Careless Love- Margaret Tuft Neal (NC) 1930
[MS in Lees McRae College's "Folk Songs from Appalachia" collection - see Digital Appalachia. Standard version with 7A Sailor Boy text. This is probably a cover of Lester McFarland and Robert Gardner's version recorded in late 1926.
The text is nearly identical to the text in "Beech Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads" sung by by Edward Tufts in 1933, who could be Margaret Tufts' father or a male relative.
R. Matteson 2017]
Careless Love- from Margaret Tufts Neal of NC, 1930.
"Captain, captain tell me true,
Does little Willie sail with you?"
"No, oh no, he's not with me,
No, oh no, he's not with me,
No, oh no, he's not with me,
He got drowned in the deep blue sea."
CHORUS: 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.
Mamma, mamma yonder he goes,
Mamma, mamma yonder he goes,
Mamma, mamma yonder he goes,
With a Stetson hat and a suit of clothes."
Love, O love, O love divine,
Love, O love, O love divine,
Love, O love, O love divine,
Lucille[1], you know you'll never be mine.
Hail the captain as he passes,
Hail the captain as he passes,
Hail the captain as he passes,
That's him I've found little Willie at last.
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1. To see and know you'll never be mine