Recordings & Info: 7Aa. Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea (Deep Blue Sea)
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Keefer's Folk Index
4)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. ( Listings)
2)
Alternate Titles
Deep Blue Sea
Deep Blue Sea (I), The
DESCRIPTION: The girl's lover set off to sea, promising to write to her. She never hears from him. She seeks out his captain, who tells her "he is drowned in the deep blue sea." She bids "farewell to friends and relations" and decides to drown herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Carter Family recording)
KEYWORDS: death suicide ship sea drowning
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 794, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 518-520, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 794A)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 26, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps rewritten by the Carter Family)
Silber-FSWB, p. 181, "Sailor On The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, SAILDEEP*
Roud #4291
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Victor V-40036, 1929)
Lake Howard, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (on NLCR01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (plot)
NOTES: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a worn-down form of "The Sailor Boy" (Laws K12). I consider the characteristic of Laws K12 to be the request for a boat that the girl may seek her lover. Also, there are very few words in common between the two. So I have,
with some hesitation, decided to split the two songs.
It is quite possible that the separation is recensional; Cohen notes that Randolph's texts appear to be a warn down version of the Carter Family version, and Randolph's is the only genuinely traditional source. So this may be the remnants of a Carter Family rewrite of "The Sailor Boy." - RBW
Deep Blue Sea (II)
DESCRIPTION: "Deep blue sea, baby, deep blue sea...It was Willie what got drownded in the deep blue sea"; "Dig his grave with a silver spade..."; "Lower him down with a golden chain..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1955 (recording, Pete Seeger)
KEYWORDS: death burial drowning floatingverses lullaby
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
PSeeger-AFB, p. 76, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 58, "Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, DEEPBLUE*
Roud #3119
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Deep Blue Sea" (on PeteSeeger04) (on PeteSeeger12) (on PeteSeeger15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Blue" (floating verses)
cf. "The 'Cholly' Blues" (floating verses)
cf. "Stormalong" (floating verses)
cf. "Dig My Grave With a Silver Spade" (floating lyrics)
NOTES: In this case, perhaps we should refer to "sinkingverses." This song should not be confused with "The Deep Blue Sea", aka "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea," as recorded by the Carter Family. It may have been a shanty at some point. - PJS
Sailor On the Deep Blue Sea [Me I-A19]
Rt - Sailor Boy - I
Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof, 10, p22 (1968)
Brumfield, Deacon. Deacon Brumfield and the Dobro, DB CO 1037, LP (196?), trk# B.03
Carter Family. Carter Family, Vol. 1, Country Music CMH 107, LP (197?), trk# 3 [1928/05/10] (I Have No One to Love Me)
Carter, Joe and Janette. Best of Seedtime on the Cumberland, June Appal JA 059C, Cas (1988ca), trk# 2
Hahn, Grace. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p309/#794A [1941/10/08] (Deep Blue Sea - I)
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Appalachian Minstrel, Washington VM 736, LP (1956), trk# B.06
McCarty, Gladys. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p310/#794C [1941/12/13] (Deep Blue Sea - I)
New Lost City Ramblers. New Lost City Ramblers, Vol. 1, Folkways FA 2396, LP (1958), trk# 8
New Lost City Ramblers. Cohen, John, Mike Seeger & Hally Wood / Old Time String Band Songbook, Oak, Sof (1976/1964), p 26
Ramsey, Obray. Obray Ramsey Sings Folksongs from the Three Laurels, Prestige International INT 13020, LP (196?), trk# B.07
Scott and Stanley. Hard Times in the Country, Talkeetna TR 100, CD/ (1974), trk# A.06
Seeger, Mike; and Paul Brown. Way Down in North Carolina, Rounder 0383, CD (1996), trk# 2 (I Have No One to Love Me)
Southern Michigan String Band. Transplanted Old Timey Music, Pine Tree PTSLP 509, LP (1972), trk# 1
Trail, Olga. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume IV, Religous Songs and Others, Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p310/#794B [1941/10/09] (Deep Blue Sea - I)
Traynham, Mac & Jenny. When the Roses Bloom in Dixie, Heritage (Galax) 058, LP (1984), trk# 9
Wall, James. 20 Carter Family Favorites, Rural Rhythm RC 175, Cas (1988), trk# A.05 (Drowning in the Deep Blue Sea)
---------------
I'll tell you the words I have spliced together. Usually I am quite sure I have the definitive version of any song but this time I won't say so.
