A popular song from 1918.
Words and music by Spencer Williams, Marguerite Kendall and J. Russel Robinson.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
1. See old Di Dong puff and blow those thick blue rings
Can’t you guess he dreams of distant lands
Sweetest face in Hong-Kong town his dream pipe brings
How he loved her, now he understands
Drifting on he sinks to slumber deep
Sighs and mumbles over in his sleep
CHORUS
“Loo Chong, just for you I cry
I long for you before I die
Just to fold my arms around my poppy baby,’Lotus Lady”
Di Dong, him go back some day
No work, him fool ’round and play”
But alas he’ll ‘wake to have those pipe dream blues
2. Op’-um flower, worth it’s very weight in gold
For the memories it ever brings
Makes Di Dong forget that he is growing old
In his homesick dream of other things
When the smoke hangs thick within his den
Back in China he is young again