You're My Waterloo

Album: Anthems for Doomed Youth (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Co-vocalist Carl Barat told Q magazine this was written "back when I was working at the Old Vic (near London Waterloo rail station) and going to theatre bars all night." He added that it's "a touching song of brotherhood."
  • The song was first recorded by The Libertines during their early Odessa studio set of demos. It was sometimes played at live shows, both by Peter Doherty solo and by The Libertines after their 2014 reunion. The inclusion of this old song on Anthems for Doomed Youth, came at Barat's suggestion. "I had to fish for that," he told NME in 2015. "The way that had been recorded and remembered didn't seem like we had done it justice. It's such a beautiful thing, and it's still just as pertinent as it ever was to us. Also, I wanted to play a piano part on it. I never got to do that before because I only learned how to play piano last year."
  • Producer Jake Gosling said this showcases Doherty at his very best. "That was one vocal take from him," said Gosling. "That was it. Literally, I swear. He did it, one take, nailed it."
  • The black-and-white, romance-tinged video was directed by Carl Barat with regular Libertines collaborator, photographer Roger Sargent. It stars Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Spiderwick Chronicles) and Marama Corlett (Guardians of the Galaxy, Sinbad) as a pair of lovers immersed in each other cavorting around the Waterloo area at night. Sargent explained:

    "Carl was keen to show a glimpse of the London he and Peter knew before The Libertines, a kind of nocturnal nether world, beautiful, intense, romantic. We decided not to feature the band and to tell a story through the eyes of a fictional boy and a girl. It was a perfect opportunity to work with Carl, to make the story and the setting come alive... I wanted it to hold a mirror up to Peter and Carl's relationship, but with more purity and beauty than is usually portrayed."

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