> June Tabor > Songs > Apple and Potatoes

Apple and Potatoes / Yonder Comes the Devil / Climbing Up the Apple Tree

[trad.]

Jon Jones sang Yonder Comes the Devil in his trailer, Star Lane, Orpington, Kent, to Mike Yates in ca. 1973, and Jasper Smith sang Climbing Up the Apple Tree to Mike Yates in April 1974 near Epsom, Surrey. Both recordings were included in 1979 on the Topic anthology of songs, stories and tunes from English gypsies, Travellers, and in 1998 on the Topic anthology Troubles They Are But Few (The Voice of the People Series Volume 14).

Lemmie Brazil played the tune God Killed the Devil on her melodeon in her caravan in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, to Mike Yates on February 18 or 19, 1978. This recordings was included in 1979 on Travellers too, and in 1998 on the Topic anthology My Father’s the King of the Gypsies (The Voice of the People Series Volume 11).

June Tabor sang both verses in 1994 on the track Apples and Potatoes of her CD Against the Streams.

Lyrics

June Tabor sings Apples and Potatoes

1. Yonder comes the devil with his pitchfork and shovel,
   He was digging up potatoes on the turnpike road.
   But the road it was so hard, he couldn’t get ’em up,
   So away ran the devil with his tail cocked up

2. Tune: God Killed the Devil

3. Who’s that a-climbing up my old apple tree?
   Bridget, my darling, I’m longing to see.
   I’m not stealing apples, so I can explain:
   The wind bloweth high and knocked ’em down
   So I’m putting ’em back again!