Subject: RE: North Country/Scarborough Fair
From:
Peace
Date: 21 May 07 - 03:42 PM
"Girl from the North Country is a song written by Bob Dylan in January, 1963 and released as the second track on his second studio album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
The song was written following his first trip to England in December, 1962, upon what he thought to be the completion of his second album. While in London, Dylan met several figures in the local folk scene, including British 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 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".
Dylan left England for Italy to search for his then-girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, whose continuation of studies there had caused a serious rift in their relationship. Unbeknownst to Dylan, Rotolo had already returned to the United States, leaving about the same time that Dylan arrived in Italy. It was here 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 convinced Rotolo to get back together, and to move back into his apartment on 4th Street. Suze Rotolo is the woman featured on the album cover, walking arm in arm with Dylan down Jones Street, not far from their apartment.
In the summer of 1965, Paul Simon met Martin Carthy in London. Simon was certainly aware of Dylan's lyrics to Girl From the North Country, having covered many of Dylan's songs, and learning from Carthy the origins of the melody and lyrics, contained in Carthy's arrangement of Scarborough Fair. Simon adapted Carthy's arrangement by setting it in counterpoint with Canticle, an adaptation of Simon's 1963 song, The Side of a Hill. Scarborough Fair/Canticle was released as the title track of Simon and Garfunkel's 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Simon and Garfunkel were credited as the sole authors of the song, which caused a rift with Carthy, who felt that they ought to have credited the song's traditional folkloric origins.
Dylan re-recorded Girl from the North Country with Johnny Cash in 1969. That recording became the first track for Nashville Skyline, Dylan's ninth studio album.
The Secret Machines recorded a version of the song, which occasionally makes its way onto setlists during tours."
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That is from Wikipedia.
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sj
