Clean Song, A

DESCRIPTION: "There was a young sailor who looked through a glass, And spied a fair mermaid with scales on her... Island." The crew catches the mermaid, but she escapes, leaving them with a disease. "This song may be dull but it's certainly clean."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1989 (Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea)
KEYWORDS: mermaid/man wordplay bawdy sailor disease humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, p. 169, "A Clean Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brand-BawdySeaSong 6, "A Clean Song" (1 text)
Roud #8354
NOTES [55 words]: This is one of those songs where the rhyme leads you to expect one word but supplies another, e.g.
[After] a while one man noticed some scabs
Soon they broke out with the pox and the... scratching.
I must confess that I can't figure out some of the missing words in this case. Which is perhaps a comment on just how bawdy it is. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: Kins169

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