Hi,

I'm now on 7L. Careless Love, an interesting American appendix to Died for Love. Here are my headnotes so far: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/7l-careless-love.aspx

The first extant version with the "Careless Love" Chorus is c.1896 and is a parody known as "Arch and Gordon" about a double homicide in Louisville in 1895. I'm including the first section of Notes although they're long (footnotes unfinished):

* * * *

[This famous song has been adapted by a number of genres in the US and abroad. The song is identified by this stanza 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[1].

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 has stanzas similar to the "Died for Love" Songs and in particular the "apron" stanzas relating to the maid's pregnancy as found in the British "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[2]. 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[3]:

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" stanza are related. Now consider these other stanzas from Mrs. Lillian Short, Galena, MO, 1942, Randolph C (in brackets are corresponding lines from British versions):

Ain't this enough to break my heart, (3 times) [It's a grief to me]
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.      [He passes the door but won't stop in]

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. [I'd leave them all to go with you]

In 1926 W.C. Handy copyrighted a version of "Careless Love" with folk lyrics as he presumably knew the song from his early days in Kentucky. Handy said in his Autobiography that he played the song in Bessemer in 1892 and that it had "since become popular all over the South."

Careless Love- W. C. Handy's folk lyrics, 1926

If I were a little bird
I'd fly from tree to tree;
I'd build my nest way up in the air
Where the bad boys could not bother me.

Love, oh love, oh careless love,
Love, oh love, oh careless love.
You've broke the heart of a a many poor girl
But you'll never break this heart of mine.

When I wore my apron low,
When I wore my apron low,
When I wore my apron low,
He always passed right by my door.

Now I wear my apron high,
Now I wear my apron high,
Now I wear my apron high,
And he never never passes by.

The first stanza is from "Little Birdie" a regional folk song while the last two stanzas are the part of "apron" stanzas. Handy published several versions, which will be covered later, but this version reflects the older texts found in the Appalachians in the 1800s. The relationship with Died for Love is much clearer in this version. John Jacob Niles in his 1932 article "White Pioneers and Black" in The Musical Quarterly, quotes Handy's version and gives his father's Kentucky version which probably dates back to the late 1800s:


    "The singers in the Southern Appalachians have odd rhythms, and they do repeat; but there is very little similarity between what they sing and how they sing it and what the Negro sings and how he sings it. Occasionally one finds the same verses sung in both. In practically every case it is a song that was originally a white man's song and has been adapted and sung over into the Negro idiom.

    One example is my father's version of "Careless Love":

             When you pass by my door I hang my head and cry,
             When my apron string I bow
             You pass my door and say hello
             Buy when my apron string I pin
             You pass my door and won't come in.

             Don't never trust no railroad man,
             He'll break your heart if he but can,
             He'll take your love and go his way
             Not meaning anything he say.

             Some day my apron string I'll tie
             And then I'll lay right down and die,
             And you won't know 'cause down in Hell
             The Devil's mean, he will not tell.

Unfortunately Niles is not an entirely reliable informant and tends to recreate his texts. Regardless, his father's version from northern Kentucky has the "apron strings" stanzas despite the corrupt mixture of text from at least two other songs. Niles attributes Handy's form of 3 repeated lines and a rhyming last line to the blues but clearly this is a folk form that predates or evolved into the 12-bar blues.

Another version from Kentucky that was sung in the 1920s was posted by famed Appalachian traditional singer Jean Ritchie on the Mudcat discussion forum:


    CARELESS LOVE-- as sung by the Ritchie Family in Knott County, Kentucky in the 1920s

    Love O love, O careless love,
    Love O love, O careless love,
    Love O love, O careless love,
    You see what love has done to me.

    Gone and broke this heart of mine,(3x)
    It'll break that heart of yours sometimes.

    Sorrow, sorrow to my heart, (3x)
    When me and my truelove must part.

    Once I wore my apron low, (3x)
    I could not keep you from my door.

    Now I wear my apron high, (3x)
    You pass my door and go on by.

    I cried last night and the night before, (3x)
    I'll cry tonight and cry no more.

    O how I wish that train would come, (3x)
    And take me back where I come from.

    Love O love (repeat first verse to close)

    Ritchie added this note: Some of the other verses given above worked themselves in over the years since then, but these are our basic verses. In the '50's, I sang with and recorded Jeannie Robertson, in Aberdeen. To my surprise she had a song which had some of these verses, among others we didn't have. One of her "matching" verses:

       O it's when my apron it bided low,
       My true love followed through frost and snow;
       But noo my apron it is tae my chin-
       And he passes my door, but he'll nae spier in.

The song Roberstson sang in Lomax's London flat around 1952 was her version of Died for Love, titled "What a Voice." Ritchie immediately heard and understood the intercontinental textual connection. Robertson's version was recorded a short time later in October, 1953 for Hamish Henderson and can be heard online at School of Scottish Studies. Jeannie learned it from her mother, Maria Stewart and her daughter Lizzie also sang a version. "What a Voice" is one of the great versions of Died for Love.

