The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #21373   Message #1428554
Posted By: Joe Offer
07-Mar-05 - 02:18 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Quartermaster's Stores
Subject: ADD Version: Quartermaster Stores
Here's a substantial list - from Roy Palmer's What a Lovely War: British Soldier Songs from the Boer War to the Present Day (1990)(no tunes in this book)

The Quartermaster Stores

There was ham, ham, mixed up with the jam,
in the stores, in the stores.
There was ham, ham, mixed up with the jam,
In the quartermaster stores.
(Chorus)
My eyes are dim, I cannot see,
I have not brought my specs with me,
I have not brought my specs with me.

Eggs ... running round on legs.
Cheese . . . green as garden peas.
Bread . . . heavy as lumps of lead.
Meat . . . soled your boots a treat.
Beer . . . makes you feel so queer.
Port... turns a prude into a sport.
Whisky. .. makes you feel so frisky.
Gin . . . that brings a girl to sin.
Brandy . . . makes you feel so randy.
Rats . . . big as bloody cats.
Bugs . .. big as deep-sea tugs.
Mice . . . trying to catch the lice.
Fleas . . . all with housemaid's knees.
Slugs . .. drinking from army mugs.
Phil .. . fiddling the till.
Bob .. . playing with his knob.
Frank ... having a Midland Bank.
Hall ... he's only got one ball.
Brown .. . with his knackers hanging down.

(Spoken) My name's Hunt, and I'm going home.

I don't think I hear a relationship between this and the tunes I know for "Power in the Blood" and "In My Father's House." There's a tune in the Digital Tradition (click), but there may be other tunes for this song.
-Joe Offer-
The Traditional Ballad Index lists versions of this song only in the Digital Tradition and in the Silbers' Folksinger's Word Book. Here's the Ballad Index entry:

Quartermaster Corps, The (The Quartermaster Store)

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, it's beer , beer, beer that makes you feel so queer, In the corps, in the corps." "My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me." Similarly, "...cheese... brings you to your knees," and so forth with other army items
AUTHOR: unknown

EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: army soldier food disease nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Silber-FSWB, p. 272, "The Quartermaster Store" (1 text)

DT, QMCORP*
Roud #10508
File: FSWB272A


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The Ballad Index Copyright 2004 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


Songs from the Front and Rear has a tune that's much closer to the chorus of "Power in the Blood."

Click to play