Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat

I think this song is about apathy and laziness. The main character sees all these things going on around him, but never bothers to do anything to change them or stop them because it would be "too hard" ("the feline war has raged for years / so I assume it'd be too hard / for me to drive my foot between them / I would never risk the scratch"). The main character isn't the only one who is like this; his friends are too. His cousin Greg spends all his time watching MTV and making fun of the videos, and that's how he deals with his insecurities. The "dude" spends all his time drinking coffee, being alone, and rambling to anyone who will listen to him; the main character sees himself in this dude. Lou is a drug addict who wants someone else to fix him (to be some "hybrid mother/lover") instead of fixing himself. The neighbor's son plays with his shotgun in the street, and no one even cares even though it could be very dangerous. The main character sees this happening, but instead of intervening, he just lets it happen (like he did with the red cat and the yellow cat) and smokes weed all day. He's stuck in the middle of the crossroads, in a sort of limbo where nothing ever changes and he's too lazy to make change happen. His friends are stuck in the same situation; "these are my friends / this is who they remain forever / this is how we stay".

Good point about the ignorance of racism and violence, Ive never thought about that before.

As for the Yellow = peace, red = war comment, why would his "yellow cat invade his red cat".

I read somewhere this song is about how life never changes and nobody does anything about anything.

This song clearly has to do with life after the initial stimulation of growing up and learning. After one 'settles down' the routine kind of kicks in, and most don't do anything to stop themselves from living the same day over and over.

I think the 'cat invasion' kind of describes his utter boredom as he's reduced to describing an ordinary cat fight as some kind of international war. The line 'just to prove to one or both of them a cat is just a cat' is important too - he feels superior to the two animals yet their lives have more purpose and direction than his own, which is a life of constant repitition and no conflict.

In general: It's about the emotional swings max has. This whole song is a representation of a depressed, cynical phase.

He feels disgusted that he's become content with such a jaded day to day life, and sees everything in an apathathetic, pessimistic view. He judges things for both face value and for the deeper meanings.

This song is amazing because it can be taken both literally and metaphorically.

The building of intensity (volume and controlled feedback and the likes) are another amazing contributor to the meaning...

Before "i watch my neighbors son" it builds to where you think your speakers might explode.

I could listen to it again and again and again.

i also love that buddha line. i think it means that when he's "standing," meaning with other people, he's weak and frail as he has profressed to having social anxiety. when he's sitting, by himself, he's buddha. peaceful, assured, chillin like a villian.

he's pretty darn nice with the words.

its about how he is watching his cats and he looks down and thinks how futile their quarrel is that he can just drive his foot between them but he wont even risk a scratch on something so unimportant. then he thinks about it and says "then again...." look at my cousin greg whose life is just as futile and unimportant as those cats and he continues to look and sees his neighbor and lou and his neighbor's son and finally, himself. He sees how in the big scheme of things everyone is just as unimportant as his cats fight and classifies himself with them, hence the "friends" remark. He ends the song on a depressed note, looking back on his life and remarking how he is still in the middle of the crossroads, on the beaten path to boredom.

To me it's just a guy looking around at his strange friends who are just like him and how they pass the time and the shit they deal with...this is how spend their days and deal with their inner conflicts (cat vs cat)...smoke pot, make fun of MTV, and talk women...this is my interpretation of course and thats what makes this band and Max's lyrics always awesome are there flexibility and the way they can be applied to any listener somehow...underrated band very underrated song

Considering practically every song on this album talks about sex, I always sort of thought that Yellow Cat vs. Red Cat could've been about two girls he honestly never really cared for, and when they end up fighting over him he's so indifferent to the situation he doesn't even care to tell them that both of them are meaningless hookups.

But looking at it from the war perspective makes a lot of sense, too...

yellow cat-israel red cat-palestine max-US

just my theory...

Ok, half of you are idiots!! It's obviously about rasism, and attacks on different races, and how most people just sit around and ignore it and do nothing about it... It's so obvious!