Song meaning
German Stranger Than Fiction promo CD booket: "A song about compromise and its scarcity in today's world. Where its needed, (at the ethnic, political, and personal level) it ain't found."[1]
Greg Hetson: "We knew the lyrics would either not make sense or be taken as a racial thing. Greg was just being pessimistic and sarcastic about deals in general."[2]
Sound effect
The sound at the beginning of the second verse, at 1:04, right after the line "There is restrained passion..." is a sample trigger off the snare hit as an accent. Jay: "(...) not sure what the sound program is and the not really sure why, but we have ALWAYS emphasized that hit... just one of those things..."[3]
References