Great Big Sea – The Mermaid Chords

When I was a lad in a fishing town me 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 ’til your eyes are weak and dim,
But don’t go searching 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

I I signed on board a sailing ship, 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, down on the ocean floor
And 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 a tortoise shell she placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist it was just my taste
But the rest of her was a fish

‘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

But then one day, she swam away, so I sang to the clams and the whales
“Oh how I miss her seaweed hair, and the silver shine of her scales”
But then her sister, she swam by and set my heart awhirl
Cause her upper part was an ugly fish but her bottom part was a girl
‘Her toes are pink and rosy
Her knees are smooth and pale
Her legs they are a work of art, I love that girl with all my heart
But I don’t give a damn about the upper part
Cause that’s how I get my tail.