The song was recorded on 25 February 1982 by a three-piece line-up of Prefab Sprout comprising vocalist and guitarist
Paddy McAloon, bassist Martin McAloon and drummer Michael Salmon. McAloon has described this early lineup as sounding like a mix of
the Clash and
Steely Dan.
Wendy Smith joined the band later in 1982. The song utilises simple instrumentation – acoustic guitar, bass, drums, harmonica and vibraphone – but the structure is complex, ignoring the conventional verse-chorus pattern. According to Adrian Thrills of
NME, "the meandering melody line takes more than a cursory listen before it connects". Despite the song garnering comparisons to
Scottish jangle pop bands
Orange Juice and
Aztec Camera, McAloon was influenced by
the Beatles. McAloon would comment "For me, it’s very close to "
Love Me Do", very pure, spontaneous." The lyric concern McAloon's feelings about being apart from his one-time girlfriend, who had left England to study Law in the
University of Limoges. McAloon wrote the song to show how much he missed her, and took the letters of
Limoges to create the song title, with the name of the city acting as an acronym. McAloon explained in a 1988 interview "this idea of having lions watching you in your own garden matches the feeling of insecurity coming from the abnormality of the situation. Something scary, expressed in a language of my own". ==Release==