"Girl from the North Country" and Its Attribution to Bob Dylan vs. Pete Townshend's Version

In a surviving broadcast of the radio show 'Oscar Brand's World of Folk Music' from March 1963 (a month before the recording of the Freewheelin' version), Dylan introduces the song as "North Country Girl".

 

Just listened to it on youtube (Townshend). Not impressed. Seems a perverse musical arrangement for a tender song. I love Eddie Vedder's version

 

Pete at Woodstock '98

"Roy Harper did a version of North Country Girl, based on a version that was done by Bob Dylan. And I do a version based on the version by Roy Harper"

 

Very cool--thank you for sharing.

 

He reworks it in a quite original style!

 

Wow, I didn't even know there was a remastered CD this new. I need to pick it up; Chinese Eyes is one of my favorite albums.

 

It matches the arrangements on the rest of his album and, in that context, fits quite well.

 

Interesting. Further and further from the source...the very way that songs become "traditionals." Thanks for sharing!

 

You should post this in the "Spirit sues Led Zep" thread.
Then again, It'd probably be considered a threadcrap.

 

My band plays this one and we use the Waterboys' version as a template. For anyone who wants to have a listen (don't expect amazing sound fidelity, but it's not bad for an on the fly soundboard live mix). https://soundcloud.com/flaxen-hill/girl-from-the-north-country

 

Stephen Stills does a very nice version that he credits to Bob Dylan.

 

Yes. "All songs by Roy, except North Country (traditional) arranged by Roy."

http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1493354

Since Townshend based his version on Harper's, is it possible the "traditional" credit was just copied from Harper's album?

 

Excellent, thanks for sharing. Very possibly so. So now my original question can be applied to the Harper record. This may turn out to be an anti-climactic story; but, I'm glad to know this bit about Harper in relation to Townshend's version.

 

Nice version! And as for sound fidelity, it's better quality than, say, a guy doing a version from a "Record Your Own Voice for 35 Cents" booth

 

Interesting tidbits on the song's origins from Wikipedia -- it's "traditional" at least in some regards:

"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",[1] composed and recorded one year later for the album The Times They Are a-Changin'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_from_the_north_country

 

Yes, I mention the Carthy version of "Scarborough Fair" in my original post as the inspiration for Dylan's song.

 

Ha ha! Thank you

 

I was just listening to Pete's "North Country Girl"--love it!

The ending is a little dopey, but aside from that, it's a terrific song. And, for what it's worth, Chinese Eyes is my favorite Townshend solo album. Just noticed, too, that "Stardom in Acton" is incorrectly titled "Stardom in Action" on the reissued CD--even the lyric booklet gets the title wrong!

 

Rod Stewart version from "Smiler" (1974) is my favourite.

 

My brother dug up this info at another forum about the song's attribution. There are some interesting things in here, specifically re: Roy Harper's cover and his treatment of the writing credit.

http://expectingrain.com/discussion...d=9ca1045af478ed2ada52437febf90d4c&view=print

 

writing/publishing aside - This is a great version of the song - it sure must be a favorite of his, he revisits it frequently

 

My favorite Girl from the North Country version.

Johnny cash with Bob Dylan

So beautiful and sad. Both artists create stunning combination.

 

Thing is, it's NOT a traditional song...it wouldn't exist as "Girl From The North Country" had Dylan not written those lyrics, so Townsend wouldn't have been able to record it as such, regardless of the prior existence of the melody.

Nobody was singing "Girl From The North Country" before Bob Dylan, so it didn't exist as part of any "tradition".

Calling it "traditional" is not correct.

 

Roy Harper's Valentine album does not credit Dylan on the Harper version of this song. It is listed traditional I believe. It is called North Country.

 

For a sublime take on this wonderous song... see the Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas version.

Dylan and Cash remains my favourite... but this come close. A couple sublime solos by Jerry D.

Interesting that until this thread I hadn't closely connected the song to Scarborough Fair....