Lydia the Tattooed Lady
Groucho Marx, ‘Yip’ Harburg, Harold Arlen
Lydia, oh! Lydia, say have you met Lydia, oh! Lydia the
tattooed
lady!
She has eyes that folks adore, so, and a
torso even more so
Lydia, oh! Lydia, that
encyclopedia, 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.
La la
la, la la la, La la
la,
la la la
She can give you a view of
the world in tattoo if you step up and tell her
where
For a dime you can see
Kankakee or Paree, or Washington crossing the Delaware.
La la
la, la la
la,
La la la, la
la
la
Yip Harburg's alternate lyrics:
Lydia, oh
Lydia, say have you met Lydia, Lydia the Tattooed Lady,
When she stands, her laps go littler, When she sits,
she sits on Hitler.
- or -
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
Yip Harbugs
says that at this point, they were censored. The studio said the
song was too racy. Groucho Marx was desperate and begged Louis B. Mayer
and anyone involved and said "Count me out of the picture". Mayer
called Yip and Harold (Arlen) and said "What can we do? Can you clean
up the song a little?". Yip went home and got some inspiration. The
third chorus redeems the song and saved the picture.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that Encyclopedia, oh Lydia, the champ of them all.
For two bits she will do a
Mazurka in Jazz, with a view of Niagara (originally "Grand Canyon") that
no
artist (originally "nobody")
has,
And on a clear day you can
see Al - ca - traz, You can learn
a lot from Lydia.
La la
la, la la
la,
La la la, la la la
Come along and see Buff’lo
Bill with his lasso, Just a little classic by
Mendel Picasso,
Here is Captain Spaulding
exploring the Amazon,
and Godiva, but with her pajamas on.
La la
la, la la
la,
La la la, la
la
la
Lydia, oh! Lydia, say have
you met Lydia, 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!