Careless Love Blues- Butch Cage (LA) 1961 REC
[From Old Time Black Southern String Band Music, by Butch Cage and Willie B. Thomas, c. 1960. Recorded by Harry Oster. These are random Louisiana stanzas, the 1st is from Handy, 2nd trad, 3rd from Lonnie Johnson of New Orleans, etc.
R. Matteson 2017]
James "Butch" Cage (born March 16, 1894 in Mississippi- 1973) and Willie B. Thomas (born May 25, 1912 - ?) were an American blues duo active from the 1940s to the early 1970s. Cage and Thomas were discovered in 1959 by musicologist Harry Oster, who promoted the two at the Newport Music Festival. Field recording with the duo conducted in the following year are praised for upholding pre-blues string band tradition.
Careless Love- Sung by James "Butch" Cage and Willie B. Thomas
[instr]
1. Well love, oh love, careless love
Flee into you heart like wine,
There you are, with the world so blue
Have you walking and talking to yourself.
2. Love, love, careless love
Love, oh love, oh careless love
Love, oh love, careless love
Won't you see what careless love has done.
3. You followed my mother till she died,
You cause my father to lose his mind
I'm gonna shoot you I'm gonna cut if [it's] four, five times,
Stand over you until you finish dying.
4. Don't you never drive a stranger from your door,
Don't you never drive a stranger from your door,
You can never tell where you may go
You got to reap, you got to reap just what you sow.
5. Oh love, love, how can it be
Love, oh love, how can it be
Love, oh love, how can it be
For you love another man and don't love me?
6. Don't you see what careless love has done,
Don't you see what careless love has done,
It has caused me to weep it has caused me to moan,
it has caused me to lose my happy home.
7. Don't you never drive a stranger from your door,
Don't you never drive a stranger from your door,
You can never tell where you may go
You got to reap, you got to reap, what you sow.