There are other examples of the relatedness of Careless Love and the Died for Love songs family. This first example is from another Kentucky singer who sang Butcher Boy with the melody and form of Careless Love:

The Butcher's Boy- sung by Aunt Molly Jackson of Kentucky in September 1935; recorded in New York City by Alan Lomax. Transcription R. Matteson 2017.

In Johnson City where I used to dwell,
In Johnson City where I used to dwell,
In Johnson City where I used to dwell,
There lived a boy I loved so well.

He courted me my heart away
He courted me my heart away
He courted me my heart away
And now with me he will not stay.

[It's a] grief to me I'll tell you why,

There lives some other girl in this town,
There lives some other girl in this town,
There lives some other girl in this town,
Where my love goes and sits him down.

Aunt Molly's version of Butcher Boy with the Careless Love melody and form and be heard at Internet Archive (online) in the Kentucky Lomax Collection.

Here's a composite version of two other Died for Love family members Sailor Boy and Careless Love which was collected by my grandfather Maurice Matteson and Mellinger Henry. My grandfather was leading vocal music at Southern Music Vocal Camp at Banner Elk in the summer 1933 where he met Henry. Mellinger was a good collector but he couldn't write music, so he persuaded my grandfather to help him. That persuasion ended up becoming the first of my grandfather's folk music books, Beech Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads:

    CARELESS LOVE- sung by Edward Tufts, Banner Elk, NC, July 15, 1933 from Beech Mountain Folk Songs and Ballads, M. Henry and M. Matteson.

    "Captain, Captain, tell me true:
    Does my Willie sail with you?"
    No, oh no, he's not with me-
    He got drowned in the deep blue sea."

    Refrain: Love, O love, O careless love,
    Love, O love, how can it be?
    Love, O love, O careless love,
    To love someone that don't love me.

    Love, O love, O love divine.
    Love, O love, O love divine.
    Love, O love, O love divine,
    Lucile, you know you'll never be mine.

    Refrain

    Hail that captain as he passes,
    Hail that captain as he passes,
    Hail that captain as he passes,
    That's him, I have my Willie at last.

    Refrain

The refrain and last stanzas are in the Careless Love form even though the last stanza is related to the Sailor Boy text. The 1st stanza and others like it are the presumed antecedents of "Deep Blue Sea":

"Captain, Captain, tell me true:
Does my Willie sail with you?"
No, oh no, he's not with me--
He got drowned in the deep blue sea."

* * * *

Naturally, different floating blues and folk lyrics became attached to Careless Love that are not part of the fundamental "Died for Love" songs. By the 1920s stanzas about pregnancy were often replaced[4] 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[5].

Careless love was widely recorded in the 1920s and 30s by early country music artists. Guthrie Mead[] lists 23 different early country recordings made between 1927 and 1938. These "country" versions were characterized by floating "blues" or "abandonment" type stanzas with the Careless Love chorus. Other traditional versions were collected with different floating lyrics from lovers farewell 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[6].

These lyrics are from "Ten Thousand Miles" a different song[7], with a similar sentiment. Careless Love is listed as Roud 422 and unfortunately a number of different yet similar songs[8] are also part of Roud 422. In its original British form, this is not a lament about "a turtle dove" or "lonesome dove" that "flies from pine to pine." Neither is it a lover's farewell song about a lover "leaving and going away." Careless Love's floating stanzas and the identifying stanza's attachment to different songs have obscured its origin. In certain genres the origin is largely forgotten and it's an old blues or jazz song or a sad railroad song.

Although based on the Died for Love stanzas and theme[9] (a maid becomes pregnant and is abandoned by her lover), there seems to be no evidence that "Love, oh love, oh careless love," has ever been found in the UK. On Peggy Seeger's website it says:

   'Careless Love' descends from an English song 'You've Been Careless Love,' and she sings it in 3/4 time or waltz rhythm. The result sounds quite different from the more familiar tune variants associated with early African-American blues tradition[10].

However, this antecedent version has not been found. I had concluded after a brief study years earlier that the identifying stanza and sometimes chorus "Love, oh love, oh careless love" is solely of American origin and was joined to the "Died for Love" stanzas known by the English and Scottish settlers. Whether the "Careless love" stanza was of African-American origin, a "black rivermen's song[]" as sung on sternwheeler Dick Fowler between Cairo and Paducah, or whether it was adapted from its British roots by white settlers during their westward expansion-- is unknown.

According to Malcolm Douglas[11]: "The tune is basically 'The Sprig of Thyme', and 'Careless Love' frequently includes floating verses familiar from songs like 'Died For Love'; so its antecedents are essentially British, though re-made in America with new stylistic influences."

