Careless Love (Sailor Boy composite)- Edward Tufts (NC) 1933 Matteson/Henry
[From Beech Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads, by M. Henry and M. Matteson, G. Shirmer 1936. Here's a composite version of Sailor Boy and Careless Love-- which was collected by my grandfather, Maurice Matteson, and Mellinger Henry. My grandfather was leading vocal music at Southern Music Vocal Camp at Banner Elk in the summer of 1933 when he met Henry there. Mellinger was a good collector but he couldn't write music, so he persuaded my grandfather to help him. That persuasion ended up becoming the first of my grandfather's folk music books, Beech Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads.
The refrain and last stanzas are in the Careless Love form even though the last stanza is related to the Sailor Boy text.
R. Matteson 2017]
CARELESS LOVE- sung by Edward Tufts, Banner Elk, NC, July 15, 1933
"Captain, Captain, tell me true:
Does my Willie sail with you?"
No, oh no, he's not with me-
He got drowned in the deep blue sea."
Refrain: Love, O love, O careless love,
Love, O love, how can it be?
Love, O love, O careless love,
To love someone that don't love me.
Love, O love, O love divine.
Love, O love, O love divine.
Love, O love, O love divine,
Lucile, you know you'll never be mine.
Refrain
Hail that captain as he passes,
Hail that captain as he passes,
Hail that captain as he passes,
That's him, I have my Willie at last.
Refrain