Songfacts®:

• This started off as a satirical poem by Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant about a leader who wants to pack it all in. "It was a whimsical idea of a dictator like Kim Jong-un of North Korea or Assad in Syria and he's inherited this job and thinks it's rubbish because he would really like to go off in his private jet," he recalled to The Sun. "He'd give it all up and there'd be democracy and everyone would be happier."
  
  "It was called The Sad Dictator and the words fitted perfectly over the music we were writing," Tennant continued. "Then Stuart (Price, producer) put the North Korean army sample on it and it's dramatic and powerful. It's electronic and very beautiful."
• Pet Shops Boys have tackled political material before; 2006's Fundamental album was heavily influenced by Tony Blair's alliance with George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism.