Cod Liver Oil

Video Find of the Day

Since Anitra loves sea chanteys, I'm always on the look out for those I can stand. I found this one while looking up the potential of cod liver oil to relieve arthritis pain. The relative article at Wikipedia said, "This article is about the fish extract, for the traditional Newfoundland song, see 'Cod Liver Oil (song)'", which I did, and found the lyrics that appear below. The Dubliners' version is slightly different in places.

The Dubliners - Cod Liver Oil



I'm a young married man that is tired of life
Ten years I've been wed to a miserable wife
She does nothing all day but sit down and cry
And prays up to Heaven that soon she will die

Chorus:
Doctor, o doctor, o dear Doctor John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of me life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife keeps on drinking your cod liver oil

Well a friend of my own came to see me one day
He told my darlin' was pining away
He afterwards told me that she would get strong
If only I'd get a bottle from dear Doctor John

Chorus

It was then that I purchased a bottle to try
The way that she drank it you'd think she would die
I bought her another it vanished the same
O me wife she's got cod liver oil on the brain

Chorus

That me wife loves cod liver there isn't a doubt
And a few thousand gallons has made her quite stout
And now that she's stout it's made her quite strong
And now I'm jealous of dear Doctor John

Chorus

My house it resembles a medicine shop
It's covered with bottles from bottom to top
But then in the mornin' the kettle do boil
O you're sure it's singin' of cod liver oil

Chorus