Leaving of Liverpool

"(The) Leaving of Liverpool", (Roud 9435), also known as "Fare Thee Well, My Own True Love", is a folksong. Folklorists classify it as a lyric lament, and it was also used as a sea shanty, especially at the capstan. It is very well known in Britain, Ireland, and America, despite the fact that it was collected only twice, from the Americans Richard Maitland and Captain Patrick Tayluer. It was collected from both singers by William Main Doerflinger, an American folksong collector particularly associated with sea songs, in New York.

The song's narrator laments his long sailing trip to California and the thought of leaving his loved ones (especially his "own true love"). He pledges to return to her one day.

The Leaving of Liverpool has been recorded by many popular folk singers and groups since the 1950s. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem had a top 10 hit with the song in Ireland in 1964. The song has also been adapted by several artists, most notably Bob Dylan.

According to Library of Congress editor Stephen Winick, "The Leaving of Liverpool" was first collected by Doerflinger from Maitland, whose repertoire he recorded at Sailors' Snug Harbor in Staten Island from 1938 to 1940. At the time, Doerflinger was an independent collector, recording the songs of sailors and lumbermen out of personal interest. In early 1942, Doerflinger found another version sung by a retired sailor named Patrick Tayluer, who was living at the Seamen's Church Institute at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan. This time, he borrowed equipment and blank discs from the Library of Congress with the understanding that he would deposit the recordings there.

The two versions are quite different, and the singers gave different accounts of the song. Maitland said he learned "The Leaving of Liverpool" from a Liverpudlian on board the General Knox around 1885. His version has the narrator leave Liverpool to be a professional sailor aboard a historical clipper ship, the David Crockett, under a real-life captain, Captain Burgess. This would date his version to between 1863, when John A. Burgess first sailed the David Crockett out of Liverpool, and 1874, when Burgess died at sea. He also told Doerflinger that on his voyages it was sung as an off-watch song or "forebitter," rather than a sea shanty.

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