Deep blue sea forever deep blue sea
Deep blue sea forever deep blud sea
Deep blue sea forever deep blue sea
Was my Willie what got drownded in the deep blue sea
Captain Oh Captain did he sail with you
Captain Oh Captain did he sail with you
Captain O Captain did he sail with you
Was my Willie what got drownded in the deep blue sea.
Dig his grave with a silver spade (3 times)
Lower him down with a golden chain (3 times)
I hear his voice in the wind at night
I see his face in the pale moonlight
I hear his voice in the wind at night
Twas my Willie what got drownded in the deep blue sea
Deep blue sea forever deep blue sea (3 times)
mg
-------------
Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, no. 794, vol. 4, pp. 309-310. Sung by Miss Grace Hahn, 1941. Sheet music shown.
Lyr. Add: THE DEEP BLUE SEA
He promised to write me a letter,
He promised to write to me,
But I haven't heard from my darling
Who is sailing on the deep blue sea.
Oh, captain, can you tell me,
Can you tell me where he may be?
Oh yes, my pretty maiden,
He is drownded in the deep blue sea.
Farewell to friends and relations,
This is the last you'll see of me,
For I'm going to end my troubles
By drownding in the deep blue sea.
Other verses, other sources, Randolph, p. 310, vol. 4
My mother is dead and buried,
My father's forsaken me,
And I have no one to love me
But my sailor on the deep blue sea.
It was last Sunday evening
Just about the hour of three,
When my darling started for to leave me
To sail on the deep blue sea.
DEEP BLUE SEA
Words and Music by :
Arranged and adapted by:
Publisher:
Recorded by:
DeCormier Singers - RD865SD
Odetta - TLP1010
Lyrics:
Deep blue sea, baby, deep blue sea
Deep blue sea, baby, deep blue sea
Deep blue sea, baby, deep blue sea
It was Willy what got drownded
In the deep blue sea
Lower him down with a golden chain
Lower him down with a golden chain
Lower him down with a golden chain
it was Willy what got drownded
In the deep blue sea
Dig his grave with a silver spade
Dig his grave with a silver spade
Dig his grave with a silver spade
It was Willy what got drownded
In the deep blue sea
[Home] [song list] [Belafonte Folk Singers] [DeCormier Singers] [Chad Mitchell Trio]
All examples seem to be fairly recent. The Ballad Index entry, gives the earliest examples as a Pete Seeger recording of 1955.
The Roud Index - 3119 has 6 entries for the song, the earliest is 1940 - WPA Collection, Univ. of Virginia, Charlotteville, No.288 (version b), under the title The Weeping Willow Tree collected from Mrs. Alice Stapleton, of Esserville, Va. The next is 1942 (the link is to all 6 entries).
Guthrie T. Meade believed that it was related to 'The Sailor Boy' (Laws K12)."
--------------
There's a partial version of this traditional song in the Digital Tradition but it's missing at least two verses. This is the way my family used to sing it, probably picked up from the Carter Family Recording in the 1930's (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):
SAILOR ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
-------G-------------------C
It was on one summer's evening
------G---------------D7
Just about the hour of three
-----------------G-----------------C
When my true love went for to leave me
----G----------D7--------G
To sail on the deep blue sea.
Oh, he promised to write me a letter;
He said he'd be true to me,
But I've not heard from my darling
Who is sailing on the deep blue sea.
Oh, my mother's dead and buried;
My father's forsaken me,
And I have no one for to love me
But the sailor on the deep blue sea.
"Oh, Captain, can you tell me,
Can you tell me where can my sailor be?"
"Oh yes, my little maiden,
He is drownded in the deep blue sea."
Farewell to friends and relations .
It's the last you'll see of me,
For I'm going to end my troubles
By drownding in the deep blue sea.
"Charley on the MTA" is the most familiar parody of this song.
Cheerily,
Charley Noble
---------------------------
Sweet William's Farewell to Black-ey'd Susan: A Ballad
Gay, John (1685 - 1732)
Original Text:
John Gay, Poems on Several Occasions (London: Jacob Tonson and Bernard Lintot, 1720). E-10 4365 Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
1 All in the Downs the fleet was moor'd,
2 The streamers waving in the wind,
3When black-ey'd Susan came aboard.
4 Oh! where shall I my true love find!
5Tell me, ye jovial sailors, tell me true,
6If my sweet William sails among the crew.