Recordings & Info: 7L. Careless Love [also Dink's Song]
Some Recordings (partially edited):
1922 Katherine Handy "Loveless Love" with two folk stanzas
1925 - Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra
1925 - Bessie Smith -"Careless Love Blues" May 26, 1925 - New York City - 140626-1,-2 Columbia 14083-D - Bessie Smith (v), Louis Armstrong (c), Charlie Green (tb), Fred Longshaw (p)
1927 - Johnson Brothers, "Careless Love" (Victor 20940)
1927 - Johnny Dodds w. Tiny Parham, "Careless Love" (Paramount 12483) [Instrumental]
1927 - Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Careless Love" (Vocalion 5125)
1928 - Ernest V. Stoneman & His Dixie Mountaineers
1928 - Lulu Jackson (pseudonym) prob. gospel singer from Chicago- June 21, 1928 - Indianapolis IN - Vocalion 1193
1. You see what careless love will do?
Make you kill yourself and your lover too.
2. You caused me to weep you caused me to mourn,
You caused me to leave my happy home.
3. Don't never drive a stranger from your door,
Or you'll surely reap just what you sow.
4. There's many a poor girl led from home
But you can't turn a hard heart like my own.
5. You passed my door and you wouldn't come in,
Now you see what careless love will do.
1928 - Eva Parker (Hattie Parker of Pace Jubliee Singers), Chicago Illinois; "Careless Love" (Victor V-38020, 1929; rec. 1928)
1. You see what careless love will do?
Make you kill yourself and your lover too.
2. Well, you caused me to weep you caused me to morn,
You caused me to leave my happy home.
3. Don't never drive a stranger from your door,
Or you'll surely reap just what you sow.
4. There's many a poor girl led from home
But you can't turn a heart like mine to stone
5. You passed my door and you wouldn't come in,
Oh you see what careless love will do.
1928 - Lonnie Johnson - Nov. 16, 1928 - New York City - 401337-B OKeh 8635 - Lonnie Johnson (v,g)
1929 - Slim Barton & Eddie Mapp - cMay 1929 - New York City: Long Island City - QRS R7088 - Slim Barton, Eddie Mapp, James Moore [blues harp; "Coming round the mountain" melody]
1930 - Tom Darby; Jimmie Tarlton
1930 - Reckless Love; Canova Family.
1931 - Ruth Johnson, "Careless Love" (Paramount 13060, 1931)
1931 - Emry Arthur
1931 - Ed "Fats" Hudson, State Street Ramblers - March 17, 1931 - Richmond IN - 17622- Champion 16464 - Ed "Fats" Hudson, State Street Ramblers (Alfred Bell, Roy Palmer, Darnell Howard, Jommy Blythe, Jasper Taylor) [instr. one verse]
See what careless love will do
See what careless love will do
You see what careless love will do
Steal your home away from you.
1933- Four Southern Singers [version of She'll be Coming Round the Mountain]
Careless Love-
1. Careless love, careless love, do come home,
Careless love , careless love do come home,
I'll weep like a willow, moan like a dove,
Careless love, careless love, do come home.
[inst.]
[repeat 1]
2. She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes,
Yes, he'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes,
She'll be coming 'round the mountain, coming round the mountain,
coming round the mountain when she comes,
3. And we'll all go out to meet her when she comes &etc
4. We'll kill the old red rooster when she comes, &etc
[repeat 1]
1934 - Lee Wiley, Victor Young & His Orchestra; Lee Wiley, "Careless Love" (Decca 132, 1934)
1935 - Lead Belly - Feb. 13, 1935 - Wilton CT - 52-A Library of Congress - (Lead Belly v,g)
1935 - Asa Martin, "Careless Love" (Melotone 5-11-63/Oriole 5-11-63 [as by "Martin & Roberts"])
1935/36 - John French, Rochelle French, Gabriel Brown
1936 Lena Horne
1936 -"Tell me Baby" Georgia White - Jan. 16, 1936, Decca 7152, New York also Chicago IL - Decca 7419 - Georgia White (v), Edgar Saucier (as), Richard M. Jones (p), Lonnie Johnson (g), unknown (d)
Instrumental
1. Tell me baby who your sweet love can be?
The reason, you sure look good to me.
