Mermaid
Composer(s): Shel Silverstein - Jim Friedman
First release by: Shel Silverstein - 1965



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