Girl from the North Country
| "Girl from the North Country" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Bob Dylan | |
| from the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan & Nashville Skyline | |
| Released | May 27, 1963 |
| Recorded | April 24, 1963 |
| Studio | Columbia Recording, New York City |
| Genre | Folk |
| Length | 3:22 |
| 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.
Background
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- Johnny Cash recorded a duet of the song with Dylan in February 1969 while Dylan was in Nashville working on his ninth studio album Nashville Skyline. The duet was released as the album's first track in April 1969.[11] This version appears in the 2012 film Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.[2] This version with new orchestral arrangements by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra also appears on Cash's 2020 posthumous album Johnny Cash and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[12]
- Cash and Dylan performed a duet of the song on The Johnny Cash Show, June 6, 1969.[13]
- Joe Cocker and Leon Russell performed the song on the 1970 live album Mad Dogs and Englishmen.[14] Russell also performed the song on his 1970 live album at the Fillmore East.
- Altan performed this song on their album Another Sky.[15]
- Rosanne Cash included the song on her 2009 album The List, which is based on a list of 100 country songs her father Johnny Cash recommended to her as "essential".[16]
- Counting Crows covered the song on their 2013 live album Echoes of the Outlaw Roadshow.
- Eels perform a slowed down, live, acoustic version on Eels with Strings: Live at Town Hall[17] as well as The Myspace Transmissions Session 2009.
- Roy Harper recorded his version of the song on his 1974 album Valentine.
- Tom Northcott's 1968 single charted in Canada.
- Tony Rice covered the song on his 1993 album Tony Rice Plays and Sings Bluegrass.
- Rod Stewart also covered this song on his 1974 album Smiler.[18]
- Stephen Stills performed the song on his 2009 album Live at Shepherd's Bush, and recorded a version with Judy Collins on their 2017 album Everybody Knows.
- Sting covered the song for Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International.[19]
- The Black Crowes often covered the song in concert throughout their career, usually featuring an extended dual guitar solo.
- The Clancy Brothers released their version on their 1972 album Save the Land.
- John Waite covered the song on his 2004 album The Hard Way.[20]
- Link Wray & his Ray Men released a version in 1965.[21]
- Neil Young released a cover of this song on his 2014 album A Letter Home.[22]
- The Lions covered the song for the soundtrack to Sons of Anarchy, released in 2009.
- Leo Kottke covered the song in a recorded performance at No Exit Coffeehouse in 1969.
- Conor Oberst, M. Ward and Jim James performed the song as part of Bright Eyes' concert on Austin City Limits in 2004.
- Sam Bush covered on his 2000 album Ice Caps: Peaks of Telluride.
- Passenger covered the song on his compilation album Sunday Night Sessions.[23]
- A Tobin Bell cover was made for the film Spiral but was cut.[24]
- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band covered the song on their 2022 album Dirt Does Dylan.
- Greg Dulli covered the song in a piano version together with Mark Lanegan, released in 2022
- Eddie Vedder covered this song in an acoustic version during his Water on the Road tour in 2008.
- Jonathan Foster covered the song, which features National Fiddler Hall of Famer Scott Joss, on his 2019 album Wildlife.
- Jackson Dean and Josh Ross covered the song and released it as a "Spotify Single" in 2023[25]
Popular culture
[edit]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
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c Ruhlmann, William. "Girl from the North Country – Bob Dylan – Review". AllMusic.
- ^ a b Bjorner, Olof (November 21, 2015). "5th Nashville Skyline session, 18 February 1969". bjorner.com. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
- ^ "The original 'Girl From the North Country,' Bob Dylan's high school sweetheart has died". Star Tribune. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ a b c Anthony Scaduto, The Dylan Tapes: Friends, Players and Lovers Talkin Early Bob Dylan, University of Minnesota Press, 2022, unpaginated digital version. [1]
- ^ 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) - ^ 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.
- ^ "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. [2]
- ^ Robert McColl. Popular Music History. "Borders and lines: seeing and imagining in Dylan". PMH 8.2 (2013) p.134. [3]
- ^ "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs". Rolling Stone. 2020-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
- ^ "Setlists | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Girl from the North Country (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), retrieved 2022-01-26
- ^ Live at the Grand Ole Opry House, Nashville, Tennessee - 7 October 1970, The ABC Show Series Vol. 6, Ryman Records
- ^ "Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Joe Cocker - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ "Another Sky - Altan - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ Prince, David J. (July 4, 2009). "Rosanne Cash Readies 'The List'". Billboard.
- ^ "With Strings: Live at Town Hall - Eels - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ "Smiler - Rod Stewart - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ "Amnesty International - Chimes of Freedom – Amnesty International - Chimes of Freedom". Music.amnestyusa.org. 2017-03-29. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
- ^ Greg Prato (2004-09-21). "The Hard Way - John Waite | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
- ^ "Mr. Guitar - Link Wray - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Passenger | Girl From The North Country (Bob Dylan Cover), retrieved 2021-04-20
- ^ "Saw Star Tobin Bell Addresses Nearly Having a Cameo in Spiral: From the Book of Saw". comicbook.com. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
- ^ "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.
- ^ a b Billinngton, Michael (July 26, 2017). "Girl from the North Country review: Bob Dylan's songs are Depression-era dynamite". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Brantley, Ben (March 6, 2020). "'Girl From the North Country' Review: Bob Dylan's Amazing Grace". The New York Times.
External links
[edit]- Lyrics at Bob Dylan's official site
