In the next of our series of great Christmas songs recommended by great Merseyside bands we have Little Name talking about Jona Lewie's Stop the Cavalry...
Without fail this song conjures up Christmas' for me. The brass bands (and how I love a brass band), the peeling and sleigh bells, & the chiming organ, its just the perfect English Christmas package but theres more to this song than just the festive.
In many ways the Christmas feel to it is secondary as even as a child I recognised the lyrical motivation behind the song (Im sure I wasn't alone in this and it was made all the easier by the blatant video).
Lewie writes :“I have had to fight, almost every night ,down throughout these centuries ,That is when I say, oh yes yet again ,Can you stop the cavalry?”, which speaks of how ordinary Working Class people are forever the cannon-fodder for gripes between the establishments of their respective countries.
Nothing has changed, nothing and so this song is a cut above the regular frothy song. It has something to say but if you don't want to hear it, its a lament, its 'Seasons in the Sun” for Winter, its a Christmas Carol. Wonderful stuff.
As for what I want Santa to bring me this year then that's too easy. Im not sure Santa and I are on speaking terms anymore though as he never calls by, he never writes back and I know that he has his elves watching throughout the year. That's a real concern but if hes reading this then Id love an iPhone and I promise that Ive been a good boy.
For more information on Little Name see www.littlename.co.uk