Fortune 500

Album: Get To Heaven (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song was inspired by 22-year-old Californian murderer Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in May 2014 to "punish" women as he couldn't find a girlfriend. Frontman Jonathan Higgs told Q magazine: "Elliot Rodger made that video with the sunlight in the car and there was something about the fact he was detached."
  • Higgs sings here about a metaphorical break into Buckingham Palace. The subject of the song drills a hole into the Queen's head to let the spirits out, and kills all her dogs. He explained to The Line Of Best Fit: "It's got this core of doubt in it though, and the narrator/protagonist keeps saying to himself 'they told me I should do this... I don't want to but I think it's the right thing to do'."

    "There's this line - 'I've won! I've won! They told me that I've won!' - it's the sense that this guy's there, bloodied hands with sirens blaring outside, having a moment of realisation, asking himself 'what the f--k have I done?' he continued. "It's supposed to be the last few seconds of doubt that goes through a suicide bomber's mind, feeling peer-pressured into blowing themselves up."

    "The fact is though that this is happening all over the world, and people are getting cajoled into doing crimes that they don't know much about," Higgs added. "The horror of the doubt is far worse than the act, for the terrorist I mean. It's this 'oh s--t... maybe this isn't what God wants'. I think it's the darkest moment on the record."

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