Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MERMAN (Wolfe Tones)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 03:42 PM

Well, this will turn into a Lyrics Add as soon as the one hole is plugged, and ) ye nautical ones, what is a cockatool?

THE MERMAN
As recorded by The Wolfe Tones on “The Anthology of Irish Song” (2008)

1. I'm a sailor man from Wexford town; I've sailed the seven seas.
I will tell you a true story of the sunny southron seas.
We were caught up in the doldrums while waiting for a breeze,
When the stillness of the day was broke by a merman in the deep blue seas.
Well, the captain he slept below while the crew they lay about,
When down in the ocean-wise we heard this mighty shout.
His hair was red; his eyes were green; his beard was floating free.
He'd a long green tail that could kill a whale that waggled in the deep blue sea.

CHORUS: And the mermaids looked so beautiful as they swum around by the shore,
But this merman with his fishy tail I’d never seen before.
And sailors tell the tallest tales; I never told a lie.
He'd a long green tail that could kill a whale that wobbled as he swam close by.

2. Was it Neptune that appeared to us from his mansions in the deep?
Then the cook O'Toole, well, he ran below, woke the captain from his sleep,
And the captain came on deck at once, took a look into the deep.
"I've never seen the likes of this!" the merman then he soon did greet.
"Then who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want here?"
Then he shook his tail; it rocked the boat; it filled our hearts with fear.
"You've dropped your anchor on my house; it's blockin’ up me door,
And the wife, the mermaid, she's trapped inside, and my children can't get out no more!" CHORUS

3. Well, we quickly hoisted anchor, boys, and the merman then did smile.
"Sure, me name is Patrick John O'Rourke; I came from Erin's isle.
It was many years ago from now I was shipwrecked on the reef
When this pretty mermaid she rescued me from the perils of the ocean deep.
And we very soon were married way down in the deep blue sea.
Now I'm happy and contented with me wife and family,
Though I oft-times wished I could go home and live on Ireland's shore.
But I'm committed to the ocean deep;* I can't go home again no more." CHORUS TWICE

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 03:42 PM

*I sing BLUE, they sing DEEP, but BLUE rhymes better.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: MMario
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 03:48 PM

I was hoping this would be the Merman in the DT so I could ask for a tune.

so I'll just have to ask for both tunes. anyone?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 26 Jun 02 - 09:03 PM

It appears to be a modern, cut-down re-write of the song you mention, MMario, re-located to Ireland for some reason. (Oh dear; Declan will think I'm a racist for saying that!) The text quoted in the DT was published without a tune, though other versions have been recorded in Newfoundland and thereabouts, in books I don't have access to at present. If the Wolfe Tones acknowledged a source for this text, though, it would be good to know what it was, and what tune they used for it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Jun 02 - 10:31 AM

Email me to set up a time and I'll sing it to you...

Anybody know the missing line? Ends in ... of the deep, I think. And WHAT is a cuckatool?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Jun 02 - 12:16 PM

In fact, there is a variant noted in Wexford, and cited in the Roud Folk Song Index, which I missed last night. It appeared in Joseph Ranson's Songs of the Wexford Coast (1948; reprinted 1975). From the opening line quoted, 'Twas in the month of January, way down in the southern seas, it doesn't seem to be the one we have here. Nevertheless, I may have been a little unfair to the Wolfe Tones this time. Their official website, incidentally, does have a little background on some of the songs they've recorded (not always terribly accurate) but they have no comment to make on this one.

There's a brief sound-sample at Amazon: Wolfe Tones: A Sense of Freedom; not long enough to identify the tune with any certainty or to supply the missing words.

A broadside example can be seen at Bodleian Library Broadsides:

The merman ("'Twas in the month of January, away in the Southern seas ...")  Printed between 1850 and 1899 by T. Pearson, 4, & 6, Chadderton Street, Oldham Road, Manchester. This too has a chorus (the DT text does not)

Blow ye winds I oh, blow ye winds y'heave ho,
Clear away the morning dew, and blow ye winds I oh!

