Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil

Subject: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Steph
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 07:27 AM

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for any more info (or lyrics) to a song called "Along Came the Devil". Apparently sung by June Tabor, but I'm having trouble finding the recording. The lyrics I have are:

Along came the devil with his pitchfork and shovel,
He was digging up potatoes on the turnpike road
But the road it was so tough that he couldn't get them up
So away ran the devil with his tail cocked up

Then there's a verse of diddling, so they're a matched pair.

Any pointers or info gratefully received!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: maeve
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 07:44 AM

It's "Yonder comes the devil..." as I recall, and I'm struggling to remember the album. I do believe it was part of one or two other cuts.

Here is one reference to help us on the way: side one, track 5

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:21 AM

http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/English_Folk-Rhymes_1000045997/315

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:25 AM

Thanks muchly! I'll keep hunting as well, anything I find I'll stick back in.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: maeve
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:29 AM

Thanks, Guest #. Here's your link blickified: http://www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook_text/English_Folk-Rhymes_1000045997/315


And one for the recording to which I linked earlier:
https://soundcloud.com/nicholab/travellers-1-06-joe-jones-yonder-comes-the-devil

My June Tabor cds burned up- wish I could remember which album this was on. Her version of the tune is similar to that of Joe Jones, but with a distinct lilt to the latter part of the melody.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: maeve
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:36 AM

Hey-up... Might this have been paired with a wee song about stealing apples?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:46 AM

http://forum.casebook.org/attachment.php?s=194c1feed226657f740cf3f670325756&attachmentid=1602&d=1209849537

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Steph
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 08:56 AM

That soundcloud link is definitely the melody. The B part had a different diddle tune to it, I'll see if I can get some dots/ABC up for you.

Ta muchly for the link to Upper Denton hornpipe. That's a different melody than I know but the same text. What book was that from?

Maeve - I have no idea about the apples!

I was having a look through Topic's website and I don't think they're selling the CD with that on at the moment.

Btw Abebooks has eBook copies of the "Popular romances of the west of England" which is where the source material for the English Folk Rhymes book.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,#
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 09:01 AM

Steph, I found that Upper Denton hornpipe somewhere at

http://forum.casebook.org/

Dinged if I know where. I had a half-dozen tabs open and now they are all closed. Sorry, don't recall what I was Googling to get there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Steph
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 09:06 AM

No worries! I had a hunt myself and think it might be Ken Perlman's book "The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island" - Upper Denton Hornpipe is on the session.org.

http://thesession.org/tunes/12554

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BEGGAR'S BELIEF +THE TRAMP'S HORNPIPE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 03:16 PM

From an article titled "Words, Idioms, &c., of the Vulgar" in Walford's Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographical Review, Vol. 11, No. 64 edited by G. W. Redway (London: George Redway, 1887), page 254:

In ending this paper with two fragments of verse, "The Beggar's Belief" and "The Tramp's Hornpipe," it may be said that a wide field is open to the errant philologer, and, when he has cleared away the weeds, the chance flowers will repay him for his labour :—

THE BEGGAR'S BELIEF.

God made man, man made money,
God made bees, the bees make honey,
God made the devil, the devil made sin,
And then they dug a hole to put naughty people in.


THE TRAMP'S HORNPIPE.

The turnpike road, the turnpike road,
Have you seen the devil,
With a wood and iron shovel,
Digging up potatoes in the turnpike road?

Have you seen his wife,
With a broad-bladed knife,
Scraping his potatoes in the turnpike road?

Have you seen his daughter,
With a little pail of water,
Washing his potatoes in the turnpike road?

Have you seen his son,
With a double-barrelled gun,
Shooting birds for dinner in the turnpike road?

Subject: Lyr Add: "Have you seen the devil...?"
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 03:33 PM

From English Folk-Rhymes edited by G. F. Northall (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1892), page 306:

In Hunt's Popular Romances of the West of England, 8vo, 1872, p. 245, is given—

Here's to the devil,
With his wooden pick and shovel,
Digging tin by the bushel,
With his tail cock'd up?

In Warwickshire there are three verses—

Have you seen the devil,
With his wood and iron shovel,
Digging up potatoes
In the turnpike road?

Have you seen his wife,
With a broad-bladed knife,
Scraping the potatoes
In the turnpike road?

Have you seen his daughter,
With a pail of dirty water
Washing the potatoes
In the turnpike road?

There is sometimes an additional verse, possibly modern—

Have you seen his son,
With a double-barrel'd gun,
Shooting birds for dinner
In the turnpike road?

These rhymes probably owe their origin to the familiar belief, that the devil on occasions undertakes labour for mortals, and gets through an enormous amount of work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: maeve
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 04:00 PM

Here's a link (short sample on Amazon) and mp3 available to purchase to June's track "Apples and Potatoes" on her "Against the Streams album. "Apples and Potatoes" sound sample

Listen to the full track with Spotify here: http://www.last.fm/music/June+Tabor/_/Apples+and+Potatoes

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: Reinhard
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 06:38 PM

This verse is from "Apples and Potatoes" on June Tabor's album "Against the Streams":

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

   From the singing of Joe Jones, gypsy, St Mary Cray, Kent



2. Tune: God Killed the Devil
   

   From the playing of Lemmie Brazil, gypsy, Gloucester



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

   From the singing of Jasper Smith, gypsy, Epsom, Surrey

All collected by Mike Yates in 1973-8

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: maeve
Date: 09 Oct 14 - 06:51 PM

Well done, thanks very much, Reinhard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: Uke
Date: 23 May 15 - 02:46 AM

Here's a version of this song, written down by the detective writer Ngaio Marsh. She heard it sung by drunken revellers on a night train on New Zealand's West Coast, Easter 1919:

Have you ever seen the devil with his little pick and shovel,
Digging of pertaters with his tail cocked up?

