SONG INFORMATION

Music Origin: Traditional (Appalachia, Southeast, first published in 1857)
Lyrics believed to originate from a poem wrote by German poet Wilhelm Hauff (1824), and then added to traditional tune. Lyrics and music have changed significantly through the years.
Released by Bill Monroe (1967)

LYRICS

It was midnight on the stormy deep
My solitary watch I’d keep
And think of her I’d left behind
And ask if she’d be true and kind

I never shall forget the day
That I was forced to go away
In silence there my head she’d rest
And pressed me to her loving breast

Oh Willy don’t go back to sea
There’s other girls as good as me
But none can love you true as I
Pray don’t go where the bullets fly

The deep deep sea may us divide
And I may be some other’s bride
But still my thoughts will sometime times stray
To thee when thou art far away

I never have proved false to thee
The heart I gave was true as time
But you have proven untrue to me
I can no longer call thee mine

Then fare-thee-well I’d rather make
My home upon some icy lake
Where the southern sun refused to shine
Then to trust a love so false as thine

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