This would suggest that the broadside text at least was intended to be sung to some form of Clear [Blow] Away the Morning Dew; the sound clip above does indeed resemble that a bit, particularly in the snatch of chorus. The sea song Blow Ye Winds [in the Morning] is also related somewhere along the line. There's no evidence that the Vermont set was sung to any of the tune variants associated with that lot, of course, though it may have been.

The Merman itself has the look of a 19th century comic song originating on the stage; it doesn't seem ever to have been widespread in tradition.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Jun 02 - 02:02 PM

I am reminded also of the Ed McCurdy song about being married to a mermaid at the bottom of the deep blue sea, and it's rule, Britannia, Britannia rules the waves, and Britains never never never shall be married to a mermaid at the bottom of the deep blue sea. And your Blow ye winds reminds me of one by the Kingston Trio, blow ye winds in the morning, blow ye winds high-ho, clear away your running gear and blow ye winds high-ho (a whaling song, not a mermaid/merman song).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: widowmaker
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 02:06 AM

It's "the cook O'Toole as in the cooks name

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 10:13 AM

The cook O'toole! LOL! First name, mondegreen... here I thought it was some nautical job I'd never heard of!

Now all we need is the somethings of the deep...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: MMario
Date: 28 Jun 02 - 10:26 AM

"Mondegreen O'Toole" - sounds like a character from a play.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Jul 02 - 10:07 AM

Missing line = Was it Neptune that appeared to us from his mansions in the deep

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)Tune rquest
From: GUEST,doxy
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:16 PM

Did anyone find the music for this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: vectis
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 06:12 PM

This version was probably written by Brian Warfield, he's the group's main songwriter.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 07:03 AM

Was it Neptune that appeared to us
From his mansions in the deep?
Then the cook O¢Toole then he ran below

thats the part is missing me men after the first chorus.

greetings from greece - Éirinn go Brách

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MERMAN (from Bodleian)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jul 19 - 06:49 PM

From the broadside at the Bodleian Library, Firth c.26(152):

THE MERMAN

1. ‘Twas in the month of January, away in the southern seas.
Our ship lay at anchor near a coral reef, a-waiting for a breeze.
Our captain he was down below, and the men lay all about,
When from under our bow we heard a shout and then a regular shout.

CHORUS: Blow ye winds, I-oh; blow ye winds y’heave ho!
Clear away the morning dew, and blow ye winds, I-oh!

2. “A man overboard!” the watch cried out, and forward all of us run,
When hanging on to our best bower chain was a jolly old bluff merman.
His hair was red; his eyes was black, and his mouth as large as three,
And the long green tail he sat upon was a-waddling down in the sea.

3. “Hallo!” our mate called out as bold as brass. “What cheer, messmate?” said he.
“Well, I want to see your noble captain; I’ve a question to ask of he.”
Our captain then he came on deck and looked at the waters blue,
Saying, “Tell me, my man, as fast as you can: what favour can I do for you?”

4. “You’ve dropped your anchor right afore my house and blocked up my only door,
And my wife can’t get out to roam about nor my chicks one, two, three and four.
‘Twould break your heart to hear them groan and hear the row they’ve had with me,
For I’ve been out all the night at a small tea fight at the bottom of the deep blue sea.”

5. “The anchor shall be hove at once and your wife and chicks set free,
But I never saw a fish from a sprat to a whale till now that could speak to me.
Your figurehead’s like a sailor bold; you speak like an Englishman,
But where the d----l did you get that wonderful tail? Come tell me as fast as you can.”

6. “A long time ago, from the ship ‘Hero,’ I fell overboard in a gale,
And I found down below where the seaweeds grow, I saw such a lovely girl with a tail.
She saved my life and I made her my wife and my legs changed instantly,
For I married a mermaid at the bottom of the deep blue sea.”

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Merman (Wolfe Tones)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Jul 19 - 08:36 PM

You can see sheet music for the above song in Naval Songs: A Collection of Original, Selected, and Traditional Sea Songs, Songs of Sailors, and Shanties, compiled by S. B. Luce (New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., 1902), page 130. However, the accompanying lyrics on that page seem a bit scrambled.