Girl from the North Country

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"Girl from the North Country"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan & Nashville Skyline
ReleasedMay 27, 1963
RecordedApril 24, 1963
Studio Columbia Recording, New York City
Genre Folk
Length3:22
Label Columbia Records
Songwriter(s) Bob Dylan

"Girl from the North Country" (occasionally known as "Girl of the North Country" [1] ) is a song written by Bob Dylan. It was recorded at Columbia Recording Studios in New York City in April 1963, and released the following month as the second track on Dylan's second studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Dylan re-recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash in February 1969. [2] That recording became the opening track on Nashville Skyline , Dylan's ninth studio album.

Contents

Background

The song was written following Dylan's first trip to England in December 1962, upon what he thought to be the completion of his second album. It is debated as to whom this song is a tribute: some claim former girlfriend Echo Helstrom, [3] and some Bonnie Beecher, [1] both of whom Dylan knew before leaving for New York. However, it is suspected that this song could have been inspired by his then girlfriend, Suze Rotolo.

In an interview with Anthony Scaduto included in his book The Dylan Tapes: Friends, Players and Lovers Talkin Early Bob Dylan, Echo Helstrom is quoted as answering: [4]

Scaduto: You know there's one thing I forget to ask you the last time we talked -- "The Girl from the North Country"?
Helstrom: Yeah.
Scaduto: So you think you're the girl from the north country?
Helstrom: Yeah.
Scaduto: Tell me about it. Tell me your feeling about it. why do you think you're the girl from the north country?
Helstrom: Well, there's nobody else it could be. He didn't go with anyone else when he went with me, you know, for such a long time. [4]

Dylan left England for Italy to search for Rotolo, whose continuation of studies there had caused a serious rift in their relationship. Unbeknownst to Dylan, she had already returned to the United States, leaving about the same time that he arrived in Italy. It was there that he finished the song, ostensibly inspired by the apparent end of his relationship with Rotolo. Upon his return to New York in mid-January, he persuaded her to get back together, and to move back into his apartment on 4th Street. Rotolo is the woman featured on the album cover, walking arm in arm with Dylan down Jones Street, not far from their apartment. [5] In her introduction to the Scaduto book of interviews, Stephanie Trudeau states that Rotolo was the likely inspiration for the related Dylan song "Boots of Spanish Leather." [4]

Composition

While in London, Dylan met several figures in the local folk scene, including English folksinger Martin Carthy. "I ran into some people in England who really knew those [traditional English] songs," Dylan recalled in 1984. "Martin Carthy, another guy named [Bob] Davenport. Martin Carthy's incredible. I learned a lot of stuff from Martin." Carthy exposed Dylan to a repertoire of traditional English ballads, including Carthy's own arrangement of "Scarborough Fair," which Dylan drew upon for aspects of the melody and lyrics of "Girl from the North Country," including the line from the refrain "Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine". Musically, this song is nearly identical to his composition "Boots of Spanish Leather", [6] composed and recorded one year later for the album The Times They Are a-Changin' .

Lyrics

Tom Leatham summarizes the lyrics of the song in an article about its duet by Dylan and Johnny Cash stating: "The track tells of a mystery woman and both Cash and Dylan sing of their longing for her. The song had first been written by Dylan when he visited England late in 1962 when he had been completing his second album. Many Dylan fans have deliberated on who the mystery woman in the song really is, with some suggesting it could have been any of his former girlfriends, Echo Helstrom, Bonnie Beecher or Suze Rotolo." [7]

Robert McColl writing for Popular Music History writes of the lyrics as expressing Dylan being divided between his actual memories of having seen his girlfriend and having had an encounter with her, with his later attempt to create a mental reconstruction of her long after the encounter. As McColl states: "The song becomes, in part, about the difference between the mental image and the actual seeing. Among his many attributes, Dylan is an exemplary stopper and cutter-short: what the singer cannot see, here, he desists from imagining. This is a trend best exemplified by the penultimate verse":

I’m a-wond’rin’ if she remembers me at all
Many times I’ve often prayed
In the darkness of my night
In the brightness of my day

McColl continues stating: "If verses two and three project the hanging of remembrance upon a single image—coat, and hair, respectively—we might expect the pattern to continue through the song, reconstructing the girl, so to speak, through parts. But verse four turns the tables, supplying no concrete image and questioning the viability of such a reconstruction, primarily of himself ('if she remembers me at all') but, to some extent, of her as well. We might assume that he prays for her to remember him, but are denied the luxury of that thought." [8]

