Horse Soldier!

A music reviewer I ain't; read at your own peril.



What to say about Corb Lund's 'Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!' except that I like it a great deal. It's country music for people that don't like country - it ain't a bit Boot Scoot Boogie and Lund has a way with music and lyrics . . .

I tried my best to stop them, yes, I tried to make them wait
And I appealed to their decency show mercy on this day
I issued them strong orders on pain of death and disarray
But in the end they would not listen and raised their lances anyway

Men of no account they were, their breeding crude and low
With not a trace of wisdom, Grace or virtue in their souls
Yet trained them long and hard I did to bend them to the crown
To act as tools of justice, follow edict handed down

You see these were not militia men, a-fighting for their homes
Nor fathers, sons nor husbands, sire, but foreigners on loan
Mercenary killers, career soldiers to a man
Lashing out with vengeance one cannot accept or understand

I could not instill the discipline 'twas duty to inspire
And they responded in the end to instincts of the basest kind
Now on my knee before you here, I drop my eyes in shame
Albeit little consolation take my head for I'm to blame

O, so spoke the leader on losing control

~ A Leader On Losing Control

Now, I'm not an English Lit major and I know ol' Rudyard is not well thought of but ... that would not be out of place in Barrack-Room Ballads, nor would this, if Tommy Atkins were from somewhere south of the Mason Dixon . . .

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before

Courageous at first we took their worst, our positions we held stout
We clung to belief and we hung on the speech from our trusted leaders’ mouths
Overwhelming odds and a hopeless cause and our cities overrun
There were them that said we was badly led and God were we outgunned

I lost count of the worthy mounts that from under me were cut
My favourite mare with her head in the air took the cannons in her gut
In the first two weeks on that bloody creek my brother lost his arm
Was only sixty days till all we prayed was get us home unharmed

~ I Wanna Be In The Cavalry: Reprise

So .. ya. Country music for people that don't like country.

'I Wanna Be In The Cavalry' on YouTube - click here.