Farewell, Angelina (song)

"Farewell Angelina" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s, and most famously recorded by Joan Baez.

Recording

Dylan attempted to record "Farewell Angelina" only once, during the first session for his 1965 album Bringing it All Back Home, and he abandoned all attempts to record the song again. Dylan's one recording of the song was eventually issued in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.

Joan Baez's Version

Joan Baez included this song on her 1965 album Farewell Angelina. In the UK the song was issued at the same time as a single. Baez' version, though only about half as long as Dylan's recording, was very similar in structure and showed her moving away from pure folk music with the use of string bass accompaniment. Baez has often included performances of the song in her concerts, from 1965 through the 2010s. A live version appears on 1984's Live Europe '83.

Tune

Although "Farewell Angelina" is basically a simple folk love song, some critics have questioned the meaning of some of the more obscure lyrics like "The Jack and the Queen have forsaked the courtyard / Fifty-two gypsies now file past the guards".

Farewell, Angelina

"Farewell, Angelina" is an album by American folk singer Joan Baez, released in late 1965. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart.

History

The album represented a further shift from the strictly traditional folk music with which Baez had begun her career in that, for the first time, she included electric backup in the form of Bruce Langhorne's electric guitar (which was nonetheless subtle). Additional musicians included Russ Savakus (bass) and Ralph Rinzler (mandolin). The album included four Bob Dylan tunes, including the title song and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", as well as a German reading of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone".

The cover photo was taken by Richard Avedon.

In the UK the title song was issued as a single on Fontana Records.

The 2002 reissue of the album by Vanguard features three previously unreleased additional tracks from the Farewell, Angelina sessions: "One Too Many Mornings", "Rock, Salt, And Nails", and "The Water Is Wide".

Legacy

In a retrospective summary for Allmusic, Bruce Eder commented on how Baez was expanding along with the folk-rock of the 60s. He felt that in addition to Baez, the album contained good work by Langhorne and Richard Romoff on string bass.