Careless Love is closely associated with my 7D, "Every Night When The Sun Goes In[12]." It's form is similar to a blues with a repeating opening line culminating with a rhyming answering line. What began as an Appalachian folk song eventually became known as a blues. From a blues it became a jazz classic performed by Bobby Bolden and others around New Orleans early in the 1900s[13]. One set of Bolden's lyrics were communicated by Susie Farr[14]:

Ain't it hard to love another woman's man,
Ain't it hard to love another woman's man,
You can't get him when you want him,
You have to catch him when you can.

Bolden's stanza is similar in some ways to Guthrie's "Hard Ain't it Hard" (see also Blue Eyed Boy) another floating stanza. One source, Jazzmen, stated[], "Among the the blues Bobby Bolden had to play every night was 'Careless Love Blues'. . . " This was corroborated by Willy Cornish in an interview with Charles Edward Smith[]. Other interviews with turn of the century New Orleans musicians like Wooden Joe Nicholas, and John Joseph makes it clear that Careless Love was played and sung around 1900 in New Orleans by many local musicians. W.C. Handy, whose relationship with the song has been a long one, suggested that the song moved south to New Orleans from the Ohio River area of Kentucky. The "Father of the Blues[15]" played a version of it in in Bessemer in 1892 and called it "one of the earliest blues[16]." In 1921 W. C. Handy[17] wrote "Loveless Love," using the tune and structure of "Careless Love." In his autobiography Handy said[18]:

"Loveless Love is another of my songs of which one part has an easily traceable folk ancestry. It was based on the Careless Love melody that I had played first in Bessemer in 1892 and that had since become popular all over the South."

Handy recorded "Loveless Love" for Paramount in 1922 with his daughter Katherine singing backed by his Memphis Blues Band. Other early versions include Noble Sissle & his Sizzling Syncopators, Alberta Hunter, Billy Holiday, and Fats Waller (instrumental). Handy recorded a version, singing the song himself, in 1939 on the Variety label. In 1926 WC Handy copyrighted his version of "Careless Love," the folk song. He recorded his version in 1938 and wrote about Careless Love and Loveless Love in his autobiography, Father of the Blues[19] One early recollection of Careless Love was described in his autobiography published by Macmillan in 1941:

    "In Henderson I was told that the words of Careless Love were based on a tragedy in a local family, and one night a gentleman of that city's tobacco-planter aristocracy requested our band to play and sing this folk melody, using the following words:

    You see what Careless Love has done,
    You see what Careless Love has done
    You see what Careless Love has done,
    It killed the Governor's only son.

    We did our best with these lines and then went into the second stanza:

    Poor Archie didn't mean no harm,
    Poor Archie didn't mean no harm,
    Poor Archie didn't mean no harm

    -But there the song ended. The police stepped in and stopped us. The song, they said, was a reflection on two prominent families. Careless Love had too beautiful a melody to be lost or neglected, however, and I was determined to preserve it.

The song that W.C. Handy sang that was stopped by the police was "Arch and Gordon," an obscure folk song. One full version was collected from from Mrs. Wills Cline in Louisville in 1956 and published in a 1960 edition of the Kentucky Folklore Record[]. The prominent families were the Fulton Gordon family and the family of Governor John Young Brown, whose son Archie was gunned down in 1895 in Louisville by Gordon for having an affair with Gordon's wife, Nellie. After murdering both Archie and his wife, Gordon was convicted of justifiable homicide and freed 9 days later. Handy must have played the ballad about 1896-- shortly after the murders. The song is a parody of Careless Love and unlike the other collected versions of "Arch and Gordon" uses the Careless Love chorus. Handy's autobiography continues:

[. . .] Having created a vogue for Careless Love, which John Niles calls Kelly's Love in his book of folk songs, I proposed to incorporate it in a new song with the verse in the three-line blues form. That week I went to Chicago, and while there I sat in Brownlee's barber shop and wrote Loveless Love, beginning with "Love is like a gold brick in a bunko game." There I wrote the music and made an orchestration which I took next door to Erskin Tate in the Vendome Theatre. His orchestra played it over, and it sounded all right. A copy was immediately sent to the printers.

Without waiting to receive a printed copy, however, I taught Loveless Love to Alberta Hunter, and she sang it at the Dreamland cabaret. It made a bull's-eye. Before Alberta reached my table on the night she introduced the song, her tips amounted to sixty-seven dollars. A moment later I saw another lady give her twelve dollars for "just one more chorus." I knew then and there that we had something on our hands and the later history of the song bore this out."

A $12 tip today would be about $168 and her $67 total tips would be $938-- not bad for an evening's singing! Handy's "Loveless Love" is not traditional but he published the traditional text he knew in 1926. His daughter recorded a version of Loveless Love in 1922 that still had two mostly traditional stanzas from Handy's old version-- one of which was not included in Handy's "traditional" text (see above). One line "We'd fly[] on wings like Noah's dove," is remarkably close to the first line in Dink's Song-- a coincidence? After becoming performed by Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and other jazz singers, Careless Love returned to its Appalachian roots and became a bluegrass and country standard in the 1940s and 50s.
* * * *

Richie