Boyd is credited with production, he admits his actual contribution was putting the two men in contact. ==Reception==