Composer
Victor Herbert
Lyricist
Harry B. Smith
Copyright
1907
Publisher
M. Witmark & Sons
Notes
From Herbert's comic opera "The Tattooed Man" (1907) with Frank Daniels in the role of Omar Khayyam, Jr., "astrologer, poet and sworn foe to temperance." The cast had characters with such names as "Hashish, janitor in the Shah's harem," "The Shah, who travels for his health until very late in the evening." and "Leila, beloved of Omar, but nothing doing." There are imported American bridesmaids: "Miss Vandergilt, of New York, Miss Penn, of Philadelphia, Miss Lakeside, of Chicago, Miss Beacon, of Boston, Miss Bridge, of Brooklyn, Miss Frisk, of Frisco, Miss Vine, of St. Louis, Miss Charles, of Baltimore, [and] Miss Mint, of Washington."

A MIDI file of the entire score is available at www.halhkmusic.com/tattooed.html.

The cover of the score has a photo of Frank Daniels and an Asian swastika centered at the bottom between the names of the lyricist and composer.
Lyrics

In Persia there once lived a sport very game,
And Omar Khayyam was his curious name,
As he is a dead one, I am not the same,
But I'm his descendant, tho' he’s not to blame.
Sing fol de rol lol to you, Omar Khayyam,
As a jolly old rounder you were not a sham.
Live high while you live and do not be a clam,
Was the sensible motto of Omar Khayyam.

Chorus
Sing fol de rol lol to you, Omar Khayyam,
As a jolly old rounder you were not a sham.
Live high while you live and do not be a clam,
Was the sensible motto of Omar Khayyam.

When Omar was born, he demanded a drink,
He said, "Me go thirsty O no I don't think."
They offered him milk, he kicked over the cup,
And so on the bottle they brought Omar up.
Sing fol de rol lol to you, Omar, old son,
You rolled home with the rolls and came home with the bun,
And in the first tank play upon the program,
The original tank was old Omar Khayyam.

Chorus
Sing fol de rol lol to you, Omar, old son,
You rolled home with the rolls and came home with the bun,
And in the first tank play upon the program,
The original tank was old Omar Khayyam.

His doctor said, "Omar, you cannot live long,
Your trouble is too much Wine, Women and Song.
You'll have to stop something or be dead as a ham."
"All right, I'll stop singing," said Omar Khayyam.

CHORUS:
So fol de rol lol to you, Omar, old sport,
You could drink any thing from peroxide to port,
"I've no room for water in my diaphragm,
Because water has germs in," said Omar Khayyam

A first class astronomer Omar was he,
He sometimes saw stars that were not there to see,
He looked through his glass all the night, so they say,
He also looked though many glasses by day.

CHORUS:
So fol de rol Omar, side partner of Mars,
You could tell any manager's fate by his stars,
You knew that the moon would get full with the tide,
When you saw the Big Dipper right there by it's [sic] side