Farewell (Bob Dylan song)
Encyclopedia
Farewell, also known as Fare Thee Well, is a song by American
singer-songwriter
Bob Dylan
. Dylan wrote the song in January 1963. He considered it for his third album, The Times They Are a-Changin'
, but only attempted a few takes during the album's first studio session. Dylan's earlier recordings of "Farewell" found their way onto various bootlegs, and a collection of demos that included the song was released in October 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964.
Over the years, "Farewell" has been covered by about 20 other musicians worldwide, including Pete Seeger
, Judy Collins
, Lonnie Donegan
, Dion
, and Tony Rice
or the Gasight Cafe
, Greenwich Village venues where Dylan performed during the early 1960s. His friend Happy Traum
, then with The New World Singers, backed him on vocals
and banjo
. The recordings were eventually bootlegged under the title The Banjo Tape. Decades later, in interviews with author Michael Gray
, Traum identified the session's location as the East Village
apartment of Gil Turner
, who worked at Gerde's and was an editor for the folk music magazine Broadside.
A month after the session with Traum, Dylan recorded the song as a demo for his music publisher M. Witmark & Sons
. The demo version, which appeared on several bootlegs, was officially released on the Witmark Demos. During the time Dylan was making periodic trips to Witmark's Manhattan
studios, between 1962 and 1964, he was also visiting Broadside to tape songs for publication. In April 1963, he recorded "Farewell" for the magazine, and a transcription
of its lyrics
and music appeared in that month's issue. Also in April, Dylan went to Chicago
to appear at The Bear, a folk music club owned by his manager Albert Grossman
. The next day, April 26, he was interviewed during a taping of author Studs Terkel
's radio show on WFMT. He played seven songs on the show, opening with "Farewell" (the seventh was "Blowin' in the Wind
"). Four months later during the first of six Times They Are a-Changin sessions, Dylan recorded four takes of the song, none of them complete.
No live recordings of the song are known to exist. Dylan played relatively few concerts during 1963. Besides a couple solo dates that year and performances as a "surprise guest" at several Joan Baez concerts, he made appearances at the Brandeis Folk Festival in Massachusetts, Monterey Folk Festival in California
and Newport Folk Festival
in Rhode Island
. He began touring in earnest the next year, both solo performances and a series of concert dates co-billed with Baez. "Farewell" does not appear on the setlists from either year's concerts.
". He first played it for friends in Greenwich Village
after returning from a two-week trip to London
in early January 1963. In "Leaving of Liverpool", the ballad's first verse and chorus tell the tale of someone sailing from Liverpool
to California, bound to miss the loved one left behind:
The opening lyrics in Dylan's song are very similar:
Obvious similarities aside, the story and sentiments of the two songs differ. In "The Leaving of Liverpool", the narrator is bound for California by sea and promises to return. In "Farewell", the narrator mentions traveling by highway and trail, with California as one of two possible destinations, neither of them definite. As Dylan's narrator says, "I'm ramblin'...unnoticed and unknown." While indicating they will "meet another day, another time", the traveler promises only to think of his loved one and write from "time to time", without any mention of returning.
singer Pete Seeger
, who was closely associated with Broadside, recorded "Farewell" for The Broadside Ballads, Volume 2, a collection of songs Seeger selected from the pages of the magazine. Seeger's version was issued as "Fare-Thee-Well (My Own True Love)", the title from the published transcription. Judy Collins
recorded it along with "Masters of War" for Judy Collins 3
as the first of many Dylan songs she would do over the next four decades. The Hillmen
also recorded the song in 1963 for their eponymous first album
under the simpler title "Fare Thee Well". The group featured Chris Hillman
, a mandolin
player who the next year switched to electric bass
to become a founding member of The Byrds
.
Two recordings of "Farewell" were issued in 1964 using the simpler title from Dylan's Times They Are a-Changin setlist, "Farewell". Anita and Helen Carter from the famed traditional folk group The Carter Family recorded it for their self-titled album. The Modern Folk Quartet
also put out a version on the album Changes. One of the quartet's singers was Tim Buckley
, who would later be hailed as "one of the great rock vocalists of the 1960s".
In 1965, The Kingston Trio
, who six years before led the way in establishing folk as a commercial genre, recorded "Farewell" for Nick Bob John
, listing it under both titles, "Farewell (Fare Thee Well)". British
skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan
on The Folk Album, also released a version of the song in 1965. Four years later, Dion DiMucci
, leader of rock 'n roll's Dion and the Belmonts
, issued a solo folk rock
album, Wonder Where I'm Bound. The album, produced by Tom Wilson, who worked with Dylan on Bringing It All Back Home
, included two Dylan songs, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
" and "Farewell". Other notable releases of "Farewell" in later years included Irish
folk singer Liam Clancy
's version on 1982's The Dutchman and bluegrass
musician Tony Rice
's on 1984's Cold on the Shoulder.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
. Dylan wrote the song in January 1963. He considered it for his third album, The Times They Are a-Changin'
The Times They Are a-Changin'
The Times They Are a-Changin opens with the title track, one of Dylan's most famous songs. Dylan's friend, Tony Glover, recalls visiting Dylan's apartment in September 1963, where he saw a number of song manuscripts and poems lying on a table. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" had yet to be recorded,...
, but only attempted a few takes during the album's first studio session. Dylan's earlier recordings of "Farewell" found their way onto various bootlegs, and a collection of demos that included the song was released in October 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964.
Over the years, "Farewell" has been covered by about 20 other musicians worldwide, including Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
, Dion
Dion and the Belmonts
Dion and the Belmonts was a leading American vocal group of the late 1950s. The group formed when Dion DiMucci, lead singer , joined The Belmonts - Carlo Mastrangelo, baritone , Freddie Milano, second tenor , and Angelo D'Aleo, first tenor , in late 1957.-History:After an unsuccessful first single,...
, and Tony Rice
Tony Rice
Tony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...
Dylan's recordings
Dylan first recorded "Farewell" on February 8, 1963, along with 11 other songs, during a session that for many years was believed to have taken place in the basement of either Gerde's Folk CityGerde's Folk City
Gerdes Folk City was a music venue in the West Village in New York City. Initially opened as a restaurant called Gerdes, by owner Mike Porco, it eventually began to present occasional incidental music. It was located at 11 West 4th Street , having moved in 1970 to 130 West 3rd Street before finally...
or the Gasight Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe
The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in the basement of 116 MacDougal Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York...
, Greenwich Village venues where Dylan performed during the early 1960s. His friend Happy Traum
Happy Traum
Happy Traum is an American folk musician who started playing music in the Fifties. Happy is most famously known as one half of Happy and Artie Traum, a duo he began with his brother...
, then with The New World Singers, backed him on vocals
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
and banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
. The recordings were eventually bootlegged under the title The Banjo Tape. Decades later, in interviews with author Michael Gray
Michael Gray
Michael Gray , sometimes known as Micky Gray, is an English former footballer who mostly played at left back, or left wing.-Sunderland:...
, Traum identified the session's location as the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
apartment of Gil Turner
Gil Turner
Gil Turner was an American folk singer-songwriter, magazine editor, Shakespearean actor, political activist, and for a time, a lay Baptist preacher...
, who worked at Gerde's and was an editor for the folk music magazine Broadside.
A month after the session with Traum, Dylan recorded the song as a demo for his music publisher M. Witmark & Sons
M. Witmark & Sons
M. Witmark & Sons was a leading publisher of sheet music for the United States "Tin Pan Alley" music industry.The firm of Marcus Witmark & Sons was established in New York City in 1886...
. The demo version, which appeared on several bootlegs, was officially released on the Witmark Demos. During the time Dylan was making periodic trips to Witmark's Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
studios, between 1962 and 1964, he was also visiting Broadside to tape songs for publication. In April 1963, he recorded "Farewell" for the magazine, and a transcription
Transcription (music)
In music, transcription can mean notating a piece or a sound which was previously unnotated, as, for example, an improvised jazz solo. Further examples include ethnomusicological notation of oral traditions of folk music, such as Béla Bartók's and Ralph Vaughan Williams' collections of the national...
of its lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
and music appeared in that month's issue. Also in April, Dylan went to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to appear at The Bear, a folk music club owned by his manager Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
. The next day, April 26, he was interviewed during a taping of author Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
's radio show on WFMT. He played seven songs on the show, opening with "Farewell" (the seventh was "Blowin' in the Wind
Blowin' in the Wind
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war and freedom...
"). Four months later during the first of six Times They Are a-Changin sessions, Dylan recorded four takes of the song, none of them complete.
No live recordings of the song are known to exist. Dylan played relatively few concerts during 1963. Besides a couple solo dates that year and performances as a "surprise guest" at several Joan Baez concerts, he made appearances at the Brandeis Folk Festival in Massachusetts, Monterey Folk Festival in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
in Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. He began touring in earnest the next year, both solo performances and a series of concert dates co-billed with Baez. "Farewell" does not appear on the setlists from either year's concerts.
Song's origin and meaning
Dylan based the song on the traditional British folk ballad "Leaving of LiverpoolLeaving of Liverpool
"Leaving of Liverpool", , also known as "Fare Thee Well, My Own True Love", is a folk ballad, a popular and wistful song. The song's narrator laments his long sailing trip to America and the thought of leaving his birthplace and loved ones...
". He first played it for friends in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
after returning from a two-week trip to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in early January 1963. In "Leaving of Liverpool", the ballad's first verse and chorus tell the tale of someone sailing from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
to California, bound to miss the loved one left behind:
The opening lyrics in Dylan's song are very similar:
Obvious similarities aside, the story and sentiments of the two songs differ. In "The Leaving of Liverpool", the narrator is bound for California by sea and promises to return. In "Farewell", the narrator mentions traveling by highway and trail, with California as one of two possible destinations, neither of them definite. As Dylan's narrator says, "I'm ramblin'...unnoticed and unknown." While indicating they will "meet another day, another time", the traveler promises only to think of his loved one and write from "time to time", without any mention of returning.
Recordings by other artists
In 1963, folkFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, who was closely associated with Broadside, recorded "Farewell" for The Broadside Ballads, Volume 2, a collection of songs Seeger selected from the pages of the magazine. Seeger's version was issued as "Fare-Thee-Well (My Own True Love)", the title from the published transcription. Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
recorded it along with "Masters of War" for Judy Collins 3
Judy Collins 3 (Judy Collins album)
Judy Collins #3 is an album by American folk singer Judy Collins released in 1963. It spent 10 weeks on Billboard's Top 150 album charts in 1964, peaking at #126 on May 16.-Track listing:# "Anathea"...
as the first of many Dylan songs she would do over the next four decades. The Hillmen
The Hillmen
The Hillmen were a southern Californian bluegrass group. Formed in 1962, the original line-up of the Golden State Boys consisted of Vern Gosdin on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Rex Gosdin on double bass, Hal Poindexter on guitar, and Don Parmley on banjo...
also recorded the song in 1963 for their eponymous first album
The Hillmen (album)
The Hillmen is a studio album by The Hillmen, a southern California bluegrass band originally known as The Golden State Boys. The Hillmen consisted of Chris Hillman on mandolin, country singer/songwriter Vern Gosdin on guitar and lead vocals, his brother Rex Gosdin on double bass, and Don Parmley...
under the simpler title "Fare Thee Well". The group featured Chris Hillman
Chris Hillman
Christopher Hillman was one of the original members of The Byrds which in 1965 included Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby, and Michael Clarke....
, a mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
player who the next year switched to electric bass
Electric Bass
Electric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...
to become a founding member of The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
.
Two recordings of "Farewell" were issued in 1964 using the simpler title from Dylan's Times They Are a-Changin setlist, "Farewell". Anita and Helen Carter from the famed traditional folk group The Carter Family recorded it for their self-titled album. The Modern Folk Quartet
Modern Folk Quartet
The Modern Folk Quartet recorded two albums of folk revival music in the early 1960s, with an emphasis on group harmonies, and have subsequently re-formed more than once and made further recordings....
also put out a version on the album Changes. One of the quartet's singers was Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
, who would later be hailed as "one of the great rock vocalists of the 1960s".
In 1965, The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, who six years before led the way in establishing folk as a commercial genre, recorded "Farewell" for Nick Bob John
The Kingston Trio (Nick Bob John)
The Kingston Trio is an album by the American folk music group The Kingston Trio, released in 1964...
, listing it under both titles, "Farewell (Fare Thee Well)". British
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
on The Folk Album, also released a version of the song in 1965. Four years later, Dion DiMucci
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
, leader of rock 'n roll's Dion and the Belmonts
Dion and the Belmonts
Dion and the Belmonts was a leading American vocal group of the late 1950s. The group formed when Dion DiMucci, lead singer , joined The Belmonts - Carlo Mastrangelo, baritone , Freddie Milano, second tenor , and Angelo D'Aleo, first tenor , in late 1957.-History:After an unsuccessful first single,...
, issued a solo folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
album, Wonder Where I'm Bound. The album, produced by Tom Wilson, who worked with Dylan on Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's fifth studio album, released in March 1965 by Columbia Records. The album is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. On side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric rock and roll band - a move that further alienated...
, included two Dylan songs, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records . The song was originally recorded on January 15, 1965 with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass...
" and "Farewell". Other notable releases of "Farewell" in later years included Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
folk singer Liam Clancy
Liam Clancy
William "Liam" Clancy was an Irish folk singer and actor from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. He was the youngest and last surviving member of performing group The Clancy Brothers. The group were regarded as Ireland's first pop stars...
's version on 1982's The Dutchman and bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
musician Tony Rice
Tony Rice
Tony Rice is an American acoustic guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is considered one of the most influential acoustic guitar players in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass and acoustic jazz.Rice spans the range of acoustic music, from traditional bluegrass to jazz-influenced New...
's on 1984's Cold on the Shoulder.
External links
- "Farewell", Lyrics and Music, Broadside Magazine, April 1963, p. 5