Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well? / Farewell

Subject: Obscure Dylan song
From:
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:25 PM

I sang a song at my high school graduation (1970) song written by (I think) Bob Dylan or at least credited to him it may have been an adaptation. The song is called (again I think) Fare Thee Well My Own True Love. The melody is very beautiful although I am not a musician I am sure it is derivative but the lyrics went something like this. It ain't the leavin' That's a greivin' Me but the poor gal,(girl, wife,etc) that I leave behind.

I just recently remembered this song and thought it would be nice to get the song on my mp3 etc but haven't been able to even find a reference to the song. Perhaps I wrote the song in my sleep and should go to my keyboard and pick it out and sell it.? I am sure that I am not talented enough to have written such a beautiful song. Thanks.. Bruce Dalrymple St. Louis Mo.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:29 PM

He just stuck some new lyrics into "The Leaving of Liverpool"

Peter.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:32 PM

In fact, it's in the DT, titled "Leaving of Liverpool (new version)"

P.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:42 PM

Yeah....The Dylan song which is an adaptation although he takes credit for it, is "Farewell" and can be found HERE (click). As Midchuck said, the real original is in the DT database.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: GUEST,bdalrymple
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:45 PM

Thanks.. this is my first visit here and I am impressed.. and glad I found this place.. unfortunately I have a sort of life or I could live here.. but I will be here frequently.. thanks all.. I thought it was "stolen".

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 04:00 PM

Come back and hang around anytime Bruce. We have a 'Catter in St. Louis and could always use another. My wife was born there and we visit occasionally.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 08:22 PM

Dylan comes from a rich tradition of those who have recycled tunes and put them to their own use. Some have even taken older pieces, lock, stock, and barrel and put their names to them, taken out copyrights and pocked the royalties. Dylan pretty much took tunes, many of which were not overly done. Usually very nice tunes that deserved to be heard again. There are those who give no thought to the "tune" getting new life when they hack away at the person who gave them new life. Dylan tends to get rougher treatment than Woody and A.P. and others.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 08:28 PM

I think it was gargoyle who posted a link to this interesting site that I bookmarked months ago. 'Farewell' is number 11.

Dylan influences

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 01:11 AM

Thanks Stewie.

Subject: attention: Little John Cameron
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 10:57 AM

If Little John Cameron sees this thread, perhaps he could comment on "Maritime Farewell," another rewrite/adaptation of "The Leaving of Liverpool" that he recorded once upon a time.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: MichaelAnthony
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 07:30 PM

Well said, Arkie.

MA

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:52 AM

Not only did Dylan usefully revive old folk tunes, which has been done all through the ages, but he usually improved the lyrics considerably, in that he modernized them, while keeping them strikingly poetic. The song "Farewell" is just one of numerous examples.

The song "Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a spin-off from the old folksong "Lord Randall", but is in fact a far more significant song in theme and scope than "Lord Randall". "Lord Randall" is a good song. "Hard Rain" is a work of genius. Traditionalists of today may not accept that, but traditionalists of tomorrow will. And so it goes...

Why should something be deemed more valuable (because it happened 3 centuries ago) than something else that happened last week or twenty years ago? Especially when the thing that happened last week is more relevant in every way to life as it exists now?

My, my, what a pretentious bunch we find jealously guarding the relics of the past, while booing the brilliance of the present. Remember Newport in 1965?

"He not busy being born is busy dying." - Bob Dylan

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: duart
Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:31 AM

well said,Little Hawk. I love the traditional songs and ballads of Britain,(being a Scot a long way from my roots in Australia) but I also appreciate what Dylan did with many trad.tunes. The man was (is?)a poet and has given countless thousands a way in to the folk tradition. "To each his own."

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: The Lighthouse
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 12:21 AM

Liam Clancy does a great version of "Fare Thee Well" on his album "The Dutchman".

