Dolby promoted himself as a kind of mad scientist, an egghead that had successfully harnessed the power of synthesizers and samplers, using them to make catchy pop and electro-funk. Before he launched his solo career, Dolby had already worked as a studio musician, technician, and songwriter. After starting out as a teenaged live sound man, mixing The Fall, The Members and others using a PA he built himself, he formed the arty post-punk band Camera Club (also known as Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club) with Bruce Woolley, Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn and Matthew Seligman. Within a year, he had left the group and joined Lene Lovich’s backing band and gave her his song "New Toy", which became a British hit in 1981. That same year, he released his first solo single, "Urges", on the English independent label Armageddon. By the autumn, he had signed with Parlophone and released "Europa and the Pirate Twins", which nearly cracked the UK Top 40.
Dolby started playing synthesizer on sessions for other artists in 1982. That year, he played keyboards on Def Leppard’s Pyromania and Joan Armatrading’s Walk Under Ladders. His most distinctive session credit is that keyboard line after the chorus on Foreigner’s "Waiting for a Girl Like You". In that eventful summer, Dolby also collaborating with New York rappers Whodini to create "Magic’s Wand" – a pivotal early hip hop track (the first rap single to shift 1 million copies), and it also single-handedly started the new jack swing movement.
Even with all of these achievements, 1982 was most noteworthy for the release of Dolby’s first solo album, The Golden Age of Wireless, in the summer of 1982, the landmark album reaching number 13. "Windpower", the first single from the record, became his first Top 40 UK hit in the late summer. Other cuts from the album include "The Airwaves", and "One of Our Submarines", a meditation on the futility of empire.
In January of 1983, Dolby released an EP, Blinded by Science, which includes what would become his most well-known track, "She Blinded Me with Science" featuring a cameo vocal appearance by the notorious British eccentric Magnus Pike, who also appeared in the song’s video. "She Blinded Me with Science" was a minor hit in England, but the EP and the single became a major American hit in 1983, thanks to MTV’s heavy airplay of the video. Eventually, the song reached number five on the US charts and it was included on a resequenced and reissued version of The Golden Age of Wireless, which peaked at number 13 in America.
The Flat Earth, Dolby's second album, appeared in early 1984, and harkens back to a time when songs mattered more than the video, even as MTV was discovering its strength. Opening with "Dissidents", conjuring up images of blacklisted authors and ugly snow, gray from oppression, with Matthew Seligman’s bass at the fore, lavish, growling, popping through octaves, funk-a-fied and twinkling with harmonics throughout the album. The title track is an R&B daydream of piano and Motown stabs of rhythm guitar. "Screen Kiss" has a similarly ethereal quality, and the lyrics are lush with imagery. The cover of Dan Hicks’ 1967 "I Scare Myself" is a balmy jazz club cocktail – faithfully nostalgic, right down to a bittersweet trombone solo from Peter Thomas. "Hyperactive" is one part bizarre to two parts infectious; guest vocalist Adele Bertei fuels the fire to what was already destined to be a memorable diversion beyond the reach of Top 40. The single became Thomas’ biggest UK hit, peaking at number 17.
During 1985, Dolby collaborated with artists including Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield and Herbie Hancock; and notched up some more high-concept production credits. George Clinton's Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen, and Joni Mitchell’s Dog Eat Dog were all midwifed by Dolby, who also was musical director for David Bowie at Live Aid. Also in 1985, he began composing film scores, starting with Fever Pitch. In 1986, he composed the scores for Gothic and Howard the Duck, for which he credited himself as Dolby's Cube. (That credit led to a lawsuit from the Dolby Labs, who eventually prohibited the musician from using the name "Dolby" in conjunction with any other name than "Thomas.")
Aliens Ate My Buick, Dolby's long-delayed third album, appeared in 1988 to a mixed reaction, although "Airhead" became a minor British hit. That same year, Dolby married actress Kathleen Beller. For the rest of the late 80s and early 90s, Dolby continued to score films, producing and building his own computer equipment.
1992’s Astronauts and Heretics, features guest stars such as Eddie Van Halen, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and Ofra Haza. The album opens with "I Love You Goodbye", one of Thomas’ most evocative songs, and ends with "Beauty of a Dream" which is also a contender for that honour. Highlights found inbetween include "Cruel" (a duet with Fairground Attraction’s Eddie Reader), "I Live in a Suitcase" and "Close But No Cigar".
The following year, Dolby founded the computer software company Headspace in Silicon Valley, releasing The Virtual String Quartet as its first program, and also pioneered technology for music on mobile phones. For the rest of the 90s, Headspace occupied most of Dolby's time and energy. In 1994, he released The Gate to the Mind’s Eye, a soundtrack to the animated short film Mind’s Eye. Also that year, Capitol released the greatest-hits collection, Retrospectacle.
Thirteen years after Astronauts and Heretics, Dolby returned to live performance in 2006 with his solo Sole Inhabitant tour, which covered North America and the UK, with Thomas recreating the highlights of his earlier work from scratch, with a camera mounted like a miner’s lamp on his head, and a big screen showing the view from the artist, turning what would be a fairly dull one-man-and-a-rack-of-synths into a fascinating audio visual experience and an unintended masterclass for music technology students.
UK indie label Invisible Hands Music released a CD and DVD box set recorded on the Sole Inhabitant tour. These fresh and modern reinterpretations of Thomas’ work to date precedes a new studio album due in 2008, which is as-yet untitled, but does include a song about Britney’s ex Kevin Federline (“K-Fed”) who used an uncleared sample from "She Blinded Me with Science" and did not respond to legal approaches until a ‘cease-and-desist’ was posted in the comments field of his MySpace page. That song is called "My Karma Hit Your Dogma", and bodes well for a mighty return to form, combining Thomas’ humour and intelligence with a unique musical vision.
