Lloyd George's Beer

DESCRIPTION: "We shall win the war. We shall win the war. As I said before, we shall win the war," because they have the beer -- "Lloyd George's Beer (x2). At the brewery, there's nothing doing All the water works are brewing." It's the worst thing in the war
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946) (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (recording, Ernie Mayne)
KEYWORDS: war humorous drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 41-42, "Lloyd George's Beer" (1 text)
Roud #V53407
RECORDINGS:
Ernie Mayne, "Lloyd George's Beer" (unknown label, 1917)
NOTES [573 words]: At the start of World War I, everyone expected a quick war. It of course didn't happen. The economies of the participants therefore had to be reorganized to support the vast cost of the war. David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer at the start of the war, took charge of the (new) Ministry of Munitions in May 1915, was given the War Department in 1916, then became Prime Minister in late 1916 as a result of a cabinet coup. In the first of those offices, he stared imposing government controls on firms that could produce armaments (especially artillery shells, which had long been in short supply); after he became Prime Minister, "he extended government controls over the economy through a set of new ministries headed by leading businessmen" (Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Dictionary of the First World War, 1995 (I use the 2003 Pen & Sword paperback), p. 289). Obviously many of the standardized, mass-produced products created in this way were less desirable than earlier, more customized products. The problem may have been especially severe with beer, because Lloyd George tried to reduce alcohol consumption.
According to a note on mudcat.org by "Monologue John," this was the very first Weston and Lee collaboration, written in 1915, meaning it was written after Lloyd George started trying to reduce alcohol consumption but before he completely controlled the economy.
For another example of the effects of Lloyd George's standardization, see "When the War Is Over, We Shall Have Some Jam."
There were other music hall songs on this topic. John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 168, reports, "Rationing, applied from early1918, and other wartime restrictions, gave rise to a number of songs such as 'Sugar,' which tells of the antics of a man in desperate search of a bag of sufar, 'Lloyd George's Beer,' and 'Never Mind the Food Controller, We'll Live on Love.'" Mullen further suggests that this song was about more than weak beer: "Singing along against Lloyd George in 1917 could be comforting to audiences who had other, inexpressible, reasons to be angry with the man."
There is one other dating hint in the song, the line "Said Haig to Joffre when affairs looked black." Douglas Haig was with the British Expeditionary force for the entire war. He began as commander of the British I Corps, commanded the First Army from December 1914 when it was formed, then became commander of all British forces in France in December 1915 (Pope/Wheal, p. 217). Despite having a skill set that consisted of little more than the ability to demand high casualties of his men and feel no pangs of conscience, he retained that post until the end of the war.
Joseph Joffre was the French Chief of the General Staff (i.e. commander of the Army) at the start of the war. But he was removed from that post in December 1916 ("promoted" to a ceremonial post; Pope/Wheal, pp. 257-258). Thus the song as it stands, with that line in it, must be from before December 1916, and makes the most sense from December 1915 to December 1916. Which seems to contradict Monologue John's date, but it could easily have been rewritten -- all they would have to do is substitute "Haig" for "French," the commander Haig succeeded.
For the long list of songs by R. P. Weston, or Weston and Bert Lee, see the notes to "Goodbye-ee." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: AWTBW041

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography