I pulled imagery and ideas from Wikipedia articles on the Hungarian uprising in 1956 (I have no idea why I ended up reading about it). There was this intense moment when 200,000 protesters walked on a parliament building. After their demands were refused they pulled down and demolished a statue of Stalin that was built on the site of an old church. They stuffed Hungarian flags in the statute’s boots – the only remaining part of the bronze monument. I guess the song is about the power that can be wielded from ideas, and contrasting that with a guy asking for a “simple life” while unravelling the human vacuum he finds himself in. He’s turning around and asking “What the fuck happened?”
Officially from the band:
I pulled imagery and ideas from Wikipedia articles on the Hungarian uprising in 1956 (I have no idea why I ended up reading about it). There was this intense moment when 200,000 protesters walked on a parliament building. After their demands were refused they pulled down and demolished a statue of Stalin that was built on the site of an old church. They stuffed Hungarian flags in the statute’s boots – the only remaining part of the bronze monument. I guess the song is about the power that can be wielded from ideas, and contrasting that with a guy asking for a “simple life” while unravelling the human vacuum he finds himself in. He’s turning around and asking “What the fuck happened?”