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: BDtheQB
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 08:38 AM

Thanks for all of your input. I am at a loss however, to find a Dylan recording of this song, however, I will definitely look for a copy of the Liam Clancy version.

Subject: Lyr Add: FAREWELL (Bob Dylan)
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 10:39 AM

I checked www.bobdylan.com and it lists the song as his, but doesn't have an album associated with it. Perhaps he never recorded it.

FAREWELL. Bob Dylan

Oh it's fare thee well my darlin' true,
I'm leavin' in the first hour of the morn.
I'm bound off for the bay of Mexico
Or maybe the coast of Californ'.
So it's fare thee well my own true love,
We'll meet another day, another time.
It ain't the leavin' That's a-grievin' me
But my true love who's bound to stay behind.

Oh the weather is against me and the wind blows hard
And the rain she's a-turnin' into hail.
I still might strike it lucky on a highway goin' west,
Though I'm travelin' on a path beaten trail.
So it's fare thee well my own true love,
We'll meet another day, another time.
It ain't the leavin' That's a-grievin' me
But my true love who's bound to stay behind.

I will write you a letter from time to time,
As I'm ramblin' you can travel with me too.
With my head, my heart and my hands, my love,
I will send what I learn back home to you.
So it's fare thee well my own true love,
We'll meet another day, another time.
It ain't the leavin' that's a-grievin' me
But my true love who's bound to stay behind.

I will tell you of the laughter and of troubles,
Be them somebody else's or my own.
With my hands in my pockets and my coat collar high,
I will travel unnoticed and unknown.
So it's fare thee well my own true love,
We'll meet another day, another time.
It ain't the leavin' that's a-grievin' me
But my true love who's bound to stay behind.

I've heard tell of a town where I might as well be bound,
It's down around the old Mexican plains.
They say that the people are all friendly there
And all they ask of you is your name.
So it's fare thee well my own true love,
We'll meet another day, another time.
It ain't the leavin' that's a-grievin' me
But my true love who's bound to stay behind.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Fortunato
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 11:08 AM

Nancy Griffith does a nice job with this song on her album: "Other Voices".

The reworking of old tunes is like the making of a patchwork quilt, eac patch a piece a rembrance of things past.

Regards, Fortunato

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 11:29 AM

I have a feeling that either Baez or Judy Collins or both of them recorded "Farewell" on some album, but I'm not sure which one. I would have been in the 60's sometime. I'll see if I can find out.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: wildlone
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:27 PM

Have had a search around and found farewell .
at this site book of Bob .
Hope this may help

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:32 PM

It was Judy Collins who recorded "Farewell" on "Judy Collins #3." Pete Seeger also did it on "We Shall Overcome," his Carnegie Hall concert album from 1963.

The Dylan song that Nanci Griffith sang on "Other Voices/Other Rooms" was "Boots of Spanish Leather." Dylan played harmonica on the cut.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: wildlone
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:37 PM

Have found the chords farewell chords .
at this site .

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:44 PM

Did Bob ever release it?

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:46 PM

Not so far. Maybe, it'll be on the next set of officially-released "bootleg sessions."

MR

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Fortunato
Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:59 PM

OOPS, you're right Mike, I was wrong.

sorry about that, guys. I'll go back to my

garrote now.

Fortunato

Subject: RE: Leaving of Liverpool clone- Obscure Dylan song
From: Little Robyn
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 12:26 AM

This is the Dylan version of Leaving of Liverpool.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: Nerd
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 12:06 PM

The Dylan partisans always amuse me. They denigrate the old songs Dylan stole from in exactly the same way they claim the "poor misguided traditionalists" denigrate Dylan.

I like "Hard Rain," but I don't see why it's so brilliant, or so "relevant." It is a set of surrealist images, some of which have possible applicability to current events (the white man walking a black dog, the pollution metaphors, etc). Sure it's "relevant," if you want it to be.

And Lord Randall? That's about a guy killed by his girlfriend. That also has possible applicability to current events. It's also relevant if you want it to be.

