Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt

Subject: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 18 May 23 - 07:19 PM

I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
(Tune - The Campbells are Coming)

I wonder what's under a Scotsman's kilt
A-wang, a-wang, a-wang, a-wang
Tickle me, tickle me, you know where
Under my kilt and in my hair
But if you tickle me in the wrong place
I'll lift up my kilt and I'll piss in your face.

This untitled song is found on the LP "The Fox: Songs Banned in Boston" by Bill Foster. Undated [1977]. Other traditional drinkin songs, many bawdy, are found on this LP.

Does anyone sing this song? If so, when & where did you learn it?   Does it vary from the text above?

Any help is appreciated.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 May 23 - 07:58 PM

Reminiscent of The Scotsman's Kild, by Mike Cross - but definitely not the same song.

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 19 May 23 - 08:12 AM

P-File: "I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt" p. 48
Tune: Typical Scotish brogue

I wonder what's under a Scotsman's kilt
A-wang, a-wang, a-wang, a-wang
Tickle me, tickle me, you know where
Under my kilt and in my hair
But if you tickle me in the wrong place
I'll lift up my kilt and I'll piss in your face.

From the "Perversion-Files" [c1995] from the Central Michigan University Marching Band collected by David Romas & Michael Fitzpatrick. Three copies of the "P-Files" songbook, along with two cassette tapes, are deposited at the Library of Congress Folklife Archive where it is assigned the catalog number AFC 1997/016

The song was marked as currently sung on a regular basis by the Marching Chippewas or have been sung regularly in the past decade or so. [ca 1985 to 1995]

Although the "P-file" doesn't identify the tune, Cassette #1 that accompanies the has this song being sung to "The Campbells Are Coming".

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: GUEST,and e (no cookie)
Date: 19 May 23 - 10:20 AM

It was recording on "The Man Show" sung by Bill "The Fox" Foster. The video is online here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bChAltzmClE

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 May 23 - 10:51 AM

What's worn under the kilt?

Nothing, it's all as good as new!

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 14 Sep 23 - 08:48 PM

Johnny, come tickle me, you know where,
Under the petticoat, right by the hair.
If you don't tickle me in the right place,
I'll pick up my petticoat and piss right in your face!

Learned in the 1910s as a kid in Brookly, as recorded on the LP When I Was A Boy in Brooklyn by Israel Kaplan, 1961, track #5, "Rhymes" on the LP . Folkways Records FG 3501.

This is sung but the tune on the record is *not* "The Campbells are Coming".

Liner notes -- with the lyric above -- are available here:


https://ia804503.us.archive.org/19/items/lp_when-i-was-a-boy-in-brooklyn-an-autobiog_israel-kaplan/lp_when-i-was-a-boy-in-brooklyn-an-autobiog_israel-kaplan.pdf

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: PHJim
Date: 14 Sep 23 - 11:37 PM

Joe, Mike Cross calls his song "The Scotsman".

Although some performers do call it "The Scotsman's Kilt", Mike's recordings (and Bryan Bowers') go by "The Scotsman".

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: PHJim
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 12:14 AM

Here is Mike Cross singing "The Scotsman"
The Scotsman sung by Mike Cross

Here is Bryan Bowers' cover of "The Scotsman".
Bryan Bowers singing "The Scotsman"

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 02:22 AM

....I have a copy of "Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife", 651 instrumental
folk tunes of Pennsylvania. #539 is a variant of "The Campbells are
Coming" and is titled as above. The two lines to the lyric are quoted:

O Tommy come tickle me, I'll show you where;
Just under my navel there's a great bunch of hair;

I can see in my minds eye a kilted Highland Lassie in a sweet voice
singing this song, but,,,,,,,

I've been told that the words are in the unexpurgated edition of
"The Merry Muses of Caledonia" by Robert Burns, but I e-mailed a
bookstore clerk today about the Hyde Park NY, reproduction of the
book and she didn't find those lines in there. Can someone help
with either the song itself, or further info on the different
editions of "Merry Muses"?

Jeff Smith

March 19, 2004, Posted by Ironmule in the O Tommy Come Tickle Me mudcat thread.


See post here: https://mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=1141295

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 02:25 AM

I heard this jingle in 1974 in Long Island from a friend who was
recalling his grammar school days ten or so years earlier.

Tickle me, tickle me, you know where.
Tickle me, tickle me, in the hair.
If you don't tickle me in the right place,
I'll pull down my pants and I'll piss in your face.

Posted by GUEST,Strudelbag to Mudcat on March 23, 2004.


See post here: https://mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=1144204

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 02:38 AM

...this wonderful camp song that takes two people to sing. One to say
"zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom" over and over again like a bagpipe and the other to sing:

Tickle me, tickle me you know where
Up my kilt and through my hair
If you don't tickle me in the right place
I'll pick up my kilt and I'll piss in your face.

That last one was, as I said, a camp song. Surely they didn't save all
the nasty camp songs for us kids from The Bronx?

Posted by blogspot author "fillthehours" on July 23, 2015. The author talks
about growing up in the South Bronx and East Tremont of New York in the
'70s.

Retrieved from http://fillthehours.blogspot.com/2015/07/da-bronx-sings.html

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: and e
Date: 15 Sep 23 - 02:47 AM

....cracking jokes as I carried my accident folders back and forth past
Virginia's desk, humming "Take it in your hand, Mrs. Murphy," or
warming and coloring with contentment (I had everything in life I
wanted) as I whistled:

"Johnny, come tickle me.
You know just where.
Under my petticoat,
You'll find a bush of hair.
If you don't tickle me.
In the right place,
I'll lift up my petticoat.
And pee right in your face."

We had other dirty songs we loved too.

Pg 495, from Joseph Heller's 1974 book Something Happened


See here: https://books.google.com/books?id=X-CILqF-RugC&pg=PA495&lpg=PA495&dq=%22We+had+other+dirty+songs+we+loved+too%22&source=bl&ots=WQnckRzHtU&sig=ACfU3U1S2UZulXtB2kvgrn1hgp2fhE0POw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipmIqCgqyBAxWtj4kEHXJ2AkUQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22We%20had%20other%20dirty%20songs%20we%20loved%20too%22&f=false

Subject: RE: Origins: I Wonder What's Under a Scotsman's Kilt
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 21 Sep 23 - 04:16 AM

Way back in the mid-1960's I heard it as:

Tickle me, tickle me, you know where
Tickle the pickle that's under the hair
If you don't tickle me in the right place
I'll pull up my kilt and I'll pee in your face

Ah, the Folk Process...


Jay