Oh Captain, Captain, Tell me True- Wise (NC) 1934 Brown J
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore Volume 2, Ballads, 1952. Their (Belden and all) notes follow. This is a unique recreation with elements of Sailor Boy, Deep Blue Sea and the Died for Love theme mixed together. The same ballad appears in the
John Burch Blaylock Collection (Brown K). See also the version in Farm Life, Vol. 3, 1927.
Both are cover songs of "Oh Captain, Captain, Tell me True" recorded by Vernon Dalhart in December of 1925 in Camden, NJ and released on on Victor 19951 in March 1926.
R. Matteson 2017]
Brown Collection Notes:
104 The Sailor Boy
This song was printed by Catnach and Such and probably by other ballad printers in England in the last century and is widely known and sung. See BSM 186, and add to the references there given Maine (MWS 56-9), Virginia (FSV 108-11, 118), North Carolina (BMFSB 24-5, SFLQ v 146), Arkansas (OFS I 300), Missouri (OFS I 296-300), Ohio (BSO 97-103), Indiana (BSI 269-70), Illinois (JAFL XL 235-6), and Michigan (BSSM 94, blended with 'The Butcher Boy'). Barry listed it among the ballads in his collection from the North Atlantic States but did not print it. Like other items of the folk song of unhappy love its content is likely to vary; with its central images of the girl bidding her father build her a boat and later demanding of the sailors she meets news of her sailor boy may be combined motives from 'The Butcher Boy,' 'Little Sparrow,' 'The Lass of Roch Royal,' or an elaborate preliminary story may be provided as in version L below.
J. 'Oh, Captain, Captain, Tell me True.' Secured by L. W. Anderson from Alva Wise, one of his students at Nag's Head, Dare county. This wanders a good deal from the basic form of the song. The first two stanzas belong to 'The Sailor Boy,' the rest are an accretion.
1 'Oh, captain, captain, tell me true,
Does my sweet Willie sail with you?'
'Ah no, he does not sail with me.
For he is over 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.
3 'Oh, gypsy, gypsy, tell me true.
Please tell me something I can do.
I'll travel over 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 would return to me
And then how happy I would be.
5 'When over the ocean he had roamed
He'd come drifting back to home.
He'd fall into my waiting arms
And I'd be happy with his charms.
6 'Since first you came into my life
I often dreamed that 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 see and dream of only you.
And pray that you'll return again
So in my heart there be no pain.'