2. Lordy, Lord, Lor how can it be?
3. I'm just a stranger in your town
4. If I could do just like the lord above
5. If my man etc
1937 - Blind Boy Fuller cover of Bessie Smith
1938 - The Delmore Brothers
1938 - W.C. Handy - May 9, 1938 - Washington DC - Library of Congress
1940 - Sidney Bechet
1940 - Big Joe Turner - Nov. 25, 1940 - New York City - Big Joe Turner (v), Willie "The Lion" Smith (p)
1940 - Josh White [see 1944]
1943/1944? - Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer, Bess Lomax Hawes, Baldwin Hawes - Disc 607, on: America's Favorite Songs
1944 - Bunk Johnson
1944 - Lead Belly - Jan.3, 1944 - New York City - LEA-1 unissued - Lead Belly (v,g), Muriel Reger (p)
1944 - Josh White
1944/45 - Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band
1945 - Albert Ammons & His Rhythm Kings - Sept. 28, 1945 - Chicago IL - Mercury 2008 - Sippie Wallace, Albert Ammons (p) & His Rhythm Kings (Artie Sharks (ts,cl), Lonnie Johnson (g), John Lindsay (b), Tom Taylor (d))
1945/46 - Johnny Alston & His Orchestra
1945-59 - Brownie McGhee - Folkways
1945-63 - Newton Brothers
1946 - Bertha "Chippie" Hill - Feb.5, 1946 - Chicago IL - C-2 Circle 1003, Riverside 1059, on: Chippie Hill Sings The Blues - Bertha "Chippie" Hill (v) Lee Collins (tr), John Lindsay (b), Lovie Austin (p), Baby Dodds (d)
1946 - Jack Guthrie
1946 - Sonny Terry - cJune 1946 - New York City - Verve Folkways 9010, on: Sonny Terry: Harmonica Blues: Get Together (released 1965) - Lead Belly (v,g), Sonny Terry (h), Brownie McGhee (v,g), George "Pops" Foster
chorus
1. Caused me to weep
2. Never drive a stranger from your door
3. [ ]my mother, drove my daddy blind
4. Love oh love how can it be?
5. Loved my mama, loved my papa too
1947 - Bertha "Chippie" Hill - July 5, 1947 - New York City - Queen-Disc Q-048, on: Ida Cox And Bertha Chippie Hill - Bertha "Chippie" Hill (v), Wild Bill Davison (cn), Jimmy Achey (tb), Albert Nicholas (cl), Ralph Sutton (p), Danny Barker (g), Pops Foster (b), Johnny Blowers (d)
1947 - Sam Hinton
1947/48 - Joe Turner
1947-50 - The Ravens
(1948) - Lead Belly - Oct. 15, 1948 - New York City - Folkways 242, on: Lead Belly's Last Sessions 2 (released 1962) - Lead Belly (v,g)
1948 - Lonnie Johnson - Aug. 13, 1948 - Cincinnati, OH - K-5560-1 King 520, on: Lonesome Road (released 1956) - Lonnie Johnson (v,g)
1949-52 - Golden Gate Quartet
1950 - Sidney Bechet
1950 - Fats Domino - Sept. 1950 - New Orleans LA - Imperial 5145 - Fats Domino (v,p), Dave Bartholomew (tp), Joe Harris (as), Herb Hardesty, Clarence Hall (ts), Red Tyler (bs), Ernest McLean (g), Frank Fields (b), Earl Palmer (d)
50s - The Pilgrims
1950-54 - Lizzie Miles
1950- Anita Carter w/Chet Atkins
1951 - Emile Barnes, The Louisiana Joymakers, DeDe and Billy Pierce - Aug 30, 1951
1951 - Kid Thomas - Sept. 3, 1951
1952 - Big Bill Broonzy - London UK - Avid 736, on: Great Bluesmen in Britain (released 2002) - Big Bill Broonzy (v,g)
1952 - Big Bill Broonzy - Dec. 3, 1952 - Hove UK - Jasmine 3011, on: On Tour in Britain, 1952: 'Live' in England & Scotland (released 2002) - Big Bill Broonzy (v,g)
1952 - George Lewis' Ragtime Band of New Orleans - Oxford
1952 - Christie Brothers Stompers
1952-57 - City Ramblers Skiffle Group
1954 - Jean Ritchie - on: Field Trip
1954-56 - Claire Austin
1955 - Eddy Arnold - on: Wanderin'
1955 - Big Bill Broonzy - Dec. 11, 1955 - Brussels, Belgium - Black & Blue 33012, on: Big Bill Broonzy - Big Bill Broonzy (v,g)
1955 - Firehouse Five Plus Two - on: The Firehouse Five Plus Two Plays for Lovers
mid-50s - Carl Sandburg
1955-60 - Wilbur DeParis
1956-58 - Shirley Bassey
1956 - Big Bill Broonzy - Feb. 10, 1956 - Paris, France - Columbia 1162 - Big Bill Broonzy (v,g), Kansas Fields (d)
1956 - Big Bill Broonzy - May 5/6, 1956 - Copenhagen DK - Storyville 143, on: An Evening With Big Bill Broonzy Vol. 2 - Big Bill Broonzy (v,g)
1957 - The Castle Jazz Band (Don Kinch, George Bruns, Bob Gilbert, Freddie Crews, Bob Short, Homer Welch)
