"Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)"
Song by the Beatles
from the album Live at the BBC
Released	1991
Recorded	1963
Genre	Rhythm and blues
Length	1:59
Label	Apple Records
Songwriter(s)	Buzz Cason, Tony Moon
Producer(s)	George Martin

"Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)," also known as "Soldiers of Love," is a 1962 song written by Buzz Cason and Tony Moon that was originally recorded by soul artist Arthur Alexander and released as a single, with the B-side being "Where Have You Been (All My Life)." The song was later covered by The Beatles during a 1963 session at the BBC, that is available on the 1994 album Live at the BBC. It was also covered by The Kaisers, Marshall Crenshaw, Pearl Jam and The Derailers.

Music critic Dave Marsh suggests that "Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)" may have been lost to history had the Beatles not heard it and recorded a cover version of it. He writes that the song was mostly forgotten until a bootleg of the Beatles' recording emerged in the late 1970s. Marsh describes Alexander's version of the song as having an "off-center Latin rhythm" and his vocals as having a country and western music sound. Marsh rates it as one of the top 1,001 singles of all time, praising its "inexorable rhythmic flow" and the way the lyrics and music combine to create a "metaphor in which strife among lovers becomes a cry for universal peace."Allmusic critic Richie Unterberger suggests that the mixing of love and martial metaphors is almost overdone, although the song manages to avoid sounding gimmicky. Unterberger attributes this to the song's "fine sad" minor key melody, the "dignity" of Alexander's vocal, the exchanges between Alexander and the backup singers and the "restrained" string instruments.

...
Wikipedia