Album: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
"Mrs McGraw," the seargent said,
"would you like a soldier
Of your son, Ted?
With a scarlet coat and a big cocked hat,
Mrs McGraw wouldn't you like that?"
With me too-rye-ay
Foddle-diddle-day
With me toorye oorye oorye-ay
With me toorye-ay
Foddle diddle day
Me toorye oorye oorye-ay
Mrs McGraw lived on the shore
And after seven years or more
She spied a ship come into the bay
With her son from far away.
Oh Captain dear where have you been
You been sailing the mediterranean
Have you news of my son Ted
Is he living or is he dead?
With me too-rye-ay
Foddle-diddle-day
With me toorye oorye oorye-ay
With me toorye-ay
Foddle diddle day
Me toorye oorye oorye-ay
Up came Ted without any legs
And in their place two wooden pegs
She kissed him a dozen times or two
And said my God Ted is it you?
Now were you drunk or were you blind
When you left your two fine legs behind?
Or was it walking upon the sea
That wore your two fine legs away?
With me too-rye-ay
Foddle-diddle-day
With me toorye oorye oorye-ay
With me toorye-ay
Foddle diddle day
Me toorye oorye oorye-ay
Now I wasn't drunk and I wasn't blind
When I left my two fine legs behind
A cannon ball on the fifth of May
Tore my two fine legs away.
Oh Teddy boy they will all cry
Your two fine legs were your mother's pride
Stumps made of tree won't do at all
Why didn't you run from the cannonball?
With me too-rye-ay
Foddle-diddle-day
With me toorye oorye oorye-ay
With me toorye-ay
Foddle diddle day
Me toorye oorye oorye-ay
All foreign wars, I do proclaim
There only blood and a mother's pain
And I'd rather have my son as he used to be
Then the King of America and his whole Navy.
With me too-rye-ay
Foddle-diddle-day
With me toorye oorye oorye-ay
With me toorye-ay
Foddle diddle day
Me toorye oorye oorye-ay