Thursday, November 05, 2009

Lydia


Oooooooh

Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so,
And a torso even more so.

Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopidia,
Oh Lydia the Queen of Tattoo.
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it the wreck of the Hesperus, too.
And proudly above waves the Red, White, and Blue,
You can learn a lot from Lydia.

When her robe is unfurled, she will show you the world,
If you step up and tell her where.
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paris,
Or Washington crossing the Delaware.

Oh Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Oh Lydia the Tattooed Lady
When her muscles start relaxin',
Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson

Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopidia,
oh Lydia the queen of them all!
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz,
With a view of Niagara that nobody has.
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia.

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia that encyclopidia,
Oh Lydia the champ of them all.
She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet.
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,
For he went and married Lydia.

I said Lydia
{He said Lydia}
They said Lydia
{We said Lydia}
La La Lydia the Tattooed Lady!

(See and hear "Lydia" here, she appears at about the 1 minute mark...)


~ Yip Harburg

By Professor Batty


3 Comments:

Anonymous Jon said...

I have enjoyed that tune since I first heard Groucho Marx sing it in "At the Circus". Robin Williams also did it justice in "The Fisher King". Thanks for the chuckle.


Blogger Heiða said...

Hey, I just watched a film called "The Philadelphia story" where a sweet and funny teenage girl sings and performs this song on piano. Really nice and a bit funny. I recommend it!


Blogger Professor Batty said...

Jon and Heiða ~ this is one of my all time favorite songs, the music was composed by Harold Arlen. Arlen and Harburg created the songs from The Wizard of Oz as well.

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