Cod Liver Oil was a traditional medicinal drink for a lot of Newfoundlanders that was also made into a song. 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.

Lyrics

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

See also

• List of Newfoundland songs

External links

• Newfoundland Heritage, Traditional Songs
• Dictionary of Newfoundland English

Canadian songs | Folk songs | Newfoundland and Labrador music