We are happy to offer some special notes on all of the songs on the CD. Some of the text will be identical to that found on the CD, while there are special comments and further information added--some of which was not able to be printed due to size constraints. We hope you will enjoy this companion to your CD purchase. There are additional external links to other sites offering lyrics and guitar chords and tabulature for your convenience.
liner notes
The Mermaid has been part of Brian's active repertoire for many years. This tune by the same author who also wrote "A Boy Named Sue" , "The Unicorn" and many other works, is a true classic. The heart of our music is the humorous, often exaggerated side of life that's fun to sing about. This is a maritime look at love and the sea, a tale of the relative merits of, well, heads and tails. 
Brian first learned this song from a collection of
Shel Silverstein tunes done by Bobby Bare. The
album was "Lullabys, Legends and Lies" and
the collection was quite humorous, all written by
Silverstein. The song has also been done by Glenn
Yarborough back in the 1960s.
One other song that Brian still does from time to time
from that album is "The Winner", a funny look
at the people who get in barroom brawls.
Our arrangement of The Mermaid includes an intro with "Sailor's Hornpipe" just to get you into the mood for a song of the sea...
The Mermaid
Well, when I was a lad in a fishin' town
Aan 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
Till your eyes are wake and dim
But, don't go swimmin' with a mermaid, son
If you doon't know how to swim.
Her hair is green as seaweed, her skin is blue and pale
Her face it is a work of art
You can love that girl with all your heart
But you're only gonna like the upper part
You're not gonna like the tail
So I signed on to a whaling ship
And my very first day at sea
I saw a mermaid in the waves,
Reachin' out for me
Come live with me in the sea said she
Upon the ocean floor
I'll show you a million wond'rous things
That you've never seen before.
So, over I jumped and she pulled me down
Down to her seaweed bed
And a pillow made of tortoise shells,
She placed beneath me head
She fed me shrimp 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,
Her skin was blue and pale
Her face it was a work of art
I loved that gurl with all me heart
But I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail
Well, then one day she swam away
And I sang to the clams and the whales
How I missed the sheen of her seaweed hair
And the silvery glow of her scales
Aye, but then her sister she swam by
And she set me heart a-whirl,
'Cause her upper part was an ugly fish
But the bottom part was a girl
Her toes are pink and rosy
Her skin is smooth and pale
H er legs they are a work of art
Now, I love that girl with all me heart
And I don't give a damn about the upper part
And that's how I end my tale!
