{"id":20128,"date":"2023-05-02T06:48:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T06:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=20128"},"modified":"2023-05-02T06:52:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T06:52:49","slug":"plum-and-apple","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/plum-and-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Plum and Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
First Published<\/td>1918<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>James Heard, Melville Gideon and Herman Darewski<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN10545<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Cast of \"The Better Ole\" Revue<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Anonymous Australian troops by Warren Fahey<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Twenty little soldiers were sitting in a row, \nGrousing at the whizz bangs and swearing at the foe.\n\"Oh! For just a rump steak! Wish I had the chance! \nSeems to me the only thing they ever grow in France\nIs..\n\nPlum and Apple, Apple and plum, \nPlum and apple, we have always some. \nThe ASC get strawberry jam and our rations of rum; \nBut all we poor blokes ever get is apple and plum<\/em>\n\nTwenty little soldiers, they heard the \"rooty call\"\nGot their serviettes out, in the dining hall.\n\"What you got today, Bill? Chicken and champagne?\nStrike me up and Apple tree! Well here we are again!\n\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A wartime song, whose chorus at least was widely sung by troops from English-speaking nations in World War I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This song was first sung as part of the revue The Better ‘Ole<\/em>, based on the humorous cartoons of Charles Bairnsfather. The production opened at London’s Oxford Theatre (formerly  the Oxford Music Hall) in August 1917. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strictly speaking, this song originates in a theatrical revue rather than the Halls, though the production did include the Music Hall star Tom Woottwell in a leading role. ( A revue in this context is a series of sketches, dances and songs linked together by a loose plot or theme. A Music Hall performance changed from week to week as the line up changed, a revue would be substantially the same in every performance.) <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The song was sung in the trenches by Australian, American and British troops and was not the only song to complain about the jam in World War 1, for example Take me back to dear old Blighty<\/em><\/a> and Fred Hilton’s Plum and Apple<\/em>) but there are others ..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It appears both in Warren Fahey’s  2015 collection Diggers (Songs of Australians at War)<\/em> and in Popular Songs of the A.E.F<\/em>. [American Expeditionary Force] published in 1918. Diggers <\/em>is widely available on commercial streaming services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n