According to Phil Hillier
traditional
Well I was a lad in the fishing town An old man said to me You can spend your life, your jolly life just sailing on the seas You can search the world fro pretty girls till 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 love that girl with all my heart But I only liked the upper part I did not like the tail
So I signed on to a whaling ship My first very day at sea I seen a mermaid in the waves Reaching out to me Come live with me in the sea she said Down on the ocean floor I'll show you a million wondrous things that you never seen before
So over I jumped and she pulled me down Down to her seaweed bed And a pillow made of a turtle 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 love that girl with all my heart 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
Yes her hair is green as seaweed Her skin is blue and pale Her legs they are a work of art I love that girl with all my heart I don't give a damn about the upper part Cause that's how I get my TAIL