1957 - Wilbur DeParis - Atlantic, on: New Orleans Blues
1957 - Jimmy Rushing - Columbia, on: The Jazz Odyssey of James Rushing, Esq
1957 - Slim Whitman
1958 - Nat King Cole - Jan 29/31, 1958 - Capitol, on: St. Louis Blues
1958 - Eartha Kitt - on: St. Louis Blues
1958 - Pete Seeger - Folkways 2321, on: American Favorite Ballads, Volume Two
1958 - Dinah Washington - on: Bessie Smith Songbook
1958-64 - Chris Barber Jazzband, Archie Semple
1959 - Dick Curless - on: Singing Just for Fun
1959 - Snooks Eaglin - May 1958 - Smithsonian Folkways, on: New Orleans Street Singer
1959 - Big Joe Turner - June 18, 1959 - New York City - Atlantic
1959 - T. Texas Tyler - on: T. Texas Tyler
1959 - Otis Webster - 1952-59 - on: Angola Prisoners' Blues
1959-61 - Dave Van Ronk
1959-62 - Frankie Lane
1959-69 - Tony Ellis
1960 - Lonnie Johnson - April 5, 1960 - Englewood Cliffs NJ - 2136 Bluesville unissued, Original Blues Classics (OBC) 570, on: Blues, Ballads, and Jumpin' Jazz, Vol. 2 (released 1993) - Lonnie Johnson (v,g), Elmer Snowden (g), Wendel Marshall (b)
1960 - Pete Seeger - July 11/12, 1959 - Newport RI - Vanguard 2053 / 9062, on: Folk Festival at Newport Volume 1
1960-62 - Champion Jack Dupree
60s/70s - Victoria Spivey - New York City (Kossuth Hall) - Spivey 1030, on: Victoria Spivey And Her Blues Vol. 2 (released 80s) - Victoria Spivey (v,p,org,u), Bob Melenky (fl), Bill Dicey (g), Tony Soll (b), Tom Pasle (g), Eddie Barefiled (cl), Pat Wilson (d)
1961 - Brook Benton
1961 - Pete Fountain - on: Mr. New Orleans
1961 - Connie Francis - on: Sings Folk Favorites
1961 - Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Dec 29, 1961
1961 - The Hi-Lo's with Billy May - on: The Hi-Lo's Happen to Folk Songs
1961 - Mans Lipscomb - July 10-13, 1961
1961 - Billie and De De Pierce - Jan. 27, 1961
(1961) - Blind Connie Williams - May 5, 1961 - Philadelphia PA - Testament 2225, on: Philadelphia Street Singer (released 1974)
1961-65 - The Stanley Brothers
1962 - Ace Cannon - on: Tuff Sax
1962 - Ray Charles - on: Modern Sounds in Modern Country And Western Music
1962 - Bill Jackson - Jan. 1/3, 1962 - on: Long Steel Rail
1962 - Michael Landon
1962-64 - Bert Jansch - Glasgow
1963 - Lonnie Johnson - American Folk Blues Festival
(1963) - Victoria Spivey - Aug. 31, 1963 - New York City (Kossuth Hall) - Spivey 1030, on: Victoria Spivey And Her Blues Vol. 2 (released 80s) - Victoria Spivey (v,u), Kazoo Papa (k), Tom Pasle (g)
1963 - Victoria Spivey - Sept. 28, 1963 - Baden-Baden GER - 156 Spivey unissued - Victoria Spivey (v,u), Günter (Gunter) Boas (p)
1963-68 - Dock Boggs - Smithsonian Folkways
1964 - Rosemary Clooney - Reprise, on: Thanks for Nothing
1964 - Pete Seeger - Capitol 2172, on: Folk Songs by Pete Seeger
(1964) - Pete Seeger - Flyright 68/69, on: Pete Seeger In Prague 1964 (released 2001)
(1964) - Victoria Spivey- Aug. 7, 1964 - Meriden CT- GHB 17, on: Victoria Spivey & the Easy Riders Jazz Band (released 1990) - Victoria Spivey (v), The Easy Riders Jazz Band (Fred Vigoito (t), Big Bill Bissonnette (tb), Noel Kalet (cl), Bill Sinclair (p), Dick Griffith (bj), Dick McCarthy (sb), Art Pulver (d))
1965 - Lonnie Johnson - New York City (home of his close friend Bernie Strassberg) - Blue Magnet BM-1001, on: Lonnie Johnson, The Unsung Blues Legend. The Living Room Session (released 2000) - Lonnie Johnson (v,g)
1965 - Helen Merrill - March-Aug. 1964 - on: The Artistry of Helen Merrill
1965 - Pete Seeger Xtra 1005, on: Sing With Seeger
1966 - Barbara Dane & Lightning Hopkins - Arhoolie, on: Sometimes I Believe She Loves Me
1966 - Jean Kittrell
1966 - Big Joe Williams - May 14, 1965 - New York City - Transatlantic XTRA 1033, on: Big Joe Williams - Big Joe Williams (v,g,k), Bill Einhorn (h), Tom Pyle (b)
(1967) - Lonnie Johnson - 1967 - New York City - Folkways 3577, 3578, on: The Complete Folkway Recordings (released 1982) - Lonnie Johnson (v,g)
1968 - Skip James - March 22-24, 1967 - New York City - Vanguard VSD 79273, on: Devil Got My Woman - Skip James (v,p)
