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The Mug With No Ear

Oh come all ye poets and painters alike
Lay down your pencils and pallets tonight
Fill up your glasses and raise up your beer,
And I'll tell you the tale of the Mug with No Ear.

Well, you've all seen his name on the museum wall,
His work is admired by one and by all
But one hundred years ago, his life was so drear,
He was only known then as the Mug with No Ear.

It was late in December, in a town known as Arles,
The mug and his mate, name of Paul, had a quarrel,
Over Art or a woman, the details aren't clear,
In the morning they found him, a Mug with No Ear.

He had taken a razor, with a movement so swift,
And removed his left sideflap, so to give as a gift,
To a whore in the tavern, with a card marked 'My Dear,
Please accept this small token, from the Mug with No Ear."

Oh, the life of an artist can seem so unjust,
When fortune forsakes you, but still work you must.
Illness and poverty plagued him for years,
But oh how he painted! The Mug with No Ear.

Then one Sunday evening as the sun smouldered low,
With an easel in hand, to the fields he did go.
He took out a pistol, a shot rang out clear,
And life's work was finished for the Mug with No Ear.

On the walls of the room where his body was laid,
The canvases hung with the paintings he'd made,
The bright yellow Dahlias and Sunflowers' cheer
In vases surrounded the Mug with No Ear

So, come all ye poets and painters alike
Lay down your pencils and pallets tonight
Fill up your glasses and raise up your beer
And let's drink us a toast to the Mug with No Ear.

 

(Note: Sung to the verse melody of 'Beautiful Dreamer', which was written in the 1860s and which is the original source melody for 'The Pub With No Beer.')

 

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