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 re 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 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 