Fare Thee Well

Dylan based the song on the traditional British ballad “The Leaving of Liverpool,” which has the lines “So fare thee well, my own true love” and “It’s not the leavin’ of Liverpool that grieves me.” His song opens with the singer leaving in the first hour of the morning, bound for the Bay of Mexico or maybe the coast of California, and says it is not the leaving that grieves him but his true love, who is bound to stay behind. He tells of bad weather, with the wind blowing hard and rain turning to hail, but he might still strike it lucky on a highway going west. With his hands in his pockets and his coat collar high, he says he will travel unnoticed and unknown, and he has heard of a town down around the Mexican plain where the people are all friendly and ask only for your name.

Pete Seeger recorded it in 1963, issued as “Fare-Thee-Well (My Own True Love)” on The Broadside Ballads, Volume 2, and Judy Collins recorded it for Judy Collins 3. The Hillmen, the Southern California bluegrass group with Chris Hillman on mandolin, Vern Gosdin on guitar and lead vocals, Rex Gosdin on bass and Don Parmley on banjo, recorded it as “Fare Thee Well” at World Pacific Studios in Hollywood in 1963, and it appeared on their album The Hillmen, first released in 1969. Tony Rice recorded it in January 1983 at 1750 Arch Studios in Berkeley for Cold on the Shoulder (Rounder, 1984), with J. D. Crowe on banjo, Larry Rice on mandolin and harmony vocal, Bobby Hicks on fiddle, Jerry Douglas on dobro and Todd Phillips on bass. The Country Gentlemen—Charlie Waller, John Duffey, Eddie Adcock and Tom Gray—recorded it in 1988 at Masterworks in Fairfax, Virginia, for Classic Country Gents Reunion (Sugar Hill, 1989).