Joe Dolce: ‘The Mug with No Ear’

The Mug with No Ear

Oh come all you poets and painters alike,
lay down your pencils and palettes tonight,
fill up your glasses and raise up a beer,
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 life was so drear,
he was only known then as
The Mug with No Ear.

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

He had taken a razor, with a movement so swift,
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.”

The life of an artist can seem so unfair,
when fortune forsakes you, days of despair.
Illness and poverty plagued him for years,
but oh how he painted!
The Mug with No Ear.

Then one Sunday evening as sun smouldered low,
with an easel in hand, to the fields he did go.
He took out a pistol, the 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,
bright yellow dahlias and sunflowers’ cheer
in vases surrounded
The Mug with No Ear.

Oh, come all you poets and painters alike,
lay down your pencils and palettes tonight,
fill up your glasses and raise up a beer,
and let’s drink a toast to
The Mug with No Ear.

Joe Dolce

Sung to the tune of “The Pub with No Beer”, which is itself an adaption of “Beautiful Dreamer” by Stephen Foster (1826–1864).