Farewell Angelina (song)

"Farewell Angelina" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the middle 1960s, but most famous in the hands of Joan Baez.

Written in the middle 1960s, the song was planned to be included on "Another Side of Bob Dylan" and again for "Bringing It All Back Home" but failed to make the cut. Baez made the song the lead track of her 1965 album of the same name. 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. Dylan's original recording of "Farewell Angelina" was eventually issued in 1991 on "The Bootleg Series".

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".

In more modern times "Farewell Angelina" has remained a continuous part of Joan Baez' concert repertoire, being recorded twice for live albums during the 1980s. The song has also been recorded by New Riders of the Purple Sage, John Mellencamp (on "Rough Harvest") , Tim O'Brien, Danny Carnahan's Wake The Dead, and Danu's When All is Said and Done. German and French versions of the song have been recorded by Nana Mouskouri. A rare acoustic version was recorded by Jeff Buckley in the early 1990s.