If you go when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer ends
Please see if she’s wearing a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin’ winds
This is one of the most beautiful songs that Bob Dylan ever wrote. I learned this song on guitar and harmonica when I was in my twenties. When we were playing out the equipment would break down like the guitar player’s amp or my amp…I would grab an acoustic and a harmonica with my harmonica rack and play this one. It always went over well. The song hits me deeply for some reason…you can tell this song was genuine.
I read Robert Shelton’s book about Bob Dylan, and the song appears to be about Echo Helstrom (If I would have had a daughter…I wanted to name her Echo), a girl he knew in Hibbing, Minnesota before he made it. As with every Dylan song, there is another rumor that it’s about a folk singer and actress named Bonnie Beecher. I tend to believe the Shelton book on this one and go with Echo but who knows which one it is? He knew both in Minnesota so it could have been either one. Some say Suzy Rotolo was it but he didn’t meet her until he was in New York.
It was originally released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and later re-recorded as a duet with Johnny Cash for Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline. Unlike some Dylan songs…this one is not a musical novel. It’s a little over 3 minutes and gets right to the point in the most elegant way. Bob did take the melody of Scarborough Fair for this one.
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan peaked at #22 on the Billboard Album Charts and #1 in the UK in 1963. It was his second album and here is where he started to get real traction with people and build an audience, especially in the UK. The folk purists would get two more albums until the electric instruments of 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home would shatter their Dylan folk singer dream.
Johnny Cash: “I had a portable record player that I’d take along on the road, and I’d put on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off. After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was. He wrote back almost immediately, saying he’d been following my music since ‘I Walk the Line,’ and so we began a correspondence”.
This live clip is from Hard To Handle when Dylan used Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backing band. I learned it from this live version.
Girl From The North Country
If you’re travelin’ in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
If you go when the snowflakes storm
When the rivers freeze and summer ends
Please see if she’s wearing a coat so warm
To keep her from the howlin’ winds
Please see for me if her hair hangs long
If it rolls and flows all down her breast
Please see for me if her hair hangs long
That’s the way I remember her best
I’m a-wonderin’ if she remembers me at all
Many times I’ve often prayed
In the darkness of my night
In the brightness of my day
So if you’re travelin’ in the north country fair
Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Discover more from PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
good choice
Max, I really like how your reports are evolving & giving us information that we didn’t know…you’re the man!
Thanks Carl!
You got it
This is a really good song Max! 😎
Great post. I stood in that exact spot as Bob Dylan for that picture. I have one with my daughters and I standing there.
Thanks John….I would love to go visit that street!
Great record store right there as well.
I had that MobsterTiger reblog one of my posts also.
I appreciate when he does it…I’ve got a few readers out of him doing that.
I’d almost forgotten the original recording of this. The one from Nashville Skyline is the one that comes to mind. Thanks for the reminder!
Well I learned somethings there, one of which is I didn’t know ‘Scarborough Fair’ wasn’t an S&G original. Apparently it goes back to the 1800s. Decent lyrics from Bob there.
When I heard this one I loved it… Maybe the melody is what I remembered from the S&G …subconsciously… I always liked this one.
It is a lovely song for sure, again an education on the background Max! Like halffast it is the Nashville Skyline with Cash that has stuck in my brain.
I wrote this as soon as you told me about the hamonica rack…I thought of this one. Yea I’ve heard that Skyline version many times as well.
Ha! When I read that part it sounded familiar!
A beautiful song that endures.
Ive been listening to Bob’s ‘Travelin Through’ with help from JC.
This is one of the Dylan songs that really speak to me. Maybe I knew a girl in the north country a long time ago. I love the Cash version as well.
What it’s all about Max. The music speaks to us and moves us. Makes it personal.
I always assumed this one is a traditional British folk song, because it feels like it’s been around for hundreds of years. I like the Roy Harper cover too.
I need to check his cover out. I need to check him out more anyway.
He’s the most all-over-the-place musician. Some amazing songs and some super challenging stuff.
Some songs just resonate personally.
The Dylan’s folk era is probably my favorite. Now I know more about that beautiful song. And about your harmonica talent.😉
Harmonica talent…so so…because I couldn’t bend a note for the life of me! But…Bob’s songs are not full of blues harp so I could do a reasonable good job on harmonica with his stuff. For some reason this one just came natural for me.
Maybe my favorite Dylan tune. I have both of those albums and still spin them. Echo, now that’s a name that would captivate ole Bob. I saw an interview of Joan Baez on CBS, she’s old now, like Bob. She said he broke her heart and then some. She had a nervous breakdown when Bob picked up that Fender Strat..and like that..boom, the folk days were over.
Yea they, the folk establishment, didn’t like that electric guitar…but Phil what puzzles me is that Johnny Cash and his band would play Newport with NO bitching…the minute Bob tried…all hell broke loose.
Yeah, but Cash was more Country- when bob plugged in, for Folks he crossed the line.
Yea you are right…he was the anointed one. I can see why he wanted out of that.
Yeah, that puzzling. Maybe because Cash played an acoustic guitar and they considered his music sort of Hillbilly folk. I’m glad Bob went electric with The Band; it gave his music more depth. We are going to see the new movie on Saturday but have to drive 45 miles to a theater showing it.
Yea…you must live out like I do…Phil I think you will really like it. They were smart…instead of concentrating on his entire career…they only did 4 years. For the most part…they got it right.
Great pick, Max. I love both Dylan’s first recording on “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” and his version with Johnny Cash on “Nashville Skyline.”
I like both also…I also like his live versions of it. Just a beautiful song!
Neat you’ve performed this; an ethereal, romantic song. Was trying my hand at it the other night but didn’t get far because I left my capo elsewhere. 3rd fret capo I’m guessing – that mysterious Em variant. I’m guessing it’s the same chord Gilmour uses in Breathe… can’t wait to try it again. Good post!
Yes! Third fret…I can’t remember if I did that back in the day or if I just played it standard.
You know what? I got my guitar out today relearning the thing…I’m going to try to get it again.
To picking up our guitars!🍻
YES!
One of my favourite songs from his early period. I too love the mid to late 80’s version he did on the Petty tour and later at his 30th Anniversary concert. I don’t know how he didn’t break the strings on his guitar with that nasty strumming. I would have liked to have heard your rendition of this version Max. Cheers.
Yea the same here…one of my favorites from the non electric music….
I was trying to relearn it yesterday…I’ll get it again lol.
When I was learning guitar I often played this song (the early acoustic version). This and Kasey Chambers’ ‘Nullarbor Song’ were my go-to songs I played in a small public settings ie family haha
Oh cool! I didn’t know you played…if I did before I forgot.
I learnt it just for a little while and took some classical lessons. After I came to Colombia I lost my routine and haven’t played since.
I haven’t played in a while…I did pick my guitar up the other day and tried to relearn it.
How did you go with that?
So so lol…it’s been a while!
Beautiful!
It’s a beauty of a song, whomever it was about.
Just one reminder (there are so many) of why and how Bob Dylan changed everything.
Yes! Mitch have you seen the movie? I’m sorry if I already asked you this.
A Complete Unknown? Yes, last weekend. Loved it. It doesn’t offer any unique insights (he’s been trying to understand himself his whole life), but it’s just so engaging and beautifully acted. And sung.
Oh yes Mitch sorry…thats the movie I meant. I like how the actors and actresses actually sang their parts and did them well.