Reception

Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song 30th on a list of the "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs". In an article accompanying the list, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards wrote: "While the British Invasion was going on, Bob Dylan was the man who really pulled the American point of view back into focus. At the same time, he had been drawing on Anglo-Celtic folk songs, and that's certainly true of 'Girl From the North Country'. It's got all the elements of beautiful folk writing without being pretentious. In the lyrics and the melody, there is an absence of Bob's later cutting edge. There's none of that resentment. He recorded it again later with Johnny Cash, but I don't think it's a duo song. Bob got it right the first time". [9]

Live performances

According to his official website, Dylan performed the song 569 times live between 1963 and 2019. [10] Live performances by Dylan appear on the albums Real Live (1984), The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (1993; recorded 1992), [1] The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981 (Deluxe Edition) (2017; recorded 1981), Live 1962-1966: Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections (2018; recorded 1964), and The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin' Thru, 1967-1969 (Deluxe Edition) (2019; recorded 1969). A February 1964 performance for Canadian television was included on the DVD release of Martin Scorsese's PBS television documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home in 2005.

Notable versions

In 2017, a stage play was written titled Girl from the North Country and performed in England. [26] [27] Irish playwright Conor McPherson wrote and directed it, and used Dylan's songs to tell the stories of various characters during the Depression years, set in Dylan's birthplace, Duluth, Minnesota and features the title song in the second act. The play premiered in London in 2017. [26] [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad. The song lists a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The "Scarborough/Whittingham Fair" variant was most common in Yorkshire and Northumbria, where it was sung to various melodies, often using Dorian mode, with refrains resembling "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" and "Then she'll be a true love of mine." It appears in Traditional Tunes (1891) by Frank Kidson, who claims to have collected it from Whitby.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Ruhlmann, William. "Girl from the North Country – Bob Dylan – Review". AllMusic .
  2. 1 2 Bjorner, Olof (November 21, 2015). "5th Nashville Skyline session, 18 February 1969". bjorner.com. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  3. ↑ "The original 'Girl From the North Country,' Bob Dylan's high school sweetheart has died". Star Tribune . Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Anthony Scaduto, The Dylan Tapes: Friends, Players and Lovers Talkin Early Bob Dylan, University of Minnesota Press, 2022, unpaginated digital version.
  5. ↑ Margotin, Philippe; Guesdon, Jean-Michel (27 October 2015). Bob Dylan: all the songs: the story behind every track (First ed.). New York. ISBN   978-1-57912-985-9. OCLC   869908038.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ Sheehy, Colleen Josephine; Thomas Swiss (2009). Highway 61 revisited: Bob Dylan's road from Minnesota to the world. U of Minnesota Press. p. 85. ISBN   9780816661008.
  7. ↑ "The Story Behind The Song: ‘Girl From The North Country’ – the song that united Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash". By Tom Leatham. Far Out Magazine. 17 February 2023.
  8. ↑ Robert McColl. Popular Music History. "Borders and lines: seeing and imagining in Dylan". PMH 8.2 (2013) p.134.
  9. ↑ "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs". Rolling Stone. 2020-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  10. ↑ "Setlists | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  11. ↑ Edwards, Gavin (May 27, 2004). "The Rolling Stone Hall of Fame: Bob Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 29, 2025.
  12. ↑ Girl from the North Country (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) , retrieved 2022-01-26
  13. ↑ Live at the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee - 7 October 1970, The ABC Show Series Vol. 6, Ryman Records
  14. ↑ "Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Joe Cocker - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic . Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "Another Sky - Altan - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  16. ↑ Prince, David J. (July 4, 2009). "Rosanne Cash Readies 'The List'". Billboard .
  17. ↑ "With Strings: Live at Town Hall - Eels - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  18. ↑ "Smiler - Rod Stewart - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  19. ↑ "Amnesty International - Chimes of Freedom – Amnesty International - Chimes of Freedom". Music.amnestyusa.org. 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  20. ↑ Greg Prato (2004-09-21). "The Hard Way - John Waite | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  21. ↑ "Mr. Guitar - Link Wray - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  22. ↑ Greene, Andy (18 April 2014). "Neil Young's New Covers Album Available Right Now: Surprise!". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
  23. ↑ Passenger | Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan Cover) , retrieved 2021-04-20
  24. ↑ "Saw Star Tobin Bell Addresses Nearly Having a Cameo in Spiral: From the Book of Saw". comicbook.com. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  25. ↑ "Jackson Dean, Josh Ross cover Johnny Cash + Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country"". Country Top 40 with Fitz. May 25, 2023. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  26. 1 2 Billinngton, Michael (July 26, 2017). "Girl from the North Country review: Bob Dylan's songs are Depression-era dynamite". The Guardian.
  27. 1 2 Brantley, Ben (March 6, 2020). "'Girl From the North Country' Review: Bob Dylan's Amazing Grace". The New York Times .
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