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Stop the Cavalry
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Wikipedia article
"'Stop the Cavalry'" is an anti-war song written and performed by the English musician Jona Lewie, released in 1980. The song peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart in December 1980, at one point being kept from number one by two re-issued songs by John Lennon, who had been murdered on 8 December that year. Initially a stand-alone single, the song was included on Lewie's album 'Heart Skips Beat' which was released nearly two years later.
In an interview for Channel 4's '100 Greatest Christmas Moments', Lewie said that the song was never intended as a Christmas hit, and that it was a protest song. Indeed, some overseas releases (for example, in South Africa and New Zealand) were in the spring rather than at Christmas. The line "Wish I was at home for Christmas", as well as the brass band arrangements made it an appropriately styled song to play around Christmas time. Lewie had said that royalties received from the song account for 50 per cent of his income stream.
The song's promotional video is set in the trenches of the First World War. The lyrics of the song mention cavalry and Winston Churchill (who served as the First Lord of the Admiralty in the first year of the war, prior to serving in the trenches himself), but it breaks with the First World War theme with references to nuclear fallout and the line "I have had to fight, almost every night, down throughout these centuries". Lewie described the song's soldier as being "a bit like the eternal soldier at the Arc de Triomphe".
At the time of the song's release there was an increase in tension between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, with American-controlled nuclear cruise missiles being stationed in the UK and a renewed fear of nuclear war, which was referenced in the lyrical mention of the fallout zone.
According to a 2017 poll conducted by 'The Irish Times', "Stop the Cavalry" is the fourth most popular Christmas song in Ireland.
Charts
Certifications
See also
* List of anti-war songs
References
Category:Songs about soldiers
Category:Songs about the military
Category:Songs about World War I
Category:Anti-war songs
Category:British Christmas songs
Category:1980 singles
Category:Jona Lewie songs
Category:Songs written by Jona Lewie
Category:1980 songs
Category:Stiff Records singles
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