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GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador
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When I was a lad in a fishin' town,
An old man said to me:
"You can spend your life, your jolly life,
Just sailin' on the sea.
"You can search the world for pretty girls,
Till your eyes are weak and dim,
But don't go searchin' 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 loved that girl with all my heart,
But I only liked the upper part,
I did not like the tail.
Shipped on board a sailing ship,
Very first day at sea,
I seen the mermaid in the waves,
Reachin' up to me.
"Come live with me in the sea," said she,
"Down on the ocean floor;
I'll show you a million wonderous things
You've never seen before."
So over I jumped and she pulled me down,
Down to her seaweed bed,
With 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 she was just my taste,
But the rest of her was a fish!
And her hair was green as seaweed,
Her skin was blue and pale,
Her face it was a work of art,
I loved that girl with all my heart,
But I only liked the upper part,
I did not like the tail.
Then one day she swam away,
Swam to the clams and the whales.
How I miss her seaweed hair
And the silver shine of her scales.
But then her sister she swam by
Set my heart a-whirl,
'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But her bottom part was a girl.
And her hair was green as seaweed,
Her skin was blue and pale,
Her face it was a work of art,
I loved 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.