It’s a holiday tradition at The Mountain. As we sprinkle the festive seasonal sounds into the music mix this time of year, we also prepare to take a million questions about a mysterious and unusual song called Stop the Cavalry by the Cory Band. Here’s the scoop:
Who wrote Stop the Cavalry?
The song was originally written and recorded by a 70s British pub-rocker named Jona Lewie. He put out a couple of releases on Stiff Records, a legendary U.K. punk label. (Other artists on the label back in the day included Ian Dury, The Damned, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and Madness.) Although Lewie’s original version of the song was kind of subdued and way less rousing than the version we play now, Stop the Cavalry became a pretty big Christmas hit in Britain in 1980, and it still is. (Apparently Lewie didn’t originally intend it to be a Christmas song – he added the holiday reference after realizing the record would be released in November.)
What’s the song about?
According to Jona Lewie, "the original title was Can You Stop the Gallantry. The song is about the human perspective, the sympathy for what the soldier's going through. I suppose it was a bit inspired by The Charge of the Light Brigade as well."
Who’s the Cory Band?
Details are sketchy, but apparently Stiff Records thought a more stirring and robust arrangement would benefit the song so in 1981 they hired the little-known Cory Band and the Gwalia Singers (a veteran male choral group from the Welsh coastal town of Swansea) to jazz it up a little. This gave the song an even more majestic holiday vibe. Stiff sent the new version out to “progressive” FM stations around the country that were already playing some of the label’s more cutting-edge artists, and it was pretty much ignored . . . except in the Northwest.
How did it get on the radio in the Northwest?
One of the stations that received the Cory Band’s version of Stop the Cavalry was KEZX in Seattle, a predecessor of The Mountain that was legendary for its eclectic mix of music. Peyton Mays (who would later spend a couple of years at The Mountain) thought the song sounded infectious (in a good way, not a swine flu pandemic way). To him, “it sounded like something you’d grown up with the first time you heard it – and yet the lyrics were pretty dark.” He threw it on the air, the phones lit up like . . . well, like a Christmas tree, and a Northwest holiday tradition was born.
How do I get my hands on the song?
Michael Bott, part owner/operator of Silver Platters in Seattle, remembers first hearing the song on the radio in 1981 and getting lots of inquiries about it in the store. When KEZX went under, airplay and interest in the Cory Band died down until the early 1990s when The Mountain was born and Stop the Cavalry hit the airwaves once again. (Other stations claimed to have “discovered” the song over the years, but they’re just rewriting history.)
Sometime in the late 1980s a local guy named Duane Smart struck a deal to buy the Cory Band’s version of Stop the Cavalry from Rhino Records, which was readying a Stiff Records box set. That’s when Rhino discovered that some careless engineer had recorded over the original stereo studio master but they dug up a pretty clean mono tape, which for many years was the only existing version. Recently a fresh stereo recording of the song was unearthed, and for the first time it’s available only at Silver Platters stores in the Seattle area for $7.99. Here’s the link:
What the heck are the words?
Here you go . . . pour yourself an eggnog and sing along at home:
Hey, Mr. Churchill comes over here
to say we're doing splendidly
But it's very cold out here in the snow,
marching to win from the enemy
Oh I say it's tough,I have had enough
Can you stop the cavalry?
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?
Mary Bradley waits at home
in the nuclear fall-out zone
Wish I could be dancing now
in the arms of the girl I love
Chorus:
Dub a dub a dum dum
Dub a dub a dum
Dub a dum dum dub a dub
Dub a dub a dum
Dub a dub a dum dum
Dub a dub a dum
Dub a dum dum dub a dub
Dub a dub a dum
Wish I was at home for Christmas
Bang! That's another bomb on another town
While Luzar and Jim have tea
If I get home, live to tell the tale
I'll run for all presidencies
If I get elected I'll stop - I will stop the cavalry
Chorus
Wish I could be dancing now
in the arms of the girl I love
Mary Bradley waits at home
She has been waiting 2 years long
Wish I was at home for Christmas.