Have you ever seen his son with his daddy's gun
Shooting little bunnies with their tails cocked up?

Have you ever seen his wife with a carving knife
Cutting up pertaters with her tail cocked up?

[Have you] ever seen his daughter with a bucket gettin' water
From the well that's in the garden with her tail cocked up?


From 'Black Beech and Honeydew' (Auckland: William Colling, 1966), pp.105-106.

Many Irish emigrants settled on the West Coast and perhaps they brought this song with them to NZ. Or perhaps there is a Cornwall connection (cf. Hunt's 'Popular Romances of the West of England'), as some Cornish miners also worked in West Coast coal mines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: Reinhard
Date: 23 May 15 - 03:49 AM

When I see my posting from last year, I'm sorely reminded that I should use a spell checker... turnkipe, really! and puttig is missing an 'n'.

And the Topic album 'Travellers' that is only hinted at in two postings is now available as a digital download from the usual sources.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: Uke
Date: 23 May 15 - 03:21 PM

There are two songs on the Traditional Ballad Index which seem to be related:

Did You Ever See the Divil?
DESCRIPTION: The Devil dug "pritties" in the garden, swatting flies with his tail until "they dragged him back to prison." The Devil, overjoyed when the spuds were blighted and famine killed the people, was put in his place by Saint Patrick.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1939 (Tunney-StoneFiddle)
KEYWORDS: farming starvation Devil
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, p. 69, "Did You Ever See the Divil?" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stack of Barley" (tune, according to Tunney-StoneFiddle)
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (subject: the potato famines) and references there
NOTES: For the potato blight, see "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" and references there. The British policy was largely one of neglect (though this was more due to flawed economic opinions than actual cruelty), but it resulted in many deaths and even more people selling out and going to America. I have no idea why the song thinks the Devil was put in his place; the famines eventually ended, but the effects had been simply horrid. - RBW
File: TSF069



Oh, Mister Revel (Did You Ever See the Devil?)
DESCRIPTION: "Oh, Mr. Revel! Did you ever see the devil With wooden spade and shovel A-digging up the gravel With his long toe-nail?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: devil work nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 141, "Oh, Mr. Revel" (2 short texts)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 284, (no title) (2 fragments)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 252, "Did Ye Ever See the Divil" (1 short text)
Roud #16319
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Did You Ever, Ever, Ever" (theme)
File: Br3141

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 25 May 15 - 09:16 AM

From the "Irish Kid's Songs" thread, http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=30159#385467 , provided by Joe Offer:

DID YOU EVER SEE THE DEVIL?
Did you ever see the divil, with his wooden leg and shovel
Digging praties in the garden with his tail cocked up?
When the flies they started fizzin',
Sure that tail around went whizzing
But they dragged him off to prison where he's now locked up.
Fol de dol de dol de dol,
Fol de dol de diddle dol de dol,
Dol de diddle dol de dol dol dol.

To the divil's great delight, sure the spuds got black with blight,
And the people died all frightened of the famine and the woe,
But Saint Patrick taught him manners, and upset the foreign planner
He re-grew the Pinks and Banners in the fields both high and low.
Fol de dol, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 25 May 15 - 09:22 AM

American instances of this song are rarer, but some years ago I found this one in Horace Kephart, "Our Southern Highlanders," NY, Macmillan, 1913 and Rev Ed 1922, 1941, pp 81-2.

In the chapter "Bear Hunt in the Smokies," Kephart recounts,

"Then we discovered that there was musical talent, of a sort, in Little John. He cut a pigeon-wing, twirled around with an imaginary banjo, and sang in a quaint minor:

Did you ever see the devil
With his pitchfork and ladle,
And his old iron shovel
And his old gourd head?

O, I will go to meetin'
An' I will go to meetin'
Yes, I will go to meetin'
In an old tin pan."

I have looked for evidence that there may be related lyrics to the fiddle tune "Up Jumped the Devil" but so far have come up dry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 25 May 15 - 09:34 AM

Re the possible "Up Jumped the Devil" link, it looks unlikely. Ira Ford, Traditional Music in America, 1940, Hatbox, Pa, Folklore Associates, 1967, p 62, has the following, also quoted in the Fiddler's Companion website section dealing with "Devil's Dream," but it seems clearly unrelated. Just for comparison:

"Sometimes lyrics like these have been attached to the tune:

Forty days and forty nights
The Devil was a-dreaming,
Around the bark, old Noah's ark
The rain it was a-streaming.
The monkey washed the baboon's face,
The serpent combed his hair,
And up jumped the Devil
With his pitchfork in the air."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 25 May 15 - 09:42 AM

Doggone these autocorrects! The place of publication in the message above was supposed to be Hatboro, PA.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Along Came The Devil
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 26 May 15 - 07:48 AM

I agree, autocorrects can be a pain in the butt, though I do rather like Hatboro becoming Hatbox!