LH's claim that Hard Rain was "more relevant in every way to life as it exists now" would only be true if we had eliminated murder.

And sure Hard Rain has more scope, but then many dreadfully boring novels have more scope than a Jane Austen novel.

Relevance and scope are, in any case, dubious criteria when applied to art. Is Rembrandt's The Night Watch relevant? How much scope does one of his self-portraits have? As to LH's claim that in the future Hard Rain would be seen as brilliant because of its relevance and scope, that rarely happens. It may be regarded as brilliant, but not for that reason.

And, more to the point, I like The Leaving of Liverpool better than the Dylan rewrite.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 01:39 PM

I may be in a minority, but I think that most of Dylan's rewrites are richly deserving of obscurity.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: Big Tim
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 03:00 PM

Quit slagging Bob for some youthful, folk-influenced rewrites. He's not dependent on them. Weren't you ever young yourselves? You old seegeretcites are just jealous of the impact he made. Dylan's fame time will be much more than 15 minutes and will have nothing to do with "The Leaving of Liverpool".

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 05:44 PM

The nerve of that Bob Dylan guy taking folk songs and rewriting them. He should be put in the Mudcat Hall of Shame along with such fellow perpetrators as AP Carter, Robert Johnson, WC Handy, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Tom Russell, Arlo Guthrie, Steve Goodman, John Prine, Steve Earle, etc.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: Genie
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 06:49 PM

Regardless of how revered a person does it, and legality notwithstanding, I think there's something dishonest about claiming you "wrote" or "composed" a melody when you actually lifted it wholesale or only slightly arranged it from a trad. source or one of the classical composers (who probably "borrowed" heavily from tradition, too). If you modify lyrics or write new ones or do a unique arrangement, I have no problem with your version being copyright protected. I'm even pretty much OK with someone finding a truly obscure folk song and taking out a copyright on it. (If you don't, and you record it, somebody else may claim ownership and prevent you from using it, can't they?)
I just don't understand why a song like "Fare Thee Well" isn't presented as "Music: traditional English song; Lyrics: Bob Dylan, based on the trad. English song 'Leaving Of Liverpool;' © Bob Dylan." This seems more honest than "words and music by Bob Dylan."

FWIW, while Woody did this all the time, too, at least he publicy invited anyone and everyone to sing, share "his" songs, print the lyrics out, etc. So does John Prine. Dylan's attitude about his copyrights is quite another story.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: Peace
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 07:48 PM

Baez recorded it. For sure.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Feb 04 - 08:13 AM

So did Lonnie Donegan

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From:
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 01:06 AM

I have a recording of Fare Thee Well by Dylan from "Witmark demo, March 1963" - never released commercially - e-mail me if anyone wants a copy for the archive !

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: el ted
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 05:47 AM

Plagarism is plagarism, however God like you perceive Dylan to be.

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 11:58 AM

Bobby Darrin also does a version

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: ddw
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 02:08 PM

I read somewhere a long time ago that Farewell was the most covered Dylan song. It likely still is, tho' I think All Along The Watchtower may be giving it a run for the title. Or does it just seem that way?

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 03:10 PM

ddw -- I'm sure that "Watchtower" is the *best-selling* Dylan cover, thanks to the huge sales of Jimi's great reinterpretation. However,I'm not sure that very many other artists have recorded their own versions. Of course, if you count performances rather than recordings, countless semi-pro rock bands play the song every weekend.

Assuming it is correct that "Farewell" was once covered by more different recording artists than any other Dylan song, it probably still merits that distinction -- I would guess...

Subject: RE: Obscure Dylan song: Fare Thee Well
From: Backstage Manager(inactive)
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 05:20 PM

I read somewhere a long time ago that Farewell was the most covered Dylan song.

Not a chance. "Don't Think Twice," "Blowin' In the Wind," "Mr. Tambourine Man," and many, many others have had more covers.