Songfacts®:

• This stark meditation on the delusion of Rock 'n' Roll was inspired by the 1974 book Conundrum by the Welsh historian and travel writer Jan Morris. Born James Humphrey, Morris is a transsexual woman who published under her birth name until 1972, when she transitioned from living as male to living as female. Conundrum is her personal narrative of transsexualism. Bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire told The Quietus: "She had to go to Morocco to become a woman. Jan's probably my favourite travel writer of all time. When Jan became a woman she stayed with her wife, which I think is remarkable. It was that idea of drastic change and realisation that you have to push for the truth to be happy, which I apply to being in a band."
• The song title comes from a line ("I am running out of fantasy.") in the Werner Herzog-directed documentary Burden Of Dreams, which was shot during and about the chaotic production of his 1982 South American jungle-based film Fitzcarraldo. Wire explained to The Quietus: "He's making Fitzcarraldo and he's pulling a fu--ing boat up the mountain through the Peruvian forest and it's not working, you can see he's thinking, 'What the f--k am I trying to do here?' All of those elements combine. There's this line in there, 'The seduction of a fading power in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere' and that's the core of it really, that's what I love about being in a band, but I realise that kind of seductive delusion is probably over."