THE MERMAID
(Shel Silverstein / Jim Friedman)
Bobby Bare - 1973


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.