2011 saw Dolby get busy by returning with a new studio album A Map of the Floating City on 29 October. The album is broken down into three genres of Urbanoia's tales of city experiences; Amerikana as Dolby's take on his years living in America and it's roots music; and Oceanea: songs of life by the sea in his home country of England. The music was debuted first as download EPs to Dolby's online community and then previewed by a transmedia interactive game also called the FloatingCity.com.
Thomas Dolby is taking the music back on tour as a solo artist and with varying line-ups of bands, doing two tours of the UK in 2011, and has his first trip to Australia in February 2012 followed by dates in Japan. In March Dolby kicks off the Time-Capsule.tv tour at the SxSW Festival in Austin playing dates in USA and Canada through April. He will have a trailer parked at venues on his tour where you can produce a 30 second video offering words of wisdom to whoever will be walking the earth in the future. Dolby wants to give people a chance to “explain to an alien visitor what went wrong with our civilization. Our species may not be around on this planet much longer, so you might as well leave a welcome message for the next guys.”
Flying North
Thomas Dolby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Whose airlanes comb dark Earth
The poles are tethers we were born in
On the brink of a whole new deal
On the floor of a Pan-Am bar
I'm staring right into the light
And I'm drawn in like a moth
And I'm flying North again...
Here come the men in suits
Papers waving in the runway glare
Lincoln steaming in the chilly air of the morning
At the end of a double day
At the back of an airport lounge
I'm staring down into the cold
And I'm worn out like a cloth
And I'm flying North again tonight
Flying North
Down with the landing gear
Up goes the useless prayer
The poles are tethers we were born in
Now I'm back in the London night
On a bench in a launderette
I'm staring right into my face
And I'm drawn out like a plot
And I'm flying North again tonight
Flying North
The song "Flying North" by Thomas Dolby is a haunting ode to the experience of traveling, particularly by airplane. The opening lines describe the metal bird, or airplane, dipping its wing of fire as it flies across the dark Earth. The song then speaks to the idea that humans are tethered to the poles, perhaps referencing our reliance on technology and the ways in which our lives are shaped by the geography of the planet we inhabit. The lyric "on the brink of a whole new deal" suggests that the act of flying is both exhilarating and transformative, and that it can lead to new opportunities or experiences.
The song's chorus, "flying North again," suggests that the singer is a frequent traveler and that he associates the act of flying with a sense of longing or restlessness. He describes staring into the light or down into the cold, suggesting that traveling can be both illuminating and isolating. The second verse introduces the image of "men in suits" with "papers waving," suggesting that the singer is not alone in his travels and that there are others like him, perhaps businessmen or travelers with specific destinations or purposes.
The final verse of the song brings the singer back to London, where he is now sitting in a launderette and staring at his own reflection. The song ends with the repetition of the line "flying North again tonight," emphasizing the cyclical nature of travel and the idea that it is an ongoing experience that never truly ends.
Overall, "Flying North" is a beautiful and atmospheric song, with lyrics that capture the experience of traveling in a way that is both specific and universal.
Line by Line Meaning
Metal bird dip wing of fire
Describing the airplane as a metallic bird with blazing wings in motion.
Whose airlanes comb dark Earth
Mentioning the routes of the airway crisscrossing over the planet's dimly-lit surface.
The poles are tethers we were born in
Implying a sense of emotional belonging or attachment to a specific polar region.
On the brink of a whole new deal
Referring to the experience of anticipating a fresh beginning or a significant change.
On the floor of a Pan-Am bar
Portraying a specific setting of a lounge area in a popular airline's building.
I'm staring right into the light
Visualizing an individual looking directly at a bright source of illumination.
And I'm drawn in like a moth
Showing how the singer is compelled towards the radiant beam like an insect drawn to a flame.
And I'm flying North again...
Eliciting the notion of the person embarking on a journey towards the polar regions once more.
Here come the men in suits
Representing the management staff of a corporation or company.
Papers waving in the runway glare
Depicting the paperwork being held or shuffled by the businesspeople at an airport in shining bright light.
Lincoln steaming in the chilly air of the morning
Referring to the steam rising from a car on a cold morning as it waits on a runway.
At the end of a double day
Illustrating the exhaustion of a person that has had to work two full shifts consecutively.
At the back of an airport lounge
Positioning the singer inside the rear part of a terminal's waiting area or waiting lounge.
I'm staring down into the cold
Describing a person's gaze directed downwards towards an ice-cold floor.
And I'm worn out like a cloth
Comparing an individual's physical and mental state to that of a ragged, old rag.
And I'm flying North again tonight
Eliciting the notion of the person embarking on a journey towards the polar regions once more, this time at night.
Down with the landing gear
Announcing the arrival of the aircraft for landing, with lowering landing gears.
Up goes the useless prayer
Implying that prayer or wishes are ineffective while in the situation during takeoff.
Now I'm back in the London night
Describing the returning process of going back to home city (London) during the night time.
On a bench in a launderette
Portraying the image of an individual sitting on a bench inside a commercial laundry mat.
I'm staring right into my face
Conveying the notion of self-reflection or a moment of introspection in front of a reflective surface.
And I'm drawn out like a plot
Comparing the person's withdrawn state to a plot that has been stretched thin or a thread that has been pulled.
And I'm flying North again tonight
Eliciting the notion of the person embarking on a journey towards the polar regions once more, this time during the night.
Flying North
The continuous repetition of the phrase 'Flying North' is a poetic technique used to emphasize and reinforce the idea of the artist's recurring journeys to the polar regions.
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