1969 - Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan - Feb. 18, 1969 - Nashville TN - Columbia unissued
1969 - Lightnin' Hopkins
1971/72 - Furry Lewis - on: Alabama State Troupers: Live for a Moment
1972 - Blue Rose - on: Blue Rose
1972 - Jerry Reed - on: Jerry Reed
1973 - Big Maybelle - Muse, on: The Last of Big Maybelle
mid-70s - Big Walter Horton with Carey Bell [based on Lonnie Johnson; lyrics]
1976 - Plas Johnson - May 7/8, 1976 - on: Positively
1977 - Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon, Yuka Dan - Dec. 16/24, 1976 - Tokyo, Kyoto JP - Trio 3A-2025, on: Blues Is A-Live - Sleepy John Estes, Hammie Nixon, Yuka Dan
1978 - Mud - RCA, on: Rock On
1980 - Bill Dicey, Victoria Spivey - June 4, 1972 - Byram CT - Spivey 1028, on: Bill Dicey: Caught In The Act (released 1980) - Bill Dicey (v,h), Victoria Spivey (v), Bob Malenky, Tony Soll (g)
1980 - Horace Parlan, Archie Shepp - on: Trouble in Mind
1980/81 - Original Salty Dogs
1981 - Dr. John - on: Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions, Vol. 1
1981/82 - J.W. Warren
1983 - Mick Clarke - on: Looking for Trouble
1983-94 - Chris Bailey
1984 - Johnny Parker - 100 Club
1987 - Cephas & Wiggins - Flying Fish, on: Guitar Man
1987/88 - John Dee Holeman, Fris Holloway
1990 - Rhonda & Sparky Rucker - Flying Fish, on: Treasures & Tears
(1991) - Guitar Gabriel & the Brothers in the Kitchen - on: Toot Blues
1992 - Dr. John - on: Goin' Back to New Orleans
1993 - Joan Baez - Vanguard, on: Rare, Live & Classic
1994 - John Dee & Fris - 1988 - Mapleshade, on: Country Girl
1994 - Lesley Schatz - Bear Family, on: Brave Wolf
1997 - Electric Bluebirds - Diamond, on: Back On the Train
1997 - Ronnie Lane, Slim Chance - on: You Never Can Tell
Preston Fulp - ‘Careless Love’ is off of Preston Fulp’s only MM release, 1998‘s ‘Sawmill Worker’
1998 - Ute Lemper - Polygram, on: All That Jazz: The Best of Ute Lemper
1999 - Algia Mae Hinton - Cello, on: Honey Babe
1999 - Joe Thomson - Rounder, on: Family Traditions
1999 - Bob Willoughby - Wildchild!, on: Blues, Booze and Oldtime Soul
2000 - Paul Geremia - Genes, on: Hard Life Rockin' Chair
2002 - Patty Carpenter/Melissa Shetler - Epiphany, on: Under My Hat
2003 - Homesick James and Snooky Pryor - on: The Big Bear Sessions
2003 - Lauren Sheehan - Lauren Sheehan, on: Some Old Lonesome Day
2004 - Tim Eriksen - Appleseed, on: Every Sound Below
2004 - Sue Foley - Ruf, on: Change
2004 - Wynton Marsalis - Blue Note, on: Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (soundtrack)
2004 - Madeleine Peyroux - Rounder, on: Careless Love
2004 - Rick Stone - Jazzand, on: Samba de Novembro
2005 - Gaye Adegbalola/Roddy Barnes - Hot Toddy, on: Neo Classic Blues
2005 - Erwin Helfer Trio - The Sirens, on: Careless Love
2005 - NajPonk Trio - 1999 - Cube Bohemia, on: Ballads, Blues and More
2006 - Penny Lang - Borealis, on: Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky
2007 - Grand Marquis - on: One More Day
2007 - The Pines - Red House, on: Sparrows in the Bell
2007 - Purple Cat - on: Beat It Out
2007 - Peggy Seeger - Appleseed, on: Three Score and Ten
2008 - Eden Brent - Yellow Dog Records, on: Mississippi Number One
2008 - Cephas & Wiggins - Smithsonian Folkways, on: Richmond Blues - John Cephas and Phil Wiggins
2008 - Miss Lauren Marie - Texas Jamboree, on: I'm No Good Without You
2008 - Tin Pan - on: Alice McNulty
2009 - Koerner & Glover - 2006 - CC Entertainment, on: Live @ the 400 Bar
2013 - Hugh Laurie - Jan. 1913 - Los Angeles CA - Warner, on: Didn't It Rain - Hugh Laurie, Jay Bellerose, Kevin Breit, Vincent Henry, Greg Leisz, Robby Marshall, David Pitch, Patrick Warren, Larry Goldings, Elizabeth Lea, Gaby Moreno, Jean McClain
traditional ballad index:
Careless Love
DESCRIPTION: A young girl's lament for having loved unwisely, worrying what her mother will say when the girl returns home, wearing her apron high (i. e. pregnant).
