Captain, Captain, Tell me True- Vernon Dalhart (TX) 1925 REC
[From the recording titled "Oh Captain, Captain, Tell me True" recorded by Vernon Dalhart in December of 1925 in Camden, NJ and released on Victor 19951 in March 1926.
Dalhart who real name was Marion Try Slaughter (April 6, 1883 – September 14, 1948) had two huge early country hits: 1924 recording of "The Wreck of the Old 97" and "The Prisoner's Song" of 1925-26. This is most likely an arrangement of Sailor Boy by a Victor records studio arranger in NJ. Only the first two stanzas are traditional.
This version was printed in Brown Collection II, version J as traditional. See also Farm Life, Volume 46, Issue 9 - Page 40, 1927 and a version in the John Burch Blaylock Collection.
R. Matteson 2017]
"Oh Captain, Captain, Tell me True" sung by Vernon Dalhart in December of 1925 in Camden, NJ and released on Victor 19951 in March, 1926.
[brief intro]
1 'Oh, captain, captain, tell me true,
Does my sweet Willie sail with you?'
'Oh no, he does not sail with me.
For he is on the deep blue sea.'
2 'Oh, father, father, build me a boat,
So on the ocean I can float,
And every ship that I pass by
I think I hear my Willie cry."
[brief inst.]
3 'Oh, gypsy, gypsy, tell me true.
Please tell me something I can do.
I'll travel o'er this whole wide world
To keep him from another girl.
4 'He told me that he loved me so,
But on a voyage he must go;
And some day he'd return to me
And then how happy I would be.
5 'When over the ocean he has roamed
He will come drifting back to home.
He'll fall into my waiting arms
And I'd be happy with his charms.
[brief inst.]
6 'Since first you came into my life
I often dreamed I was your wife.
But you have been untrue to me
And gone to sail the deep blue sea.
7 I see no pleasure without you,
You know you said what you would do,
You said a letter you would write,
That one I pray for every night.
8 'The days are very dark and blue;
I sit and dream of only you.
And pray that you'll return again
So in my heart there'll be no pain.'