He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
On the corners of boulevards I call your name
Now and again they play our tune
In the grip of a tiny hand over a flame
Pale as the phases of the moon ...
In the cafes and shopping malls I see your face
turn into mist on evening dew
but a book and a photograph just aren't the same
there is a train that's leaving soon
...Budapest by Blimp
Over pillars and palaces I'll hold your hand
Until the fog is lifted
May be better you hold me close than understand
How far away I've drifted
In the face of a tragedy too bleak to know
The death of some grand illusion
All the treasure we pilloried, splendour we stole ...
They never told you that in school
Könnyebb volna tán feledni, (Perhaps it would be easier to forget)
Mint távozásom érteni. (Than to understand my departure)
Múltból egy kiszakított lap. (A torn page from the past)
E ködből indul egy vonat. (A train is leaving from this fog)
...Budapest by Blimp
...Que je voudrais vous presenter, messieurs et dames
Regardez bien, je vous en prie
Here's a map and a diagram, a shrivelled page
Ripped from the book of history
See the priceless antiquity frozen in time
Built on the ashes of the Jews
And for your curiosity, beauty sublime
Signed in the blood of Zulus
Not really a goosestep, more of a limp
...Budapest by Blimp
Now and again they play our tune
In the grip of a tiny hand over a flame
Pale as the phases of the moon ...
In the cafes and shopping malls I see your face
turn into mist on evening dew
but a book and a photograph just aren't the same
there is a train that's leaving soon
...Budapest by Blimp
Over pillars and palaces I'll hold your hand
Until the fog is lifted
May be better you hold me close than understand
How far away I've drifted
In the face of a tragedy too bleak to know
The death of some grand illusion
All the treasure we pilloried, splendour we stole ...
They never told you that in school
Könnyebb volna tán feledni, (Perhaps it would be easier to forget)
Mint távozásom érteni. (Than to understand my departure)
Múltból egy kiszakított lap. (A torn page from the past)
E ködből indul egy vonat. (A train is leaving from this fog)
...Budapest by Blimp
...Que je voudrais vous presenter, messieurs et dames
Regardez bien, je vous en prie
Here's a map and a diagram, a shrivelled page
Ripped from the book of history
See the priceless antiquity frozen in time
Built on the ashes of the Jews
And for your curiosity, beauty sublime
Signed in the blood of Zulus
Not really a goosestep, more of a limp
...Budapest by Blimp
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
I'll go out on a limb here...most of Dolby's stuff is fun, mindless stuff, but I think this song is about a relationship against the backdrop of the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
Bear with me...
Budapest is the capital of Hungary, which in 1988 (when the parent album, Aliens Ate My Buick was released), was a country undergoing the painful collapse of communism. I think that's the "fog" that is lifting in the song, and the "grand illusion" that is dying.
Other points of contact...the ashes of the Jews could refer to the extermination of Jews by Stalin, the limp / goosestep refers to the feebleness of the government at the end.