I'm a young married man and I'm tired of my life,
When first I had met with a sickeldy wife.
Now every morning I sit down and cry,
Wishing to God though, that she would die.

A friend of my own came to see me one day,
And told me my wife was pining away.
He afterwards told me that she would get strong,
If I got a bottle from Dr LeJohn.

I got her one bottle, oh just for to try.
The way that she drank it, you’d think she would die.
I got her another, she vanished that same,
I own she got cod liver oil in the brain.

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

Oh your oil it is good, I own that ‘thout a doubt,
I own that my wife she got awfully stout.
And when she got stout, I’m sure she got strong,
And then I got jealous of Dr LeJohn.

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

I can see oh my old house is like a doctor shop,
It’s full up with bottles from bottom to top.
And there in the morning when the kettle will boil,
I’d wear it was singing out ‘Cod liver oil’.

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

Reference:
More Irish Street Ballads, Colm O Lochlainn, Three Candles Press, 1968.
Jim Carroll

See also
Cod Liver Oil sung by Tom Lenihan