Songs of the People has a song called Polly Primrose, where a man's girlfriend drowns and he dreams she's been turned into a mermaid. It's an modified (and shifted to Ireland) version of a song called I Wish I Was A Fish; Or Sweet Polly Primrose by G.W.Hunt. In the original the last 2 verses are: I had a dream last night that I Was down below the wave, And there I saw my Polly In a gorgeous coral cave; She'd changed into a mermaid, And she'd such a splendid tail, She was doing double shuffles, In conjunction with a whale. While she's a sportive mermaid, I'm so wretched here above So I think I'll take a plunge and be A merman with my love; But the precise locality, I don't exactly know, Where I may find my Polly So perhaps I'd best not go. Mick
|