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (JAFL)
KEYWORDS: sex seduction pregnancy lament
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Randolph 793, "Careless Love" (3 texts, 1 tune. The "B" text is, however, derived mostly from other materials -- it does not even have the "Careless Love" refrain -- of which "Little Pink" seems to be the most important)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 498-500, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 793A)
Randolph-Legman II, pp. 648-650, "Careless Love" (2 texts)
Warner 167, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hudson 13, pp. 91-93, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 fragments, of which "A" is the "Pretty Little Foot" with a chorus from "Careless Love" and "B" is two "Pretty Little Foot" stanzas artificially and wrongly extracted from "Wild Bill Jones")
Sandburg, p. 21, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSUSA 20, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 309, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-AmFolklr, pp. 901-902, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
MWheeler, pp. 89-90, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 138-139, "(Careless Love)" (fragments of two texts); pp. 272-273, "Careless Love" (1 tune, partial text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 11, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune)
Handy/Silverman-Blues, p. 55-57, "Careless Love" (1 text, 1 tune, with a verse from "Free Little Bird" and others added by blues composers)
Silber-FSWB, p. 163, "Careless Love" (1 text)
Fuld-WFM, pp. 162-163, "Careless Love"
DT, CARELOVE*
Roud #422
RECORDINGS:
Slim Barton & Eddie Mapp, "Careless Love" (QRS R-7088, 1929)
Dock Boggs, "Careless Love" (on Boggs3, BoggsCD1)
Anne, Judy & Zeke Canova, "Reckless Love" (Oriole 8044/Perfect 12685/Regal 10299, 1931)
[Tom] Darby & [Jimmie] Tarlton, "Careless Love" (Columbia 15651-D, 1931; rec. 1930)
Delmore Brothers, "Careless Love" (Bluebird B-7436, 1938)
Johnny Dodds w. Tiny Parham, "Careless Love" (Paramount 12483, 1927)
Fats Domino, "Careless Love" (Imperial 5145, 1951)
Four Southern Singers, "Careless Love" (Bluebird B-8392, 1940; rec. 1933)
Blind Boy Fuller, "Careless Love" (Vocalion 03457, 1937/Conqueror 9012, 1937/Melotone 8-02-66, 1938; rec. 1937)
W. C. Handy, "Careless Love" (AFS 1620 B3, 1938)
Ed Hudson, "Careless Love" (Champion 16464, 1932/Champion 40086, 1936; rec. 1931)
Johnson Brothers, "Careless Love" (Victor 20940, 1927)
Lonnie Johnson, "Careless Love" (OKeh 8635, 1928)
Lulu Johnson, "Careless Love Blues" (Vocalion 1193, 1928; Supertone S-2227, 1931; [as Lulu Williams] Banner 32387/Oriole 8119/Perfect 195/Romeo 5119, all 1932; all of these rec. 1928)
Ruth Johnson, "Careless Love" (Paramount 13060, 1931)
Asa Martin, "Careless Love" (Melotone 5-11-63/Oriole 5-11-63 [as by "Martin & Roberts"], 1935)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Careless Love" (Vocalion 5125, 1927)
Brownie McGhee, "Careless Love" (on McGhee01, DownHome)
Byrd Moore & his Hot Shots, "Careless Love" (Columbia 15496-D, 1929)
Eva Parker, "Careless Love" (Victor V-38020, 1929; rec. 1928)
Riley Puckett, "Careless Love" (Columbia 15747-D, 1932; rec. 1931) (Bluebird B-5532/Montgomery Ward M-4507, 1934)
Pete Seeger, "Careless Love" (on PeteSeeger18)
Bessie Smith, "Careless Love Blues" (Columbia 14083-D, 1925) (Columbia 3172-D/Parlophone [UK] R-2479, 1938 -- I'm going to guess this is a different (electrical) recording from 14083-D)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Careless Love" (Edison 52388, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5530, 1928)
Georgia White, "Careless Love" (Decca 7419, 1938)
Lee Wiley, "Careless Love" (Decca 132, 1934)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (floating lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)"
cf. "Dink's Song" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (floating lyrics)
cf. "I Have No Loving Mother Now" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
I Have No Loving Mother Now (Kelly Harrell & Henry Norton, Victor 20935, 1927; on KHarrell02)
Loveless Love (Noble Sissle & his Sizzling Syncopators, Pathe 20493, 1921; Katherine Handy, Paramount 12011, 1922; Alberta Hunter w. Henderson's Dance Orch., Paramount 12018, 1922; Billie Holiday, OKeh 6064, 1941; Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, Vocalion 04387, 1938)
Notes: The "Loveless Love" lyrics seem to have been written by W. C. Handy in 1921, using the tune and structure of "Careless Love". He also seems to have claimed "Careless Love" at times, but in other contexts he called it a folk song. So do I. One online biography of Handy called it an 18th-century English folk song ("Dear Companion"?) which by the early 1800s had become a Black rivermen's song. No references, unfortunately. But Wheeler associates the song with the Ohio packet Dick Fowler, running between Cairo and Paducah. - PJS
Careless Love
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Madeleine Peyroux album featuring this tune, see Careless Love (album).
