It’s not hard to guess why this song has come back into my mind for the first time in decades, with history repeating itself in Lebanon.

I well remember the shock when it came out: it was over a since the last of The Human League’s run of brilliant hits – Mirror Man and (Keep Feeling) Fascination.

And when they returned with The Lebanon, it was not just with an unexpected diversion into politics, but also with GUITARS.

Jo Callis’s slashing electric guitar riff sounded so bizarrely out of place after all those electro hits; in fact they sounded like something you’d hear on a record by The Cult.

Still, the much-mocked lyrics – inspired by the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 – might look lame on paper but they sounded impassioned and important on record.

And obviously they have a horrible resonance with political events repeating themselves today.

The Lebanon was the first single taken from The Human League’s poorly received fourth album Hysteria, which had taken them a year to record at Air Studios at a cost of £1,000, with three different producers – Martin Rushent, Chris Thomas and (eventually) Hugh Padgham. 

The 12-inch extended mix is even better: