‘Northern Sky’, Nick Drake
- ‘Coney Island,’ Good Old War
- ‘Margaritaville,’ Jimmy Buffett
- ‘Come Sail Away,’ Styx
- ‘Too Shy’, Kajagoogoo
- ‘One Night in Bangkok,’ Murray Head
- Falling Asleep to Kate Rusby
- ‘Mr. Harris,’ Aimee Mann
- ‘Praying for Time,’ George Michael
- ‘God Save the Queen’
- ‘Hey, Soul Sister’, Train
- ‘Northern Sky’, Nick Drake
- I Song I Want Played at my Funeral?
- ‘Near You,’ Teenage Fanclub
- ‘Washing of the Water,’ Peter Gabriel
- ‘From the Morning,’ Nick Drake
- ‘We Are the World’ – USA for Africa
- ‘Planet Telex’, Radiohead
- ‘B.O.S.T.O.N.’, Bleu
- ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ – Band Aid
- ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ – John Parr
- ‘Saturday Night,’ The Bay City Rollers
- Least Favorite Band – The Black Eyed Peas
- Happiness on Steroids: ‘I Found Love’, The Free Design
- ‘The King Is Half Undressed,’ Jellyfish
- ‘Keeping Awake,’ The Innocence Mission
- ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It’, R.E.M.
- A Song I Wanted to Play at My Wedding: ‘The Marriage Of Figaro’
- ‘For No One’, the Beatles
- ‘The Wing and the Wheel’ – Nanci Griffith
You can’t get more depressing than Nick Drake. One man who struggled with depression, who may have committed suicide, playing often with just a single acoustic guitar. it’s a prescription for jumping off a bridge.
Yet “Northern Sky” is so uplifting – he must have written it on a good day. The acoustic guitar is still present, but there are bells, drums, piano, with a chord progression that advances up the scale slightly, giving it a positive vibe.
His lyrics, usually morose, are especially positive:
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.
When I’m depressed, I play a positive song by a depressed man, which gives me hope that yes, today can be a good day. Not every day has to be a downer. There is hope. And if that doesn’t work, I just find a song that makes me happy.
