The Mermaid

Lyrics

When I was a lad in a fishing town  
Me old man said to me  
You can spend your life, your jolly life  
Just sailing on the sea  
You can search the world for pretty girls  
Til your eyes are weak and dim  
But don't go searching for a mermaid, son  
If you don't know how to swim  
  
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed  
Her skin was blue and pale  
Her face it was a work of art  
I love that girl with all my heart  
But I only like the upper part  
I did not like the tail  
  
I signed onto a sailing ship  
My very first day at sea  
I seen a mermaid in the waves  
A-reaching out to me  
Come live with me in the sea, said she  
Down on the ocean floor  
And I'll show you a million wondrous things  
You've never seen before  
  
So over I jumped and she pulled me down  
Down to her seaweed bed  
And a pillow made of a tortoise shell  
She placed beneath my head  
She fed me shrimp and caviar  
Upon a silver dish  
From her head to her waist  
It was just my taste  
But the rest of her was a fish  
  
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed  
Her skin was blue and pale  
Her face it was a work of art  
I love that girl with all my heart  
But I only like the upper part  
I did not like the tail  
  
But then one day she swam away  
So I sang to the clams and the whales  
Oh, how I miss her seaweed hair  
And the silver shine of her scales  
But then her sister, she swam by  
Set my heart awhirl  
'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish  
But her bottom part was a girl  
  
Yes her hair was green as seaweed  
Her skin was blue and pale  
Her legs they are a work of art  
I love that girl with all my heart  
And I don't give a damn about the upper part  
'Cause that's how I get my tail