Hi,

I'd like to find any UK versions that are not Died For Love that have the "Careless Love" text. The following may better explain the ballad and what I need as a UK example--here's an excerpt from my headnotes:

[This famous song has been adapted by a number of singers of different genres (folk, blues, jazz, country, pop) of music in the US and abroad. The song is identified by this stanza which is sometimes used as its chorus:

Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Oh look what careless love has done.

Although a number of floating stanzas have been attached to Careless Love and in some versions its identifying stanza and theme have been lost, this song/ballad was either derived from or is similar to "The Died for Love Songs" and in particular the "apron" stanzas relating to the maid's pregnancy as found in the "Brisk Young Lover," "Alehouse" and "I Wish, I Wish" songs.

It's clear "what careless love has done." The maid is pregnant and bewails her pregnant condition. If she'd have listened to what mama said, she would be sleeping in Mama's bed[]. Instead she must face the stigma associated with being an unwed mother- not a happy proposition either in Scotland or rural Appalachia. As in the Died for Love songs she faces the prospect of being abandoned. Here's a stanza sung by Miss Grace Hahn, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1941[]:

Go hand me down my old valise,
And bundle up my dirty clothes,
And if my momma asks about me
Just tell her I'm sleeping out of doors.

Many of the standard Careless Love stanzas directly correspond to those found in the Died for Love songs. It's already clear that the "apron" stanzas are related. Now consider these other stanza from Mrs. Lillian Short, Galena, MO, 1942:

Ain't this enough to break my heart, (3 times)
To see my man with another sweetheart? [He takes another girl on his knee]

Now my money's spent and gone (3 times) [She has more gold than I]
You pass my door a-singing a song.

Oh I love my mamma and my papa too (3 times) [I'd leave my mother, I'd leave my father]
But I'd leave them both and go with you.

Naturally, different blues type lyrics have become attached to Careless Love that are not part of the fundamental song. By the 1920s the stanzas about pregnancy were being replaced and other floating stanzas were added:

I wish that eastbound train would run
I wish that eastbound train would run
I wish that eastbound train would run
And carry me back where I come from

Times ain't like they used to be
Times ain't like they used to be
Times ain't like they used to be
Carry me back to Tennessee.

This is especially true of many of the early country texts by Riley Puckett and others. The song then becomes a song with the Careless Love stanza and floating "blues" or "abandonment" type lyrics. Even more confusing is when the floating lyrics are from other similar songs as in this stanza from Perrow (MS of 1909, Mississippi Whites):

I'm going to leave you now;
I'm going ten thousand miles.
If I go ten million more,
I'll come back to my sweetheart again.

These lyrics are from "Ten Thousand Miles" a different song, with a similar sentiment. Careless Love is listed as Roud 422 and unfortunately a number of different songs are also part of Roud 422. This is not a lament about "turtle doves" or "lonesome doves" leaving their mate or about a lover "leaving and going away."

Richie