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Careless Love (tenor sax) by Beachcomber.Musical accompaniment with Band in a Box.
"Careless Love" is a traditional song of obscure origins.
Blues versions are popular; the lyrics change from version to version, but usually speak of the heartbreak brought on by "careless love." Frequently, the narrator threatens to kill his or her wayward lover.
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
You fly to my head like wine,
You've ruined the life of many a poor girl,
and you nearly wrecked this life of mine
"Careless Love" was one of the best known pieces in the repertory of the Buddy Bolden band in New Orleans, Louisiana at the very start of the 20th century, and has remained a jazz standard and blues standard. Hundreds of recordings have been made in folk, blues, jazz, country, and pop styles; some of the more notable versions include those by Bessie Smith, Marilyn Lee, Ottilie Patterson, Pete Seeger, and George Lewis. Big Joe Turner recorded it several times over his long career. T. Texas Tyler recorded a version in 1946 for 4-Star records. Fats Domino made a recording of it in 1951, and it has also been sung by Eddy Arnold, Entrance, Louis Armstrong, Eartha Kitt, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Boy Fuller, Dave Van Ronk, Lead Belly, Odetta, Lee Wiley, Janis Joplin, Siouxsie Sioux, Suzy Bogguss, Joan Baez, Ray Charles, Ace Cannon, Ronnie Lane, Dr. John, Madeleine Peyroux, Bob Dylan, Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash, Frankie Laine, Skip James, Snooks Eaglin,[1] Harry Connick Jr., French composer and clarinettist Jean-Christian Michel and Italian songwriter and singer Lucio Dalla in his debut single in 1964 and Hugh Laurie on his 2013 album Didn't It Rain.
Kenny Davern made a clarinet recording of Careless Love.
The song's melody also is used in other blues songs, notably "A bunch of thyme" and Moon Mullican's "Worries on my mind". Elements of the Bessie Smith version's melody show up in Jerry Lee Lewis's 1956 version of "Crazy Arms" as well.
W. C. Handy's "Loveless Love"
W. C. Handy's song "Loveless Love" uses the familiar melody of "Careless Love". The lyrics compare loveless love to synthetic goods and artificial food:
Oh love oh love oh loveless love
Has set our heart on goal-less goals
From milkless milk and silkless silk
We are growing used to soul-less souls
Such grafting times we never saw
That’s why we have a pure food law
In everything we find a flaw
Even love oh love oh loveless love
Handy's composition tells a love story, rather than the original story line of a tragic death. The death referenced in the older song was the son of a Kentucky governor."[2]
W. C. Handy copyrighted "Careless Love" in 1926. Copyright Handy Brothers Music Co.[3]
In popular culture
In The 78 Project Movie, John C. Reilly and Tom Brosseau perform Careless Love, recording direct to 78rpm disk.
Robert Lowell quoted "Careless Love" in his poem "Skunk Hour."
In the sitcom Melissa & Joey, "Careless Love" was Mel Burke's favorite song.[4]
"Careless Love" was being performed by Candice Marie and Keith, when Honky and Finger first arrive at the campsite in the television film Nuts in May by Mike Leigh.
The song was featured in the movie Happy, Happy (2010), Norway's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards.
Stephen King includes a version of "Careless Love" in the Dark Tower novel Wizard and Glass.
It was the final song of the HBO television series Treme.
Robert Heinlein facetiously quotes the lyric in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls with respect to a female character begetting a child out of wedlock.
In the 1985 film The Color Purple directed by Steven Spielberg. (Novel written in 1982 by Alice Walker). On Color Purple soundtrack - Quincy Jones.
