Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) old-fashioned, predictable, monotonous.

1938		British Empire Modern Eng. Illus. Dict. 1257/1: Ricky-tick (Am.): Old-fashioned jazz.
1939		Detroit Free Press (MI) 17 Sept. 8/1: ‘We don’t care about these ricky-tick bands like [Guy] Lombardo’.
1956		‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 88: ‘Most popular music is childish—ricky, ticky little tunes that a small boy could make up on the piano’.
1961		J.A. Williams Night Song (1962) 187: You goddamn right you ain’t one of my boys, you with your ricky-tick-ass guitar playin’.
1970		A. Young Snakes (1971) 33: I aint talkin bout all this old rickytick that ofays play and rebop and bebop and shit.