"Dink's Song" is an American folk song played by many folk revival musicians such as Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 and Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

, as well as more recent musicians like Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley

Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...

. The song tells the story of a woman deserted by her lover when she needs him the most.

The first historical record of the song was by ethnomusicologist John Lomax

John Lomax

John Avery Lomax was an American teacher, a pioneering musicologist and folklorist who did much for the preservation of American folk songs...

 in 1908, who recorded it as sung by an African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 woman called Dink, as she washed her man's clothes in a tent camp of migratory levee

Levee

A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...

-builders on the bank of the Brazos River

Brazos River

The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...

, a few miles from College Station, Texas

College Station, Texas

College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley. The city is located within the most populated region of Texas, near three of the 10 largest cities in the United States - Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio...

 and Texas A&M College

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

.

The song was also covered by Puerto Rican

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 singer Gabriel Ríos

Gabriel Rios

Gabriel Ríos is a Puerto Rican musician currently residing in Brooklyn.-Biography:As a child Ríos was member of his church choir, and in addition to this early exposure to music his father also taught him to play the guitar. After finishing his studies at the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro high...

 and included on the limited edition 2-disc release of his album Angelhead.

Lyrics

If I had wings like Norah's dove

I'd fly up the river to the one I love

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

I've got a man, he's long and tall

Moves his body like a cannon ball

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

One of these days and it won't be long

Call my name and I'll be gone

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

I remember one night, a drizzling rain

Round my heart I felt a pain

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

When I wore my apron low

Couldn't keep you from my do

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

Now I wear my apron high

Scarcely ever see you passing by

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

Now my apron's up to my chin

You pass my door and you won't come in

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well

If I had listened to what my mama said

I'd be at home in my mama's bed

Fare thee well, oh honey, fare thee well