Great Big Sea – The Mermaid (Guitar)

D
When I was a lad in a fishing town

     G              D
Me old man said to me:

                                Bm
"You can spend your life, your jolly life

       E             A
Just sailing on the sea.

D
You can search the world for pretty girls

           G               F#m
Til your eyes are weak and dim,

      G                       D       Bm
But don't go searching for a mermaid, son

       G           A       D
If you don't know how to swim"

           G                D
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed

     G                 D
Her skin was blue and pale

     G                    D
Her face it was a work of art,

   G                     D
I loved that girl with all my heart

       G              D     Bm
But I only liked the upper part

   G       A         D
I did not like the tail

   D
I signed onto a sailing ship

    G                D
My very first day at sea

                   Bm
I seen the Mermaid in the waves,

   E            A
Reaching out to me

       D
"Come live with me in the sea said she,

  G                F#m
Down on the ocean floor

          G                  D         Bm
And I'll show you a million wonderous things

        G     A     D
You've never seen before

    D
So over I jumped and she pulled me down,

G                   D
Down to her seaweed bed

                     Bm
A pillow made of a tortoise-shell

     E                 A
She placed beneath my head

   D
She fed me shrimp and caviar

  G           F#m
Upon a silver dish

          G                        D       Bm
From her head to her waist it was just my taste

         G       A         D
But the rest of her was a fish

           G                D
'Cause her hair was green as seaweed

     G                 D
Her skin was blue and pale

     G                    D
Her face it was a work of art,

   G                     D
I loved that girl with all my heart

       G              D     Bm
But I only liked the upper part

   G       A         D
I did not like the tail

D / A (x4)
(hold last A)

D
But then one day, she swam away

      G                          D
So I sang to the clams and the whales

                     Bm
"Oh, how I miss her seaweed hair

          E                  A
And the silver shine of her scales

     D
But then her sister, she swam by

  G               F#m
And set my heart awhirl

           G                D     Bm
Cause her upper part was an ugly fish

        G        A         D
But her bottom part was a girl

         G                D
Yes her hair was green as seaweed

     G                 D
Her skin was blue and pale

     G               D
Her legs they are a work of art,

   G                     D
I love that girl with all my heart

       G                           D
And I don't give a damn about the upper part

       G            A      D
Cause that's how I get my tail.