"Farewell, Angelina" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s, and most famously recorded by Joan Baez.
According to Bob Dylan: All the Songs, an 1850s Scottish sailors' song by George Scroggie titled Farewell to Tarwathie provided the skeleton of the song's melody. That song, in turn, had been inspired by the old traditional tune Wagoner's Lad.
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 1âÂÂ3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961âÂÂ1991 and again on '.
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 performance from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival appears on her album Live at Newport, and another live performance appears on Live Europe '83. An edited version of the Newport Folk Festival performance appears in the Murray Lerner documentary film Festival.