All Over Me

AKA
First Published 1900
Writer/composer AJ Mills and FW Carter Roud RN13904

Music Hall Performers Franck Seeley
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Webb, Percy ; England : Suffolk ; 1968		 

I took my wife to Barnum's once
The tattooed man to see, 
Now when I come home from work 
She starts to tattoo me; 
She's marked me from my great big toe 
Up to my lovely chin – 
And I don't get the needle when 
She sticks the needle in!

All over me – all over me; 
In Indian ink all down my legs
There's ships of war and Easter eggs, 
Now I'm just like a picture galleree 
You want to look at the views of London 
All over me!

While touring once in Switzerland, 
Inside a cosy pub,
I met some pretty members of
The Ladies' Bloomer Club;
I climbed a mountain high that day,
They followed in a row,
I reached the top in half an hour 
With lumps of ice and snow—

All over me – all over me; 
I tied the girls to me with rope,
But oh ! I tumbled down a slope —
For half an hour the sky I couldn't see,
There was nothing but ladies and ladies' bloomers 
All over me!

I had some lovely lodgings once, 
A fam'ly lived upstairs,
One night they gave a party and 
It made me say my prayers ;
I'd just got into bed, I had,
Then I began to "twig"
The blessed ceiling giving way 
As they commenced to jig —
 
All over me – all over me; 
They danced about until I saw 
They'd made a big hole in the floor,
Then down came Ma and all the fanlike, 
The bedstead, bed and the water basin
All over me!

Each morning as I used to pass 
A shirt and collar place,
Inside the little door I'd always 
Poke my smiling face.
The other day I shouted out
"Oh, chase me for my curls!" 
Then someone pushed me in the shop, 
And twenty laundry girls — (Were)

All over me – all over me; 
They laid me on a table there,
Among the shirts and underwear,
With hot flat-irons they scorched my toggeree,
And started ironing out the dimples
All over me!


Another song from the turn of the last century remembered by traditional performers in the late 20th century. It was written by the prolific AJ Mills in collaboration with FW Carter and was a hit for Frank Seeley. Here is a short contemporary description of Seeley performing the song: 

Mr Frank Seeley is a comedian whose headlong enthusiasm carries the audience quite away ; and in “All over me” and “Mother went out to find one” he so powerfully impresses his audience by the intensity of his treatment of the humorous lines that he is certain of success.

London Music Halls: The Royal, The Era, 11 Aug 1900

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