Listen to the song; #5 on SONGS FROM THE WOOD
1978-79 - This song was spawned out of a failed relationship and with my own desire to go and discover the big wide world. I graduated from High School with the class of 77 and penned this one over some new chords I was fooling around with late in the Summer. That winter I became skiing buddies with Eric Marden and we had some fine jam sessions at his family’s chalet on Sugarloaf Mountain, après ski. During these sessions, I learned to play scales and improvise and the chorus for the song just came out like nonsense lyrics. As fate would have it, my heart was showing the signs of wanting to “fly away” to some distant place. I had thought Carol Mulligan was everything I wanted in a girlfriend, until I found out that she was having trouble letting go of her previous boyfriend. Circumstances conspired together and pushed me in the direction of moving far away, as did my growing dissatisfaction with my job as a graveyard shift stocker at the A&P. Some time in late 78 I ran into an old friend, Greg Spaulding. Kiki as we called him had moved to Colorado right after graduation. I had entertained the thought of going with him but chickened out at the last moment, so when he showed up with all these wonderful stories of his travels, I was itching to get out of Maine. When he said he was going to California this time, I was all for it. We pooled our resources and got new tires and brakes on my 1975 Plymouth Duster, getting her ready for a cross-country road trip. We left in January of 1979, went to Quebec for Winter Carnival (similar to Mardi-Gras in New Orleans), then to Colorado for a couple weeks of skiing and finally landed in Los Angeles in February. A friend of ours Ricky Dionne was living in Paramount Ca, and we stayed with him for a time. During this time I wrote the second verse of Northern Sea. It was the time of long gas lines and odd and even numbered license plates gassing up on certain days. Ever see that show “Dirtiest Jobs in America”? Well that’s the kind of job I had, crawling into the ventilation systems of spray paint booths and scraping the paint off the walls and reinstalling new filters. No California wasn’t quite the utopia I had expected, but I was determined to succeed and refused to turn tail and run back to Maine (like some I know, eh Kiki, Ricky, Tim, Dave, Lee)
NORTHERN SEA
Words and music by Reggie Michaud © 1978
I thought I had known the meaning of pain
Can’t you tell my why I don’t understand
Why I sit here thinking about holding your hand
When I didn’t even know if you fit into my plans
Yes but I know girl what you did to me
Well baby three’s a crowd and only two is company
Now I’m gonna fly away to the Northern sea
Now I’m gonna fly away not you just me
Gonna reach this paradise eventually
Gonna be happy and free in a world of luxury
At the Northern Sea. La,la,la,la la, la-la-la
Well here I am at LAX
Amongst the crime and the booze and the sex
But there’s golden waves on a distant shore
And every time the feeling’s gone we just scream for more
I thought I’d left that feeling far behind
And came up shining girl but you were on my mind
Now I wanna fly away to the Northern sea
Now I wanna fly away not you just me
I’m gonna reach this paradise eventually
Gonna be happy and free in a world of luxury
At the Northern Sea. La,la,la,la la, la-la-la
La la la la la, la la la la la-la-la-la la-la-la-la la-la-la-la-la
I thought I had known the meaning of pain
So here you come around again
Dragging this rocky heart to way back when
Making me think that I could call you friend
I thought I’d left that feeling far behind
And came up shining girl but you were on my mind
Now I'm gonna fly away to the Northern sea
Now I'm gonna stretch my wings like the Northern geese
I’m gonna reach this paradise eventually
Gonna be happy and free in a world of luxury
At the Northern Sea. La,la,la,la la, la-la-la
1978-79 - This song was spawned out of a failed relationship and with my own desire to go and discover the big wide world. I graduated from High School with the class of 77 and penned this one over some new chords I was fooling around with late in the Summer. That winter I became skiing buddies with Eric Marden and we had some fine jam sessions at his family’s chalet on Sugarloaf Mountain, après ski. During these sessions, I learned to play scales and improvise and the chorus for the song just came out like nonsense lyrics. As fate would have it, my heart was showing the signs of wanting to “fly away” to some distant place. I had thought Carol Mulligan was everything I wanted in a girlfriend, until I found out that she was having trouble letting go of her previous boyfriend. Circumstances conspired together and pushed me in the direction of moving far away, as did my growing dissatisfaction with my job as a graveyard shift stocker at the A&P. Some time in late 78 I ran into an old friend, Greg Spaulding. Kiki as we called him had moved to Colorado right after graduation. I had entertained the thought of going with him but chickened out at the last moment, so when he showed up with all these wonderful stories of his travels, I was itching to get out of Maine. When he said he was going to California this time, I was all for it. We pooled our resources and got new tires and brakes on my 1975 Plymouth Duster, getting her ready for a cross-country road trip. We left in January of 1979, went to Quebec for Winter Carnival (similar to Mardi-Gras in New Orleans), then to Colorado for a couple weeks of skiing and finally landed in Los Angeles in February. A friend of ours Ricky Dionne was living in Paramount Ca, and we stayed with him for a time. During this time I wrote the second verse of Northern Sea. It was the time of long gas lines and odd and even numbered license plates gassing up on certain days. Ever see that show “Dirtiest Jobs in America”? Well that’s the kind of job I had, crawling into the ventilation systems of spray paint booths and scraping the paint off the walls and reinstalling new filters. No California wasn’t quite the utopia I had expected, but I was determined to succeed and refused to turn tail and run back to Maine (like some I know, eh Kiki, Ricky, Tim, Dave, Lee)
NORTHERN SEA
Words and music by Reggie Michaud © 1978
I thought I had known the meaning of pain
Can’t you tell my why I don’t understand
Why I sit here thinking about holding your hand
When I didn’t even know if you fit into my plans
Yes but I know girl what you did to me
Well baby three’s a crowd and only two is company
Now I’m gonna fly away to the Northern sea
Now I’m gonna fly away not you just me
Gonna reach this paradise eventually
Gonna be happy and free in a world of luxury
At the Northern Sea. La,la,la,la la, la-la-la
Well here I am at LAX
Amongst the crime and the booze and the sex
But there’s golden waves on a distant shore
And every time the feeling’s gone we just scream for more
I thought I’d left that feeling far behind
And came up shining girl but you were on my mind
Now I wanna fly away to the Northern sea
Now I wanna fly away not you just me
I’m gonna reach this paradise eventually
Gonna be happy and free in a world of luxury
At the Northern Sea. La,la,la,la la, la-la-la
La la la la la, la la la la la-la-la-la la-la-la-la la-la-la-la-la
I thought I had known the meaning of pain
So here you come around again
Dragging this rocky heart to way back when
Making me think that I could call you friend
I thought I’d left that feeling far behind
And came up shining girl but you were on my mind
Now I'm gonna fly away to the Northern sea
Now I'm gonna stretch my wings like the Northern geese
I’m gonna reach this paradise eventually
Gonna be happy and free in a world of luxury
At the Northern Sea. La,la,la,la la, la-la-la
RSS Feed
