{"id":7481,"date":"2020-12-07T16:54:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=7481"},"modified":"2022-05-02T09:17:10","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T09:17:10","slug":"tickle-ickle-um","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/tickle-ickle-um\/","title":{"rendered":"Tickle-ickle-um"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>I tickled ’em
Tickle-ickle-ickle-um<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1896<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>TW Connor<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN22313<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Pat Rafferty<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
New Arkansas Travellers 1929 USA<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Transcribed from 1929 recording<\/strong>\n\nI've got a very funny way with me\nI want to tickle everybody I see\nI'm all over them, if I get a chance\nIt's a quid to a coconut, I'll make 'em dance\nI to a party went last night\nThe man in the corner had a face like a kite\nJust like a Dutch plate troubled with the bile\nNobody there could make him smile\n\nSo.. I tickled him<\/em>, tickle-ickle-ickled him<\/em> \nI put the 'fluence on the 'fluence on the 'flu<\/em>\nI tickled him<\/em>, tickle-ickle-ickled him<\/em>\nAnd he was particularly ticklish too<\/em>\nHe started wriggling, a-wriggling and giggling\nAnd laughed till the tears in his eyes did come\nI had some fun with him before I was done with him\nI gave him tickle-ickle-ickle-um.<\/em>\n\nOne of the ladies, of the name of Bling\nShe made such a raid on the beer and gin\nShe got troublesome and took to the floor\nShe was chock-full of liquor but she wanted more\nSomebody said there's none to spare\nShe got hysterical and tore out her hair\nA pail full of water down her back they threw\nBut she wanted brandy she wouldn't come to\n\nSo.. I tickled h<\/em>er, tickle-ickle-ickled h<\/em>er\nI put the 'fluence on the 'fluence on the 'flu<\/em>\nI tickled her<\/em>, tickle-ickle-ickled her<\/em>\nAnd she was particularly ticklish too<\/em>\nShe started wriggling, a-wriggling and giggling\nAnd laughed till the tears in her eyes did come\nShe rolled me on the floor, oh I was very sore\nBut I gave her tickle-ickle-ickle-um.<\/em>\n\nFive in the morning I was put to bed\nAlong with a navvy with the snuffles in his head\nHe laid solid to the chimney stack\nWith his cold feet planted in the middle of my back\nJust like a foghorn he did snore\nI started kicking but he snored all the more\nI gave him a bust, a wallop on the nose\nBut he didn't stop snoring, so I turned down the clothes..\n\n\nI tickled him<\/em>, tickle-ickle-ickled him<\/em>\nI put the 'fluence on the 'fluence on the 'flu<\/em>\nI tickled him<\/em>, tickle-ickle-ickled him<\/em>\nAnd he was particularly ticklish too<\/em>\nHe started wriggling, a-wriggling and giggling\nAnd laughed till the tears in his eyes did come\nOut of bed he spurt, water jug, wet shirt!\nI gave him tickle-ickle-ickle-um.<\/em>\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
This is a British Music Hall song which turns up on an American “Hillbilly” record in the 1920s. It appears in the NEHI 3 CD Box Set  My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean<\/em> – Mike Yates wrote in his review:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New Arkansas Travellers … are one of life’s mysteries.  The singer, we think, was one A P Bishop who was accompanied on Tickled ‘Em <\/em>and Handy Man <\/em>by a guitar and mouthorgan(s).  Both songs employ the same tune and are clearly from the British Music Hall stage.  In fact, Handy Man <\/em>is the same song that Cyril Poacher recorded as Slap Dab (Whitewash)<\/em> and which can be heard on the MT CD Plenty of Thyme <\/em>(MTCD303).  It was original called The Amateur Whitewasher <\/em>and was written in 1896 by F Murray & F Leigh.  The Travellers’ recordings were made in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1928, although it has been occasionally suggested that the two tracks may have actually been recorded in England.  The singer certainly sounds to be English (from the East-End of London?) but he remains a biographical blank and one does wonder just what the Americans made of him!  <\/p>Mike Yates sleevenotes NEH3X1<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to the wonders of the Internet we now know that this song was written by TW Connor<\/a> and was a hit at the turn-of-the-century for Pat Rafferty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Era Aug 22 1896<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Pat Rafferty<\/strong> (1861-1952) was the stage name of Henry Brown, a popular Music Hall comic for over 40 years. He was born in Birmingham of Irish parents, and started singing career at the age of 12 by entering a series of pub singing competitions. He was fond of saying that he had sung in every music hall in the British Empire and whilst he was known for his Irish songs  his repertoire varied  from broadly comic and  nonsense songs to high-flown ballads. According to Macqueen Pope, when Irish regiments were fighting in the Boer War:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rafferty became extremely patriotic on behalf of of the Emerald Isle, asking the British public [in song]<\/em>: “What you think of the Irish now?” And informing them that if they had been in the habit of calling them traitors because agitators made troubles, “You can’t call them traitors now!”<\/p>MacQueen Pope, p376<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He loved playing to Irish audiences and would tell the story of the time in a Dublin music hall when the audience refused to let him leave the stage and the police were called to clear the theatre – prompting a riot which continued on the street outside. He retired from the stage to set himself up in business first as a builder and later as an antique dealer.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The New Arkansas Travellers sing it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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