Deep Blue Sea (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The girl's lover set off to sea, promising to write to her. She never hears from him. She seeks out his captain, who tells her "he is drowned in the deep blue sea." She bids "farewell to friends and relations" and decides to drown herself
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Carter Family recording)
KEYWORDS: death suicide ship sea drowning
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Randolph 794, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 short text plus 2 excerpts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 518-520, "The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 794A)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, p. 60, "Sailor on the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, p. 26, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (1 text, 1 tune, perhaps rewritten by the Carter Family)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 181, "Sailor On The Deep Blue Sea" (1 text)
DT, SAILDEEP*
Roud #4291
RECORDINGS:
Carter Family, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Victor V-40036, 1929)
Lake Howard, "I Have No One to Love Me" (Perfect 13151, 1935)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Sailor on the Deep Blue Sea" (on NLCR01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Sailor Boy (I)" [Laws K12] (plot)
NOTES [118 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a worn-down form of "The Sailor Boy" (Laws K12). I consider the characteristic of Laws K12 to be the request for a boat that the girl may seek her lover. Also, there are very few words in common between the two. So I have, with some hesitation, decided to split the two songs (though there are cases, such as Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol2, where I truly wasn't sure).
It is quite possible that the separation is recensional; Cohen notes that Randolph's texts appear to be a warn down version of the Carter Family version, and Randolph's is the only genuinely traditional source. So this may be the remnants of a Carter Family rewrite of "The Sailor Boy." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R794

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