First Thing They Asked For, The

DESCRIPTION: "The first thing they asked for, they asked for some beer, Gallons and gallons of beautiful beer, And if we have one beer, may we also have ten? ... said the airmen, 'Amen.'" They ask for girls, pay, planes, and curse officers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: soldier drink war money hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada Britain(England)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, pp. 94-95, "The First Thing They Asked For" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, p. 133, "The Airmen's Prayer" (1 text)
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 125-126, "A Matelot and a Pongo" (1 text, with tune on p. 152)
cf. Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 239, "The Soldier and the Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #350
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier and the Sailor" (lyrics, some versions)
cf. "Girls of the King's Navy" (lyrics, form)
NOTES [89 words]: Roud lumps this with "The Soldier and the Sailor," and it is true that some versions of that, such as Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland's, are so close that they could go with either song (and, in fact, I've filed it in both places). But the Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear version of this is so distinct from the standard "The Soldier and the Sailor" that I think they should be kept separate. This consists solely of requests for a good time plus (in Hopkins's version) a curse on officers "stealing the beer from the old AC2." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Hopk094

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