COUNTRY: United States
LANGUAGE: Chamorro/English
“Careless Love” is an old jazz-blues standard, a traditional tune with lyrical variations aplenty that has been an active part of the repertoires of jazz and blues artists since the beginning of the 1900’s. Musicians have taken many liberties with the song’s lyrics, but the story always has to do with a broken relationship, destroyed by one partners’ carelessness, or lack of depth in love. W.C. Handy’s 1926 “Loveless Love” compares “loveless love” to artificial food: “Oh love oh love oh loveless love, Has set our heart on goal-less goals,, From milkless milk and silkless silk, We are growing used to soul-less souls.” The version we hear in the below video blends traditional lyrics with a version in Chamorro, the main indigenous peoples’ language of Guam. Enjoy this Chamorro cover song performed at the Camacho family’s home.
A translation:
“Why are you like that baby to me.
Please come closer to me and I’ll tell you how my heart is hurting.
We’ve been together a long time.
And now this is our situation.
Baby please tell me what have I done wrong
To make your heart also hurt.”
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