My take is that it's about the way military recruitment people aggressively target disdvantaged youngsters ("the boys form the Mersey, and the Thames, and the Tyne", all struggling areas of England at this time), as a way of providing soldiers and reducing unemployment figures in one fell swoop. Oliver Cromwell created Britain's first organised army, hence the song title. None of this can describew the brilliance of Steve Nieve's keyboard meldoy for the song, which is surely the track's real appeal.
My take is that it's about the way military recruitment people aggressively target disdvantaged youngsters ("the boys form the Mersey, and the Thames, and the Tyne", all struggling areas of England at this time), as a way of providing soldiers and reducing unemployment figures in one fell swoop. Oliver Cromwell created Britain's first organised army, hence the song title. None of this can describew the brilliance of Steve Nieve's keyboard meldoy for the song, which is surely the track's real appeal.