Queens Of The Stone Age – If I Had A Tail lyrics

My personal interpretation of this song is that it's a "f**k you" to society like so much of this album:

"I'm machine, obsolete, land of the free, lobotomy":

How you're an obsolete, mindless cog in the machine in the supposed "land of the free"

"I wanna suck, I wanna lick, I wanna cry, I wanna spit"
Basic human emotions and functionality, which.

"Tears of pleasure, tears of pain, they trickle down your face the same"
Society does not differentiate between. Society is so shallow that it doesn't, so to say, differentiate between tears of joy and tears of pain.

Continues in the next line: "it's how you look, not how you feel". "city of glass with no heart" refers to shallowness, or how see-through everything is. With no heart speaks for itself in this context.

"If I had a tail" (if I were a monster/if I had more power)
"I'd own the place/swat the flies"

"Animals in the midnight zone": being cast aside (animals also ties into the shallowness of society in regards to emotion).

"when you own the world, you're always home": also on being cast aside: if you own the world (in other words are accepted, not cast aside), you're always home.

"Get your hands dirty, roll up them sleeves": work for your paycheck.

"brainwashed, all true believers - buy flash cars, diamond rings, expensive holes to bury things": To buy things we're told we want. Reminds me of the fight club line: "an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need".

So yeah those are my 2 cents.

It was a nice surprise to see Joshua come up with such song.

"Do run run
You won't get far"
- cuz they own the place

"I'm machine
Obsolete"
- is what I've become
"Land of the free
Lobotomy"
- is the washed-up dream you are forced to live in - study, work, breed, die. the American dream. Land of the free. Your brainwash. Your lobotomy.

"I wanna suck, I wanna lick
I wanna cry and I wanna spit
Tears of pleasure
Tears of pain
They trickle down your face the same"
- I want to be reckless? I want not to care?

"It’s how you look
Not how you feel"
- everything is important, as long as it's on the outside. we live in an age of mediocrity.

"The city of glass
With no heart…"
- Too much surveillance?

"If I had a tail
I’d own the place"
- they have a tail and they rule earth

"If I had a tail
I’d swat the flies"
- note that the only animal interested in insects are reptiles. heard of the term "reptilian"? google stuff such as "interview with Lacerta the reptilian" or "Terra Papers Robert Morning Sky". Don't try to make sense of it, just see how it feels. I repeat - don't try to figure it out, just see how it feels. Time to open up your mind for the facts.

"Yeah, oh oh, oh oh, oh oh"
- you accept it, yet it hurts

"Animals in
The midnight zone"
- Wikipedia: The bathyal zone - (also known as midnight zone) is the part of the pelagic zone that extends from a depth of 1000 to 4000 metres (3300 to 13000 feet) below the ocean surface.
- I've read they live in cities underground. Perhaps underwater, too.

"When you own the world
You’re always home"
- What is says - you might live in the basement but it's still your house.

"Get your hands dirty
Roll up them sleeves"
- Call to action?

"Brainwashed all true believers
Buy flash cars
Diamond rings
Expensive holes to bury things"
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
- The majority of people are true believers. Believing it's all about success. What is success? Being able to "buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like".

"If I had a tail I'd swat the flies"
- If we switch places (become reptilian) it would sure be nice to swat the flies.
- The flies? We, the average people. They send us to kill each other, send us to work, throw us under trains and blow us up. Swat the flies.