See also
List of pre-1920 jazz standards
References
"New Orleans Street Singer: Snooks Eaglin: Music". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
"Coffee in the Gourd: The ''Blues'' As Folk-Songs, by Dorothy Scarborough". Sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2013-06-30.
Daryl C. Dance, "From My People: 400 Years of African American Folklore," W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pp. 116 and 725. ISBN 0-393-32497-4, ISBN 978-0-393-32497-6, 736 pages.
"Going the Distance". Melissa & Joey. Season 1. Episode 23. August 24, 2011. ABC Family.
_______________________
Dink's Song:
Thee Well Libby Holman with Josh White 1942 First release
Fare Thee Well Josh White 1944
Dink's Song Cisco Houston 1954
Fare Thee Well, Oh Honey Terrea Lea 1957
Fare Thee Well Herta Marshall 1957
Dink's Song Jack Elliott 1958
Fare Thee Well Harry Belafonte 1958
Dink's Song Leon Bibb 1959
Dink's Song Pete Seeger 1959
Fare Thee Well, O Honey Burl Ives 1960
Dink's Blues Jack McDuff 1961
Dink's Song Dave Van Ronk 1961
Dink's Song Bonnie Dobson February 1962
Dink's Song Carolyn Hester 1962
If I Had Wings Odetta 1962
Dink's Song Judi Resnick 1963
Faretheewell (Dink's Song) The Limeliters 1963
Nora's Dove (Dinks Song) The Big 3 1963
Dinks Blues The Simon Sisters 1964
Dink's Blues Benji Aronoff 1965
Dink's Song Catherine McKinnon 1965
Faretheewell (Fred's Tune) Fred Neil February 1967
Dink's Song Cliff Aungier 1967
Fare Thee Well Julie Felix 1968
Fare Thee Well Tony Rice 1984
Dink's Song Roger McGuinn with Pete Seeger and Josh White Jr. 2001
Dink's Song Jeff Buckley September 2, 2003
Dink's Song Gabriel Rios November 22, 2007
Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song) Oscar Isaac & Marcus Mumford September 24, 2013
Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song) Oscar Isaac & Marcus Mumford with Punch Brothers January 13, 2015
Fare Thee Well (10,000 Miles) Annie Moses Band September 2015
Dink, published in 1934 in American Ballads and Folksongs (ABFS). The lyrics in the Digital Tradition are almost the same as what's in ABFS, but the DT has plain English instead of the inauthentic-sounding dialect that's in the Lomax book. Here's the entry from the traditional Ballad Index:
Dink's Song
DESCRIPTION: Chorus: Fare thee well/Oh, honey, fare thee well." Floating verses: "If I had wings like Noah's dove/I'd fly 'cross the river to the man I love"; "When I wore my apron low..." "One of these days... You'll look for me, and I'll be gone"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by John Lomax)
KEYWORDS: nonballad lyric pregnancy love separation floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Lomax-FSUSA 21, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 195-196, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 88, "Dink's Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 186, "Dink's Song" (1 text)
DT, DINKSONG*
ADDITIONAL: Francis L. Utley, "'The Genesis and Revival of 'Dink's Song,''" article published 1966 in _Studies in Language and Literature in Honor of Margaret Schlauch_; republished on pp. 122-137 of Norm Cohen, editor, _All This for a Song_, Southern Folklife Collection, 2009
Roud #10057
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Dink's Song" (on PeteSeeger24)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Careless Love" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Waly Waly (The Water is Wide)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Butcher Boy" [Laws P24] (floating lyrics)
NOTES: While this shares a great deal of material with the cross-referenced songs, the unique tune and chorus make me believe it deserves a separate entry. - PJS
It is, however, so close to "Careless Love" in its text that I may have classified some versions there. The reader is advised to check the entries for both songs. Given that it comes from the Lomaxes, I'm not sure I trust its origin, either. Supposedly it was collected from a prostitute who called herself "Dink."
Utley's article is less about Dink and the Lomaxes than about how the song was modified by performers in the folk revival -- an interesting commentary on what performers can do to a song. - RBW
------Careless Love Keffers
I've Lost My Love ; I Fell in Love with a Married Man ; Dink's Song ; Kelly's Love ; Bye Bye Baby Blues ; Monongahela Sal ; Foolish Young Girl ; Wild Goose Grasses (Tarrytown) ; You've Been Careless, Love ; Every Night When the Sun Goes Down/In
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--------------
Lomax and Lomax, Best Loved American Folk Songs.
DINK'S SONG
Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)
Libby Holman with Josh White
First release by Libby Holman with Josh White (1942)
. . . is a beautiful Negro variant of "Careless Love. John A. Lomax tells how he found the song in 1904, when he made his first field trip for Harvard University:
"I found Dink scrubbing her man's clothes in the shade of their tent across the Brazos river from the A. & M. College in Texas. Professor James C. Nagle of the College faculty was the supervising engineer of a levee-building company and he had invited me to come along and bring my Edison recording machine. The Negroes were trained levee workers from the Mississippi River.
