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© Copyright music and lyrics reproduced by kind permission of Special Rider -- for original, exclusive performances by Bob Dylan, check-out the official channel at www.youtube.com/bobdylan.

There has been much speculation in print about the identity of the girl in the song. Clinton Heylin states that the most frequently mooted candidates are Echo Helstrom, an early girlfriend of Dylan from his hometown of Hibbing, and Suze Rotolo, whom Dylan was pining for as he finished the song in Italy. Howard Sounes suggests the girl Dylan probably had in mind was Bonnie Beecher, a girlfriend of Dylan's when he was at the University of Minnesota.
Musicologist Todd Harvey notes that Dylan not only took the tune of "Scarborough Fair", which he learnt from Martin Carthy in London, but also adapted the theme of that song. "Scarborough Fair" derives from "The Elfin Knight" (Child Ballad Number 2), which was first transcribed in 1670. In the song, a supernatural character poses a series of questions to an innocent, requesting her to perform impossible tasks. Harvey points out that Dylan "retains the idea of the listener being sent upon a task, a northern place setting, and an antique lyric quality". Dylan returned to this song on Nashville Skyline (1969), recording it as a duet with Johnny Cash.