Well, I've been revisiting this nautical ditty and have come up with a different musical setting and some more rewording (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

From Salt-Water Poems and Ballads, by John Masefield,
The MacMillan Company, Publishers, New York, 1913, pp. 46-47
Adapted and set to music by Charles Ipcar, 2009
Tune: after Matty Grove
Key: Dm (7/Gm)

Mother Carey-3


Dm------------F---C-------------Dm--------F----Dm
Now Mother Car-ey, she's the mother o' witch-es
-----C--------------F-C
An' all them sort o' rips;
---------Dm-------------------------Dm7/Dm
She's a fine gal to look at but the hitch is –
---------C----------------F-C
She's a sight too fond of ships,
F----C-Dm--C---Am-C-Dm
She's a sight too fond of ships;
-------------------------F--C---Dm----F---Dm
Now she lives on an ice-berg to the nor-red,
-----------C---------------F-C
With her flashman Dav-y Jones,
---------Dm----------------------------Dm7/Dm
An' she combs the weeds up-on her for-red
------C---------------------F---C
With pore drowned sail-ors' bones;
F/C-Dm---C---------Am-C---Dm
With pore drowned sail-ors' bones.


She's the mother o' wrecks, an' the mother
Of all big winds as blows;
She's up to some deviltry or other
When it storms, or sleets, or snows; (REF)
As the big winds blow you can hear her call,
"I wants a young man fine –
A brassbounder, beefy-ribbed an' all,
So me an' my mate kin dine." (REF)


She's a hungry old rip an' she's cruel
To sailor-men like we,
Mariners are her chosen gruel
Down beneath the sea;(REF)
She's got the blood o' them she's lured
An' the bones of many a wreck,
An' she's got barnacles a-growin' on her,
An' shark's teeth round her neck. (REF)

Now you know I've ne'er had no schoolin'
Nor read no books like you,
But it just ain't healthy to be foolin'
With that there gristly crew; (REF)
Now you're young an' you thinks you're wary,
But if you're to make old bones,
Steer clear, I says, o' Mother Carey,
An' that there Davy Jones. (REF)

Maybe this one's a keeper!

I'm still looking for a graphic of Mother Carey and can't find any except one from Disney. If anyone could suggest one, I'd certainly appreciate it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble