All ye wanna-be composers, this is the way the GREAT songwriters do it. Read and drool!

Lyr. Add: BAGDAD
Lyrics James O'Dea, Music by Victor Herbert

Bagdad is a town in Turkey,
On a camel tall and jerky
You can journey there and see
Just how it used to be-
Minarets and temples gaudy, rugs and carpets real and shoddy,
Gay bazars that make you say,
Dreaming of a bygone day,
"Life was fair and fine in Bagdad,
Land of languorous delights,
Oh, those dancing girls entrancing,
And oh, those pink Arabian nights. Ah!

Where La Belle Fatima's daughter
Was a headline "turkey-trotter,"
Mecca bound, is Allah's care,
Many Pilgrims there
Mystic shriner, gone before us,
Helped to swell the Pilgrim's Chorus
And they chanted, yes, they did,
"Allah's great but oh, you kid!"
Life was fine and fair in Bagdad,
In the balmy summer air,
Oh those date trees, simply great trees,
And oh, those sloe-eyed damsels there. Ah!

Hold up copers, pistol toters
Taxi cheaters, female voters
In old Bagdad were taboo,
Bread and butter charges, too-
To increase the population
Was the favorite recreation,
Allah smiled on all such things
Allah always pulls the strings,
Life was fair and fine in Bagdad,
City fair of mystic spells,
Oh, those olden temples golden,
And oh, those spicy garlic smells. Ah!

From that unforgetable Broadway musical comedy, "The Lady of the Slipper," Victor Herbert and James O'Dea, 1912.
Sheet music in the Levy Collection. Bagdad