Cod Liver Oil

About Cod Liver Oil

"Cod Liver Oil" is a song about a traditional medicinal drink for many Newfoundlanders. Cod liver oil in the traditional way of manufacture was sun cured and served in bottles in its raw form. The song was written by Johnny Burke (1851–1930), a balladeer from St. John's, Newfoundland. It has been recorded by the Irish band The Dubliners and by Newfoundland folk rock band Great Big Sea on their album The Hard and the Easy. The song is played to the melody of the traditional Irish sean-nós song "An Lacha Bacach" (Irish: The Lame Duck), as famously portrayed by Nell Ní Chróinín.  more »

Year:

2005

2:57

208 Views

Playlists:

#2

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I'm a young married man and I'm tired of life
Ten years I've been wed to a pale sickly wife
She's nothing to do, only sit there and cry
Praying and praying to God she would die
A friend of my own came to see me one day
He told me my wife, she was pining away
He afterwards told me that she would get strong
If I get a bottle from dear Dr John

[Chorus]
Oh doctor, oh doctor, oh dear Dr John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of my life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife don't stop drinking your cod liver oil

I bought her a bottle, well just for to try
And the way that she drank it
You'd think she might die
I bought her another, it vanished the same
And then she got cod liver oil on the brain
I bought her another, she drank it no doubt
And then she began to get terrible stout
And when she got stout 
Well of course she got strong
And I became jealous of dear Dr John

[Chorus]

My house it resembles a great doctor's shop
It's covered in bottles from bottom to top
Well early the morning the kettle does boil
You would swear it was singing of cod liver oil

Oh doctor, oh doctor, oh dear Dr John
Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong
I'm afraid of my life, I'll go down in the soil
If me wife don't stop drinking

[Chorus]

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Great Big Sea

Great Big Sea is a Canadian folk-rock band from Newfoundland and Labrador, best known for performing energetic rock interpretations of traditional Newfoundland folk songs including sea shanties, which draw from the island's 500-year-old Irish, Scottish, and French heritage. more »

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