Broken Vows (Blue Eyes)- McDowells
[This is one of a group of songs that use the same melody that has become one of the important melodies in the history of country music. The melody was used for the hit songs, "Only God Made Honky-Tonk Angels" and the resulting "Answer to Honky-Tonk Angels." However, the Carter Family used it first for their arrangement of "I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes," a significant song with deep meaning in the emotional fabric of their group. It was the song Sara sang in Texas on the radio dedicated to Coy Bays who heard it in nearby California and within days, they reunited- and quickly married- signaling the end of the Carter Family- as Sara now would live in California and the relationship with A.P. was decidedly over.
The other well-known text that uses this melody is the gospel song, 'The Great Speckled Bird." Apparently the McDowell's heard the Carter Family version (see notes below) and realized it was, in fact, the same song. It's interesting to compare this earlier version of the song with the Carters- after all the Carters collected their version also.
R. Matteson 2014]
BROKEN VOWS
( BLUE EYES )
1. Come and sit by my little darling,
And lean your dear head on my breast;
While the world into slumber is sinking,
And the birds sing the flowers to rest.
2. Oh why did you tell me you loved me,
And then let another come between?
It was long, long ago that you told me,
But your words in at memory still remain.
3. You remember olro g-qy, little darling,
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And qy -rii" -*.i ii irrghr as " ,l;:Jlo" ,
4. Oh why did you tell me you loved me,
When you knew that another had your heart?
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5. You said that you always would love me,
You said that we never would part,
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And rrn loft rlrh i-lia i"nrii'Lcerr.
6. It were better for us both had we never,
In this wild wicked world ever met,
For the hours we have spent here together
I'm sure I can never forget.
7. Then miles and miles separate us,
Will you ever sometimes think of me;
Of the girl who has loved, you so truly,
And the trouble you have caused her to see?
8. When the cold, cold earth lies above me
Will you come and shed just one tear,
And say to the strangers around you
That the heart you have broken lies here?
This song is readily identified as "Blue Eyes," (1940) being sung as a popular revival of an old song; though there is no mention above of the words now used as a refrain. [The "blue eyes" text was added in the Carter Family version which is the "revival" version mentioned.]
L. L. McDowell remembers very distinctly hearing the following stanzas: the first, the fifth, the sixth, and the eighth as sung
by a number of his friends during the decade between 1895 and 1905, none of whom mentioned the words "Blue Eyes."
Mrs. McDowell, also was familiar with the song. Each of then occasionally sang the old song, for whlch they knew no name until about 1929, whon they heard lt sung during a program at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute. At that time they heard the words "blue eyes" used in the song for the first time, the tune and some of the words being just as they remembered them.
Tho song as written above, with the title "Broken Vows," was found in a group of old songs written in longhand ln a blank-book, and in the possession of the family of John Hibden, of Smithville, Tennessee. The song as obtained from tho Hibdon family did not contain the first and fifth verses, those being supplied by the memory of the McDowells, the entire song is identified by Mrs. McDowell and her husband as that whlch they knew in thelr youth, though they could sing from memory in complete stanzas only, fourth named above, whether the local form of the song did not contain the now predominating words of the refrain, or another thle refrain nag a later addltlon, is not known by the compilers of this collection.
Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes- Carter Family
Oh you told me once dear that you loved me
That we never no never could part
But the link in the chain has been broken
And I'm left with a sad and aching heart
Oh I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Who is sailing far over the sea
Oh I'm thinking tonight of her only
And I wonder if she ever thinks of me
It wouldn've been better for us both had we never
In this wide wicked world ever met
For the pleasure we've both seen together
I am sure we will never forget
Now you may have friends on the ocean
And you may have some over the sea
But you'll travel this whole wide world over
And you'll never find a faithful friend like me
Like the birds that go out in the spring time
Just to wander for pleasure alone
While the sun shine is smiling upon them
But someday they return to their home
When the pleasures of life cease to call you
And you're done with your wine and your song
Then come back to your home in the mountains
To the girl who's been waiting so long