'Dink knows all the songs,' said her companion. But I did not find her helpful until I walked a mile to a farm commissary and bought her a pint of gin. As she drank the gin, the sounds from her scrubbing board increased in intensity and in volume. She worked as she talked: 'That little boy there ain't got no daddy an' he ain't got no name. I comes from Mississippi and we never saw these levee niggers, till us got here. I brung along my little boy. My man drives a four-wheel scraper down there where you see the dust risin'. I keeps his tent, cooks his vittles and washes his clothes. Some day Ize goin' to wrap up his wet breeches and shirts, roll 'em up in a knot, put 'em in the middle of the bed, and tuck down the covers right nice. Then I'm going on up the river where I belong.' She sipped her gin and sang and drank until the bottle was empty.
"The original Edison record of 'Dink's Song' was broken long ago, but not until all the Lomax family had learned the tune. The one-line refrain, as Dink sang it in her soft lovely voice, gave the effect of a sobbing woman, deserted by her man. Dink's tune is really lost; what is left is only a shadow of the tender, tragic beauty of what she sang in the sordid, bleak surroundings of a Brazos Bottom levee camp.
"The lyrics and music of Dink's Song' are to me uniquely beautiful. Professor Kittredge praised them without stint. Carl Sandburg compares them to the best fragments of Sappho. As you might expect, Carl prefers Dink to Sappho.
"When I went to find her in Yazoo, Mississippi, some years later, her women friends, pointing to a nearby graveyard, told me, Dink's done planted up there.' I could find no trace of her little son who 'didn't have no name.'
1. Ef I had wings like Norah's dove,
I'd fly up de river to de man I love.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
2. Ize got a man an' he's long an' tall,
Moves his body like a cannon ball.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
3. One uh these days, an' it won't be long,
Call my name an' I'll be gone.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
4. 'Member one night, a-drizzlin' rain,
Roun' my heart I felt a pain.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
5. When I wo' my ap'on low,
Couldn't keep you from my do'.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
6. Now I wears my ap'on high,
Sca'cely ever see you.passin' by.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
7. Now my ap'on's up to my chin,
You pass my do' an' you won't come in.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
8. Ef I had listened to what my mama said,
I'd be at home in my mama's bed.
Fare thee well, O honey, fare thee well.
---------------
American Ballads and Folk Songs - Page 195
John Avery Lomax, Alan Lomax - 1934 ]
Ef I had wings like Norah's dove, I'd fly up the river to the man I love.
1908 version as collected on the Brazos from Dink and reported in Lomax's Adventures (1947), p. 273.
Broadcasting the Blues: Black Blues in the Segregation Era - Page 38
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1135467161
Paul Oliver - 2014 - Preview - More editions
Josh White, like other singers who have recorded it, called the theme "DINK's BLUEs," though John Lomax referred to it as "Dink's Song," and admitted that the tune to Dink's eight-bar blues was "lost." On the music transcription, Lomax noted
Fare the well blues
dink's blues
Later, in 1908, John Lomax collected a song from a Mississippi woman named Dink, who had been shipped out to
working with her man in a levee camp
(1867-1948)
t John Lomax's 1917 article about black folk music for _The Nation_, which you can do at google books, it's obvious that he's just running together different lyrics he's encountered as mishmash supposed "lengthy" songs, and that includes when he's explicitly attributing stuff in that article to this "Dink," who he later couldn't keep his story straight about what year he'd encountered.
Version Fats Domino:
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Can't you see what careless love done to me?
It made me wrong and leave my happy home,
It was love, oh love, oh careless love.
It tied me to your apron string,
It tied me to your apron string,
You said that you love me and it didn't mean a thing,
It was love, oh, love, oh careless love.
Version Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee:
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, mh, careless love,
Don’t you see what careless love has done.
Calls me weep and calls me mourn
Calls me weep calls me to mourn
Careless love calls me to weep, careless love makes me mourn
And calls me to lose my happy home.
Don't never drive a stranger from your door,
Never drive a stranger from your door,
Don't never drive a stranger from your door,
Well, it may be your best friend you don’t know.
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, mh, careless love
Don’t you see what careless love has done.
Once I wore my apron low
Once I wore my apron low
Oh it's once I wore my apron low,
You'd follow me through rain and snow.
Now I wear my apron high
Now I wear my apron high
Oh it's now I wear my apron high,
You'll see my door and pass it by.
I cried last night and the night before,
I cried last night and the night before,
Oh I cried last night and the night before,
Going to cry tonight and cry no more.
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Oh it's love, oh love, oh careless love
You see what careless love has done.