Great Big Sea - Cod Liver Oil

a wonderfully haunting song from gbs’s 2005 traditional album , “the hard and the easy” .

– standard tuning –

– no capo –

– chords played as follows : –
Dm : xx0231
C : x32010
G/B : x20010
Am : x02210

[ intro ]
Dm , C ( x2 )

[ verse 1 ]
Dm C Dm
i’m a young married man and i’m tired of life ,
C G/B Am
ten years i’ve been wed to a pale sickly wife ,
Dm C
she’s nothing to do only sit there and cry ,
Dm C Am Dm
praying and praying to god she would die .

[ verse 2 ]
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 ]
Dm
oh doctor , oh doctor , oh dear dr . john ,
C C/B Am
your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong ,
Dm C
i’m afraid of my life , i’ll go down in the soil ,
Dm C Am Dm
if me wife don’t stop drinking your cod liver oil .

[ instrumental ]
Dm , C ( x2 )

[ verse 3 ]
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 .

[ verse 4 ]
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 ]
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 .

[ instrumental ]
Dm , C ( x4 )

[ verse 5 ]
me house it resembles a great doctor’s shop
its 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 .

[ 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 ,
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 .

[ outro ]
Dm , C ( x4 )