The moment New Order decided to “write a redneck song”
During the mid-1980s, New Order were firmly in their imperial phase, and everything the band touched turned to gold. In 1983, the northwest natives released their magnum opus, Power, Corruption & Lies, a project which they followed up tremendously with Low Life, solidifying themselves as one of the defining acts of the era.
The recording process of Low Life was an experimental period for New Order. It wasn’t only musical boundaries they were pushing, but the band excessively indulged in substances, and singer Bernard Sumner believes their activities enhanced the record’s sound. Speaking of the album opener, ‘Love Vigilantes’, the singer told Q: “Listen to ‘Love Vigilantes’. Listen to that chordal guitar solo. Listen to how fast it is. Impossible to recreate under normal circumstances.”
‘Love Vigilantes’ acts as the illuminating beginning of the album. The lyrics describe the adventures of a soldier at war who is desperate to be reunited with his family, whom he dearly misses. Later in the song, he finally returns to his family home and the arms of his confused wife. However, she had previously been sent a telegram informing her that he’d died.
Speaking to Melody Maker in 1986, Sumner said: “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.”
In 2012, Sumner again referred to the track as a “redneck song”. He revealed that for ‘Love Vigilantes’, he wrote it from scratch rather than making the music first and adding the lyrics afterwards. The singer told GQ (via SongFacts): “I did that with “Love Vigilantes” where I decided to write a redneck song,” he said. “It was quite tongue-in-cheek. It was about Vietnam. It was about a soldier that came back, and his wife was sent a telegram to say that he was dead.”
Sumner also explained how there isn’t a definitive meaning to the song, and listeners are free to interpret the ending however they choose. He added: “You can take the ending one way or another. He’s either dead, and he’s come back as a ghost, and he sees her, or he’s not dead, and the telegram was a mistake. But his wife’s got it and killed herself.”
While ‘Love Vigilantes’ is entirely fictional, with the track, Sumner highlighted those who suffered from the Vietnam War and potentially prematurely died fighting for their country in a needless international altercation. ‘Love Vigilantes’ is an anti-war classic, which shows there’s more to New Order than stimulating synthesisers and thrilling basslines.
