Never Mind the Food Controller
An uplifting music hall song, intended to provide comfort during wartime food rationing.
Year:c1918
Location:Recorded in the UK
Never Mind the Food Controller
An uplifting music hall song, intended to provide comfort during wartime food rationing.
Year: c1918
Length: 3:16
Credits: Composers Lee and Weston / Performer: Florrie Forde
Source: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Catalogue Reference: NFSA title: 1216979
People: Composers Lee and Weston / Performer: Florrie Forde
Location: Recorded in the UK
Tags: popular music, Florrie Forde, food rationing
Subject: popular music
Two years into the war, sugar in England cost twice as much as it had in 1914, and even bread and potatoes had doubled in price. In Germany things were even worse due to a British naval blockade. Germans were quite literally starving to death by 1918, surviving on turnips and sawdust-filled sausages.
The British government introduced rationing and other wartime restrictions in early 1918. This gave rise to songs such as ‘Sugar’, which tells the antics of a man in desperate search for a bag of sugar, and ‘Never Mind the Food Controller’, in which a man comforts his wife, claiming that while food may be in short supply, they can survive on their love for one another. Songs about rationing expressed frustration but always in a comic tone which was comforting for audiences.
In this recording, ‘Never Mind the Food Controller’ is sung by Florrie Forde. Forde was a music hall artist born in Melbourne who performed all her life – literally. She collapsed and died from a cerebral haemorrhage after singing for troops in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1940.
Forde released 700 individual recordings between 1903 and 1936. She had a powerful stage presence and specialised in songs with memorable choruses in which the audience was encouraged to join. She was at the height of her fame during the First World War.
Never mind the Food Controller – lyrics (chorus)
Never mind the Food Controller
We’ll live on love
Just one kiss and a squeeze
Will be better than bread and cheese
Never mind my sugar ration
For your lips I’ve got a passion
They’re so sweet, they’ll sweeten all my tea and coffee
They’re as sweet as any toffee
Never mind the Food Controller
My turtledove
For breakfast and dinner
We can have a little cup of love, sweet love
You can warm it up for supper
Never mind the Food Controller
We’ll live on love