New Order Songs - Love Vigilantes Lyrics

New Order - Love Vigilantes

New Order - Love Vigilantes Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Low-Life
Released: 1985

Love Vigilantes Lyrics

Oh I've just come
From the land of the sun
From a war that must be won
In the name of truth
With our soldiers so brave
your freedom we will save
With our rifles and grenades
And some help from God
I want to see my family
My wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see

You just can't believe
The joy I did receive
When I finally got my leave
And I was going home
Oh I flew through the sky
my convictions could not lie
For my country I would die
And I will see it soon
I want to see my family
My wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see

When I walked through the door
My wife she lay upon the floor
And with tears her eyes were sore
I did not know why
Then I looked into her hand
And I saw the telegram
That said that I was a brave, brave man
But that I was dead
I want to see my family
My wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone, you see

Writer/s: MORRIS, STEPHEN PAUL DAVID/HOOK, PETER/SUMNER, BERNARD (GB 2)/GILBERT, GILLIAN LESLEY
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Love Vigilantes Song Chart

This song is about a soldier who feels he is fighting for a noble cause, but looks forward to returning home to his family. In a twist ending, he comes home and finds his wife crying on the floor. A note in her hand reveals that the soldier has been killed, and he is home only in spirit.

New Order frontman Bernard Sumner wrote the lyric. His feelings about war are nuanced - he considered fighting for Britain in the 1982 Falklands War when Argentina invaded the British islands, but he is generally opposed to war.

In this song, he takes a stab at the kind of guy who just looks for aggression. "It's like a rebel song but it's very tongue-in-cheek," he told Melody Maker in 1986. "It's kinda laughing at rednecks. From what I said you may construe it to mean that I'm a redneck - I am not a redneck, I assure you, and 'Love Vigilantes' is like laughing at rednecks. The more ridiculous my lyrics are, the less serious the song is."

The band was in an altered state throughout recording the Low-Life album, relying on a cadre of engineers to piece together the tracks in a meticulous manner. Bernard Sumner says that the drug influence on their playing is quite evident on this track. He told Q magazine: "Listen to 'Love Vigilantes.' Listen to that chordal guitar solo. Listen to how fast it is. Impossible to recreate under normal circumstances."

Like many New Order songs, the title does not appear in the lyrics and appears to have nothing to do with the song.