The Mermaid Lyrics

This was requested in the Cowpie newsletter, This was originally released on
Bobby Bare's album, Lullaby's Legends and Lies in 1973 written by Shel
Silverstein and Jim Friedman.
Dan Mooney - Portland, Oregon
When I was a lad in a fishing town, an 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, till your eyes are weak and
dim, but don't go swimming with a mermaid, son, if you don't
know how to swim.
Cause her hair is green as seaweed and her skin is blue and
pale, and I'll tell you now before you start, you can love that
girl with all your heart, but you're just gonna love the upper
part, you're not gonna like the tail.
So I signed on with a whaling ship, and 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, and down on the ocean floor, 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 tortoise shell she placed beneath my
head, she fed me shrimps 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.
Her hair was green as seaweed and her skin was blue and pale,
and her face it was a work of art,and I loved that girl with all
my heart, but I only liked the upper part, I did not like the
tail.
And then one day she swam away, and I sang to the clams and whales,
how I missed her fins and her seaweed hair, and the silvery shine
of her scales, but then her sister, she swam by and set my heart a
whirl, cause her upper part was an ugly fish, but the bottom
part was a girl.
Her toes are pink and rosy, and her knees are smooth and
pale, and her legs they are a working part, and I love that
girl with all my heart, and I don't give a damn about the upper
part, and that's how I end my tail.