Lyr Req: Tildy Tuck-Minstal Song

Subject: Lyr Add: TILDY TUCK
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 May 02 - 02:10 PM

I'm trying to learn more about what I think is an old minstral song that my mother's nursemaid used to sing. Any clues?

TILDY TUCK
(As sung by Ella Madison of Greenwich Village, NY, in the 1920's)

Oh, Tildy Tuck, she got stuck
On a sportin' Coon named Jim.
An' every night at eight,
She would congregate,
On de co'ner by the street,
An' dat red-eyed Jap
Was a shootin' craps
An' never got cold feet.

An' to all de blokes(?) who tried to mash her she replied:
"Fade away! I's a-waitin for my man;
He's the onliest man I'll have, you understan',
Fade away! I's a-waitin' for my man!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tildy Tuck-Minstal Song
From: MMario
Date: 01 May 02 - 02:27 PM

Charlie - I couldn't find anything out at the Levy site - but there are a couple of other sheet music sites that might have it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tildy Tuck-Minstal Song
From: GUEST,Charley Noble
Date: 01 May 02 - 04:53 PM

I've tried a few "Minstrel"/ragtime/early jazz music websites with no luck and a Google search as well.

Subject: Lyr Add: O BABE!
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 May 02 - 09:48 PM

Songs like this are typical of the 1910-1930 period rather than minstrel times. Most are about men. Very few made it into print and at this remove, it is hard to find anyone who remembers them. Here is one from the period.

O BABE!

Late every evenin' 'bout half pas' three,
I hire smart coon to read the news to me.

O babe! O my babe! O my babe!

O babe! O babe! O my babe! take a one on me,
An' my partnah, too, thats the way sports do.
O babe! O my babe! O my babe!

Well, you talk 'bout one thing, you talk 'bout another.
But if you talk 'bout me, gwine talk 'bout yo' mother.
O babe! O my babe! O my babe!

The Negro and His Songs, Odum and Johnson, 1925, p. 178-179.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tildy Tuck-Minstal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 May 02 - 09:49 AM

Thanks, Dicho. You're probably correct. The family stories describe Ella as having been a lead singer in a Minstrel group that even toured Europe at one time, and that she sang in an early performance of Porgey & Bess. I had better luck with another of her songs "West Indies Blues", although she had some unique verses related to Charleston, SC (search forum for thread). She also sang gospel songs, infecting my mother with an early love for such music.