Description
Stop the Cavalry by the English singer/songwriter Jona Lewie (born John Lewis in 1947) was never conceived as a Christmas single – it was intended as a protest about war. The song centres around a weary and cold soldier stuck in the trenches, longing to go home, but there are also more modern references to nuclear war. Lewie described the song’s soldier who ‘had to fight, almost every night, down throughout the centuries’ as being “a bit like the eternal soldier at the Arc de Triomphe”.
Lewie’s record label initially dismissed it as ‘just another anti-war song’ but Lewie persevered, beefing up his arrangement and using – of all things – a kazoo to play the melody line. On hearing it again Lewie’s producer was inspired by the line ‘Wish I was at home for Christmas’. Spotting a marketing opportunity the Christmassy feel was ramped up further by adding in a brass band and tubular bells to the arrangement.
Had it not been for the murder of John Lennon on 8 December and the subsequent re-issue of a couple of his songs, Stop the Cavalry would have certainly become the 1980 Christmas No. 1. It did, however, top the charts in several other European countries. It has remained a festive favourite ever since.
