Pete Townshend's performing "North Country Girl" on his solo album, "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes". www.amazon.com/Best-Cowboys-Have-Chinese-Eyes/dp/B000GFRIWW/ref=pd_bbs_7?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1202788651&sr=8-7
In 1978 (February) I purchased Queen's "News of the World" and was stunned by the song 'All Dead'. I never recaptured that sense of dread until I first heard this tune. And those last few lines socked me in the gut. Artistry.
I’m reading about the act of vandalism to the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall Path in Northumberland. This song came into my head. “Way up there near the Roman wall.” Sad.
Pete Townshend: "Roy Harper did a version of North Country Girl based on a version done by Bob Dylan...and I do a version, based on the version done by Roy Harper." [Pete introducing the song before he played it live at the 1998 'A Day in the Garden' concert.]
basically the idea is that he changes the story of the song to talk about what happens when there's a fallout and one of the only unaffected place is this bit of north country where this girl he knows lives. So he's hoping she's still there and he can just spend the rest of the end of the world with her.
"She didn't suffer when the fallout sprayed." For those of you who are clueless, this song was recorded in 1982, at the height of the cold war, when everyone thought ICBMs were about to fly. Look for *The Day After,* right here on YT.
Pete played this song in his concerts with a melody close to Bob Dylan's original version, i prefer Pete's studio version with the new arrangements! Does somebody know if there is a live version that sounds like this one?
