| Queens of the Stone Age – If I Had A Tail Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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I originally thought this was a really silly song. A tail? What, like a cat? And it's so catchy. That whole "gitchy gitchy/doo run run" thing has to be deliberately silly, a throwback to earlier, lighthearted tunes from previous decades. It took me years to realise there was a hell of a lot more to it than I initially thought, which is highly ironic given what I think it means. My take on this is that we have a character who is commonly seen to be evil (note all the sociopath interpretations) but who might really be someone else - someone who feels. Someone who isn't actually a cold-hearted psychopath. I'm surprised that, given the amount of God/Devil imagery, not to mention the *cover of the single* (look it up on discogs) , that nobody has associated "tail" with "the devil". What if this character had a tail, and horns? What if they really were the devil everyone thought they were? The world sees them that way, and it doesn't really matter who they are underneath, because "it's how you look, not how you feel". Whether you're crying "tears of pleasure" or "tears of pain", they look the same to people from the outside. They're just tears. Society has painted them evil, and they're just following expectations, operating as instructed, like a machine. (Though, are they even needed? Can't the world do this job by itself? Are they obsolete?) They're following their wants, their desires. They want pleasure, to suck and lick and experience life. But that's generally not doable in, ironically, the "land of the free". Being yourself, when you deviate from the norm, is generally a bad thing. If you take that line in one go, we could even have a place where you get a "free lobotomy", as in, this is a place where you don't need to do anything as difficult as thinking or feeling, because you can have all that taken away, for free. That's a very clever line. The surface picture counts for more than whatever you're actually thinking and feeling underneath. We live in a world where materialistic desire trumps real connection. You can "buy flash cars, diamond rings" instead of actually engaging with the world. It's suggested there's nothing underneath all that. Or is there? What are these things we're burying in "expensive holes"? Feelings. Real connection. Thought. But here, this world with "no heart" is a "city of glass". It's easily broken. It's fragile, because it's so superficial. Someone is going to come along and fuck it up. Or at least, Josh Homme wants that to happen. Let's go back to that single cover. We see a vaguely punk figure facing off against a shadowy group, with knife in hand. And a red devil tail. They're standing behind a fire. If that character really did have a tail, if they really *were* the devil everyone thought they were, they wouldn't lose the fight that was about to happen. They'd win. And they'd feel good about it. They'd own the night. It's a beautiful fantasy of being in control, where in reality, we really aren't. |
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