What Did the Deep Sea Say?

10. What Did the Deep Sea Say?
(Woody Guthrie/Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc., BMI)

Track 10 – What Did the Deep Sea Say? (MASTER MA 48)
As written, better, adapted by Bob Miller and Charlotte Kaye in 1929, this was recorded by another of Guthrie’s stalwarts, Vernon Dalhart, on July 1 of that year. That Guthrie would learn the song was a reflection of his penchant for often over-the-top sentiment. Consider this example, from “Mama’s Little Baby Boy” which Guthrie copied into his looseleaf songbook at KFVD:

Baby boy and baby girl,
Someday they will fall in love.
Then they’ll find the whole wide world
Filled with light from Heaven above.

Houston introduces “What Did the Deep Sea Say?” with a guitar introduction that sounds suspiciously like the melody of “John Hardy.”

Again, Guthrie sings lead and plays rhythm guitar, Houston plays lead guitar and harmonizes.