Songfacts®:

• This call to arms finds James Dean Bradfield begging people to revolt against the career rock 'n' rollers and cynical money-makers that view music as commerce rather than art. The Manics premiered the tune at Brixton Academy in London on April 12, 2014.
• Bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire sees this slice of barbed Manics discontent as the last of a punkish trilogy that also includes "You Love Us" (1992) and "The Masses Against The Classes" (2000). "Let's Go To War has implications of the crisis of the working classes in it, but it's also referencing us as a band," he told NME. "Let's have one last angry song, like 'The Masses Against The Classes' or 'You Love Us' that references are own desire to lay waste."
• The song was included on the band's 2014 Futurology album. The Guardian asked the Manics if it felt strange performing a song like that when all three are now 45? "There's still loads of anger and hate: that's what keeps us alive," replied drummer Sean Moore. "When I go out there, it's always with clenched teeth."
  
  "There's a massive dollop of dumb punkness in us," added Bradfield, "and that gets me through wanting to deliver songs like 'Let's Go to War.' It's, 'this is what I was built for,' so I don't care that I'm 45. It's cool.'"
• Previous collaborator Cate Le Bon ("4 Lonely Roads") and psychedelic Welsh singer H Hawkline provided the song's war chant backing vocals.
• Asked by the NME what the Manics are going to war with, James Dean Bradfield replied: "With our own cynicism, to a certain degree."
  
  The vocalist added: "It's strange to get the age of 45 and not feel like I have a natural home for my vote. You're at war with your own cynicism, because if you give into that, then perhaps you don't vote at all, and that feels a bit unacceptable to me."