Sailor Boy, Lyric Variant 06

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

Ballads, English

Death--Songs and music

Lovesickness--Songs and music

Soldiers--Songs and music

Love--Songs and music

The Sweet Sailor Boy

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

PDF

English

Text

“Sweet Willie”

Captain, Captain tell me true
Does my sweet Willie sail with you
No he does not sail with me
For he is drowned in the sea.

-Chorus-

Go bring me back the one I love
Go bring go bring him back to me
They say he loves another girl
But I hope that he will remember me

Go father and build me a little
boat
That I may down the river float
And ever ship that I pass by
I’ll listen for sweet Willies cry.

Chorus

I wish I was a little bird
A darling, darling little bird
And to sweet Willie I would fly
And there I would lay down to die

-Chorus-

Brown, Older Ballads - Mostly British - 104 Randolph. 68 Cox. 110

113_SailorBoy_Lyric_06