Apple Suckling Tree

We’re under a tree.

An old man is in a boat,

And my wife's with me.

I confess: I don't know what on earth this song is about. I fell back on the old Reuters rule: tell the reader what you see. I think that Dylan and the Band played this twice at most in Saugerties at the Big Pink house or somewhere in that area. (My Dylan recording arcana knowledge is less than you might think it is) It's one of the songs that first attracted me to the Basement Tapes recordings, but it's all feeling and no lyric, in a way. Each version has significantly different but equally nonsensical lyrics. I drew on both.

Sample:

I push him back and I stand in line, Oh yeah!

Then I push my lady and stand in line, Oh yeah!

Then I push my lady and stand in line

I get on board like a two-eyed time, Oh yeah!

And

Old man down like a county hook, my man

Old man down like a county hook, my man

pull man down a county hook

[Something something something] take a look

Pull him down in a county hook, my man.