Lyrics:

Come And I Will Sing You Lyrics

(Trad)
*Each verse begins with 'Come and I will sing you', followed by 'What will you sing me?' And then 'I will sing you one o', followed by 'what will the one be?' with the number changing every verse.

one the one lives all alone forever more shall be so
two of them are little white babes coated all in green o
three of them are drivers
four gospel preachers
five fire men under the bush
six sick pallbearers
seven sunders under the sky
eight Gabriel angels
nine bright eyed shiners
ten ten commandments
eleven eleven went straight to heaven
twelve twelve apostles

The Mermaid Lyrics

(Trad)
When I was a lad in a fishin' town
Me 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
Til your eyes are weak and dim,
But don't go searchin' for a mermaid, son
If you don't know how to swim'

(course)
'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
I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail

I signed onto a sailing ship
My first very day at sea
I seen the mermaid in the waves,
There reaching out to me
'Come and 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 out 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

(course)

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
Set my heart awhirl
'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But her bottom part was a girl
Yes her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale, her legs they are a work of art
I love that girl with all my heart
And I don't give a damn bout the upper part
'Cause that's how I get my tail