Apple Squeezin’ Time

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: March 23, 2004

There was matrimony applejack for Uncle Jerry’s bride.
We made it in the summer so they’d have it by their side.
For everlastin’ love, we added roots and turnip greens,
Dandelions and cherry blooms and tender lima beans.
And then to clinch the deal and bind it up with chain and lock
We added in a good supply of last year’s stock.
We sealed it in a goat skin, put it on a rack,
Hung an apple over it and called it applejack.

Refrain:
Frost bitten freezin’ time
Frozen apple squeezin’ time.
You’ll find aunt Luce
Anywhere there’s applejuice,
Feelin’ like an apple on the vine—
Ain’t that fine! But don’t take mine!

There was camp meetin’ applejack for hallelujah time.
We had to put an apple in and wasn’t that a crime
But just to give it strength enough to knock the devil down
We added in some sugar beets and stirred it all around.
Uncle Ira swore that he could hear the devil shout.
Granny took a hefty swig & swung and knocked him out
And that’s the reason why today the devil seems afraid
To interfere at meetin’ time where applejack is made.

There was applejack special that we always used to make
To counteract the biting of the poison rattlesnake.
Grandad always added in a little wheat and corn,
Set it in the cellar until after Easter morn.
Then he took it down the holler to the cider mill
Brought it home and run it thru his private still,
Took a little nip or two or maybe three or four,
Smacked his lips and run it thru eleven times or more.

There was applejack we used to make and keep for every use
Feuds and fights and frosty nights and all around abuse.
A recipe we never followed there among the hills
Rusty nails and kitten tails and little Carter pills.
We added everything we couldn’t use for nothin’ else
Angle worms and harness rings and rawhide belts.
Applejack, applejack flowin’ thick and thin.
I don’t recall the day we ever put an apple in.

The most popular group in Los Angeles in the early 1930s was The Beverly Hill Billies, and the Sons of the Pioneers were originally billed as a hillbilly band themselves, winning the “National Hillbilly Championship” in 1935.

They appeared as a backwoods family in the Liberty picture The Old Homestead early in 1935, followed in three months by another similar movie, a Mack Sennett short Way Up Thar. Nolen wrote several rustic songs for these movies as well as for the group's public appearances.

Production still from the Mack Sennett short "Way Up Thar", 1935
Left to right: Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, Hugh Farr, Joan Davis, Karl Farr, Leonard Slye (Roy Rogers) and Myra Keaton

By 1936, their hillbilly image was morphing into western. Tailored cowboy outfits replaced their rags, and Bob Nolan's western songs grew in popularity.

This song was finally registered for copyright on March 23, 2004.

There is no published sheet music for this song, but there is a copy of the lyrics in Bob Nolan’s repertoire index card box. There is an “E♭” penciled on the card to designate the key so we know the poem was set to music and had been performed, but the melody has been lost.

Typed copy of the lyrics from Bob Nolan’s repertoire box

This song was never commercially recorded, but the late Wayne Austin Shrope volunteered to recite the piece for us.