MERMAID
(Shel Silverstein / Jim Friedman)

Shel Silverstein - 1965
Bobby Bare - 1973



When I was twelve years old I used to see the pictures of maremaids in all the books and magazines, not mermaids.... maremaids....that's what we called 'em at home. And all the pictures, yeah, they never had no bras on, they didn't have anything on. And I was old enough that I knew they didn't really exist, but I also wondered if they did exist....what the hell would ya do with one if you caught it....

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 swimmin' 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 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 onto 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's floor
I'll show you a million wonderous things
You never seen before

So over I jumped and she pulled me down
Down to her seaweed bed
And the 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 loved the upper part
I did not like the tail

Then one day she swam away
And I sang to the clams and whales
I missed her fins and her seaweed hair
And the silvery shine of her scales
Then her sister, she swam by
And set my heart awhirl
Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But the bottom part was a girl

Yeah, her toes are pink and rosy
And her knees are smooth and pale
And her legs they are a work of art
And I love that girl with all my heart
I don't give a damn 'bout the upper part
And that's how I end my tale

All right!



(Transcribed from the Bobby Bare 
recording by Mel Priddle - Jan 2011)