The song's lyrics are about a bungled bank robbery as told by a fearful and paranoid perpetrator. As Bush stated; "It's about amateur robbers who have only done small things, and this is quite a big robbery that they've been planning for months, and when it actually starts happening, they start freaking out. They're really scared, and they're so aware of the fact that something could go wrong that they're paranoid and want to go home."
The song tells the story of a botched bank robbery from the perspective of a nervous and anxious criminal who has planned the heist for months. Bush explains that the robbers are inexperienced, but this is a large-scale operation that causes them to panic when it actually happens. They become terrified and paranoid because they fear something could go wrong.