The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #23418 Message #1223249
Posted By: Bob Bolton
11-Jul-04 - 09:50 AM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Beer, Beer, Beer / Charlie Mopps
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beer, Beer, Beer (Charlie Mopps)
G'day,
Bill Weeks: I'm sure the song never appeared on the British "legitimate" stage ... it would never get past the Lord Chancellor (or whoever issued imprimatur for acceptable stage fare. However, someone might argue that really classic music hall material was what happened, in the early part of the 1800s, before it went "legitimate" ... when a bunch of Cockneys would rent a shop front and turn it into a "music hall" ... until authority descended on them - and they scarpered with the takings and a rent bill (if not a bill for repairing the unauthorised "renovations"!).
However, it probably comes out of the left end of working class ... and, obviously with the Redd Sullivan connection, the merchant marine (and maybe a Navy one too: " ... ought to be an Admiral ... &c ... ". The merchant marine connection certainly explains it turning up all round the world (even sapper82's Swedish "Balladen om Charlie Mopp"!
Sam: You are probably right ... and better placed than I am to speculate!