My Otaheitee Lady 1902 Kern

by James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 15 Jun 2006
2006

He was a shipwrecked sailor
He wore a vacant stare.
Likewise a tattered suit of clothes
that let in all the air.
In answer to my question,
he said in tones of pain:
"I am the sole survivor
of the schooner Mary Jane!"
Then hitching up his trousers
he burst into this refrain:

Oh my Otaheitee lady
I still can see your smile,
where palms are green and shady,
on a south Pacific Isle,
I still can hear you calling me
your dandy ocean swell.
Oh my Otaheitee, Otaheitee,
high and mighty, fly and flighty
Otaheitee Belle!

Oh my Otaheitee lady
I still can see your smile,
where palms are green and shady,
on a south Pacific Isle,
I still can hear you calling me
your dandy ocean swell.
Oh my Otaheitee, Otaheitee,
high and mighty, fly and flighty
Otaheitee Belle!

"We struck upon an island,
and from the waves," said he,
"A native maiden pulled me out
and vowed she'd marry me!
I said: "It cannot be, Mum;
I don't see how we can,
for you're a cannybile,
and I'm a Presbyterian!"
And then he, for the second time,
his lonely lay began:

Oh my Otaheitee lady
I still can see your smile,
where palms are green and shady,
on a south Pacific Isle,
I still can hear you calling me
your dandy ocean swell.
Oh my Otaheitee, Otaheitee,
high and mighty, fly and flighty
Otaheitee Belle!

Oh my Otaheitee lady
I still can see your smile,
where palms are green and shady,
on a south Pacific Isle,
I still can hear you calling me
your dandy ocean swell.
Oh my Otaheitee, Otaheitee,
high and mighty, fly and flighty
Otaheitee Belle!

"She said it didn't matter!
Which gave my morals shocks,
but love in them Pacific Isles
is most unorthodox.
I told her very gently,
her hopes were all in vain,
and hailed a passing steamer,
which convoyed me home again,
and now," he said, "my memories
is a turning of my brain!"

Oh my Otaheitee lady
I still can see your smile,
where palms are green and shady,
on a south Pacific Isle,
I still can hear you calling me
your dandy ocean swell.
Oh my Otaheitee, Otaheitee,
high and mighty, fly and flighty
Otaheitee Belle!

Oh my Otaheitee lady
I still can see your smile,
where palms are green and shady,
on a south Pacific Isle,
I still can hear you calling me
your dandy ocean swell.
Oh my Otaheitee, Otaheitee,
high and mighty, fly and flighty
Otaheitee Belle!

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
My Otaheitee Lady 1902 Kern
Music by Jerome Kern
Lyrics by Charles H. Taylor
© MCMII by Francis Day & Hunter
© MCMIII by T.B.Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter
*
sequence and karoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Thursday 15 June 2006 at 07.54
in association with Doug Grierson
*