Doin' the Cockroach

I think that this song is about how one life is no different than any other. A very negative existential point of view. It's important to note that a cockroach is a prehistoric insect that has been around forever just doing the same thing and just won't go away. He's saying that everyone is just "Doin the Cockroach" and just living for years and years never really changing what they're doing. When he says,

This one's a doctor This one's a lawyer This one's a cash feed

He's expressing that all these people are no different than eachother because life is meaningless and they're all going to end up in the same place.

the first line,

was in heaven I was in hell Believe in neither But fear them as well

This shows that he is unsure of the existence of these but tries to live as if they exist. This is an existential view that further proves that he believes life is meaningless.

I could go in more detail about the lyric with the years and the lyric when he says "he's not listenting" but it would basically be rehashing what I've already stated.

Oh my mind is all made up So I'll have to sleep in it

brillliant line

i love when he says "please shut up!" great song, makes me wanna get up and do the cockroach even tho i ahve no idea what the hell it is.

def my current fav song. i can't get enough of MM. i really hope i'll see them live one day before i die

and yeah I like scalewagjim's interpretation...I didn't think of the cockroach part as anything significant, but now that I think about it it makes a lot of sense.

"I was in heaven I was in hell Believe in neither But fear them as well" Those are my favorite lines

The "please shut up" part makes me think of Brak. I believe I'm seeing a pattern here.

TheoReo:

"One year Twenty years Forty years Fifty years Down the road in your life You'll look in the mirror And say, "My parents are still alive."

I think it means that even though your parents are dead and gone, and you're aging.. you're turning into your parents. You look in the mirror and your reflection isn't what you thought it would be, you're not different, you're just like everything was before you. Just like the point of the song.. no one is different, we all live the same, do the same things; that's the way it is now and that's the way it's going to be forever. Sorry, kinda wordy...

the cockroach is the lowest on the chain. the scum of the earth

amazing song.

Great song. No comments though...

This song is the best Modest Mouse song. It is the first one I heard and yeah, Modest Mouse is cool.