10,000 Miles

10,000 Miles is a traditional English ballad featured on the Fly Away Home score. It is here perfomed by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The song is also known as "Fare Thee Well," and exists in many versions. The first version published in 1710 was titled "The True Lover's Farewell."

The song is heard in Fly Away Home during the opening car accident scene and at the end as Amy Alden reaches her destination. The idea for this song came from music editor Joe E. Rand, and composer Mark Isham proposed Mary Chapin Carpenter as performer. Director Carroll Ballard asked that certain lines be associated with specific images, and Isham interspersed the lyrics with an ostinato to make this possible.

Lyrics Fare thee well my own true love And farewell for a while

I’m going away, but I’ll be back

If I go ten thousand miles.

Ten thousand miles, my own true love,

Ten thousand miles or more,

And the rocks may melt and the seas may burn,

If I should not return.

Oh don’t you see that lonesome dove,

Sitting on an ivy tree,

She's weeping for her own true love

Just as I shall weep for mine.

Oh come back my own true love

And stay a while with me

For if I had a friend all on this earth,

You’ve been a friend to me.

And fare thee well my own true love

And farewell for a while.

I’m going away, but I’ll be back

If I go ten thousand miles.