{"id":16149,"date":"2022-06-09T09:14:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T09:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=16149"},"modified":"2022-11-28T11:53:07","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T11:53:07","slug":"strolling-round-the-town-or-the-rickety-rackety-crew","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/strolling-round-the-town-or-the-rickety-rackety-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"Strolling round the town; or The Rickety Rackety Crew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>A birthday song<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1893<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Harry Castling<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN13322<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Charles Deane<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Neal, Jesse; England : Gloucestershire : 1960
Belton, George; England : Sussex : 1971
Poacher, Cyril England : Suffolk : 1972<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The refrain quoted in 1894<\/a>:\r\nStrolling round the town.\r\nKnocking people down,\r\nTasting every kind of wet,\r\nHaving a rare old time you bet, \r\nMashing all the girls,\r\nHaving a row or two\r\nWe're the rare old, fair old, Rickety Rackety Crew.\n\nFrom the 1893 Sheet Music in the British Library<\/strong>\nA birthday comes but once a year\nThen its everyone's delight to keep it up_ To keep it up \nWe start it getting down the wet<\/em> and finish with a fight,\nAnd then there's always half a dozen run in for the night.\nIt was just the same boys yesterday with me,\nTwas my birthday you know, and how the wine did flow;\nWe all got jolly then full of devilment.\nWe left our darling wives at home, then arm in arm we went... \n\nStrolling round the town, rolling up and down,\nTasting every kind of wet, having a fine old night you bet, \nTreating all the Boys, we didn't care a sou,\nA fair old,rare old, rickety rackety Crew.<\/em>\n\nWe started drinking champagne, \nBut the money wouldn't last to keep it up_ To keep it up\nThe fifty bob I started with was withering too fast,\nAnd just as I was counting up, two charming ladies passed.\nThey called me Charley (that's not my proper name)\nBut still I gave a wink, then shouted have a drink,\nThey both said yes and soon \"full up\"<\/em> they got,\nWe made them both as bad as us, then all the blessed lot... \n\nAt three this morn we all were leaning \nUp against a wall to keep it up_ To keep it up.\nSurrounded by a dozen police who'd come at \"Duty's\" call,\nAnd when they shouted \"Move on\", Straight, we couldn't move at all.\nFrom every station round about the town,\nAn ambulance was fetched, then on them we were stretched.\nBefore his nibbs next morning we were sent\nWho fined us forty bob a piece just because we went...\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A big hit for comic  Charles Deane (see brief biography below)) in the mid-1890s. It was written by Harry Castling<\/a> and a hit throughout the English-speaking world. It was remembered by traditional singers in the UK in the 1960s\/70s and a song of a very similar title was collected in Canada by Edith Fowke from the singing of LaRena Clark<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles Morton, veteran manager of the Palace Theatre was one of many who saw drinking songs of this type as being exactly the sort of thing which gave modern Music Hall (i.e. in the 1890s) a bad name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are hints that the published sheet music may have been slightly politer than the version sung in the Halls.  In the interview Morton suggested the chorus quoted above, which involved “knocking people down” rather than “rolling up and down”. As far as I can ascertain all 20th century renditions of the song use “knocking people down”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Era – Saturday 02 September 1893<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The song inspired this cartoon of street singers produced by Phil May for Punch<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Cartoon by Phil May, Punch, 21 September 1895<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Charles Deane  (1866-1910) was a  Jewish comedian and songwriter who started his working life as a porter in Billingsgate Fish Market and according to his obituary remained popular with the porters throughout his stage career. He was best known as a comic singer and “teller of amusing Jewish stories”<\/em>. By all accounts he was extremely successful, but he died in relative poverty at the age of 44, leaving behind a wife and four daughters “totally unprovided for”<\/em>. He was unable to join a benefit society as he had been diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis) – he spent the last 18 months of his life unable to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Here’s a version of The Rickety Rackety Crew <\/em>sung by traditional singer Cyril Poacher in 1972:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cyril Poacher sings it on  Musical Traditions MT CD 303 (‘Plenty of Thyme’)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n