What's this song?

It was a moderate hit about five years ago, at least on college/alternative stations. It told the story of a man, possible a solider, coming home after being gone for a long time. When he finally makes it back, he finds his wife crying and holding a telegram saying that he’s been killed, and he realizes that he’s a ghost. Spooky, huh?

I thought it was by Poi Dog Pondering, but I’m not positive and I don’t know what the title is. Any help would be greatly appreciated, because right now it’s bugging the hell out of me.

“Love Vigilantes” by New Order.

And it was actually from around 1986 …

1985 to be exact. From the album “Low Life”, one of my faves.

Yep, that’s it. It must have been put on my station’s rotation more recently. Sometimes they do that with an older song just to mix things up a bit. Somehow I missed it on the first go around. Of course I was in high school then, and the prospect of being serenaded by Duran Duran or Wham prompted me to keep the radio silent most of the time.

Did New Order’s song titles ever have any connection to the actual song? I can’t get where the bizarre love triangle is in “Bizarre Love Triangle” and I don’t even know what a love vigillante might be.

“Love Vigilantes” was covered by another fairly well-known band (I think, actually, Poi Dog Pondering, but I might be wrong) about five years ago. It’s likely that you heard the later version.

http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=303437509/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/ArtistID=OYSTERBAND/DDCN=SD-63656+148+2

I’ve never heard this song but just to be nice I looked it up on CDNow for you. Whoever the Oyster Band is, looks like they covered it. I can’t remember how to make that link look nicer, though.

I, too, have no idea who the Bizarre Love Triangle consists of. Even that cover where the chick sang real slow and you could hear all the words? Still didn’t figure it out…

[slightly off topic]
My favorite mis-heard lyric of New Order was a friend who heard the line (from “Spooky” I think):

“I want to be up in the air
I could be anywhere”

and thought it was:

“I want to be an Indian
I could pee anywhere.”

Which makes more sense, really.

Yes, Poi Dog Pondering covered it on their album Fruitless.

Thanks, I’m feeling better now. I was feeling pretty stupid for mixing up Poi Dog Pondering with New Order. It’s good to know that I actually didn’t.

BTW, the cover of “Bizarre Love Triangle” was by Frente! (I think the exclamation point is part of their name.)

I forgot to mention that “Love Vigilantes” was also on “The Best of New Order” which was released in 1995. Maybe the song had a resurgence with that release.