With Remembrance Day around the corner, people will wear poppies and reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice. But for Ottawa-based political folksinger Christophe Elie, the annual ceremonies and moments of silence don’t compare to the mental, physical, and emotional turmoil each military person encounters in the line of duty. That cold reality is delicately but directly detailed in Elie’s latest single “A Soldier’s Face,” a terse but tremendous song epitomizing the horrors of war and the psychological scars that run just as deep as physical ones.
Elie says he wrote “A Soldier’s Face” on Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in America), 2013 and it first appeared on his 2016 album Bridging Borders. This latest version is the first time it’s been released digitally across all platforms “in recognition of the veterans living across Turtle Island” and the upcoming day of remembrance.” Elie says the song’s inspiration stemmed from wanting to do more than just attending or watching on television Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa’s War Memorial including witnessing the red poppies placed on cenotaphs, planes flying overhead, cannons, salutes, the trumpeter performing “The Last Post,” and the silence afterwards. ”We should do more than just remember.”
“While it is always a beautiful, melancholic tribute to those lost to war and an important opportunity for veteran families to reflect on lives lost, I always wondered how this day is in support of the ultimate goal, ‘Never again,'” Elie says.
“Of course, we must remember those lives lost and the veterans still alive, who suffer the nightmares, grieve their brothers in arms and relive the carnage they’ve witnessed.
“But I’ve always thought, ‘Why are our veterans suffering, having to fight for mental health services while, at that time (then Canadian Prime Minister) Stephen Harper was shutting down veteran facilities that provided services to these former soldiers?’ We love the ceremony, but don’t want to pay the cost of wars passed.”
“A Soldier’s Face,” written by Elie and co-produced by Elie and Dave Draves,” features Draves providing subtle synthesizer in the background while Elie, on lead vocal and acoustic guitar, sings the gritty but genuine tale of war, bloodshed and being the “messenger of a country’s deadly message.” Elie wrote the song as a poem and then added music as accompaniment, which is the only time he’s used this approach in his rich career. Songs such as the legendary “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, “Barry McGuire’s “Eve Of Destruction” and Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, would be fine comparisons to the depth emanating from “A Soldier’s Face.”
Lyrics from “A Soldier’s Face” were included, with Elie’s permission, in a book by American military veteran and photographer Roger Raepple for his 2021 book Remember – A Tribute to Veterans and their Families. Prior to that, the single inspired Elie to stage concerts in 2018 to raise money for the Guitars for Vets program.
“A Soldier’s Face” is the latest from Elie, who cites ’60s political folksingers such as McGuire, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Phil Ochs as influences. The son of a Haitian-born father who realized the injustices and inequality some faced, Elie would later become part of the group The Source before heading towards a solo career.
The musician, who has performed at the Montreal Folk Festival and various editions of the Folk Alliance International, released his debut album Deepest Shade Of Blue in 2008. His sophomore album Bridging Borders was released in 2016. Earlier in 2024, he released the poignant single “Columbia” concerning the situation in the Middle East, particularly Gaza. And in October, he released “Trump’s Tweets,” a timely single concerning the 2024 American Presidential election.
Now with “A Soldier’s Face” being re-released, Christophe Elie has given fans and listeners a song which should make people remember, support and honor soldiers past and present the other 364 days besides just the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
