Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles Lyrics

Cats killing dogs, pigs eating rats
Every mouth will eat you up, the king bug laughs
Belly of the heart, belly full of bats
The chromosomes seem not to want the fetus

They beat you up, they make you leave
Sticking needles in your knees
Knowing God will be pleased
Should make it easy

Snakes eating frogs,
Toads eating gnats
When the spaceship beams you up, boy, get drunk fast
Rubber bullet barn, titty-sucking calf
Goats and roosters, bees and bugs, amoebas

They blow you up, make it breathe
Make it feel like a disease
And though it's hard to believe
It makes it easy
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Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

This is their best song

Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

MusicalElitist- You have to be the smartest I've seen comment on this entire website. Can we be friends?!

Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

I agree this is the best flaming lips song. From the best album. Sort of makes you think about how we can love some creatures and despise others and be totally oblivious about yet others with no rhyme or reason to it. And how this can be extended to humans, gods, extraterrestrials and any other beings one can think of. We eat animals, aliens experiment on us, gods create and destroy us, we kill each other and experiment on our own offspring.

Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

placebo-wow, that was a good take on it. I just always love the musical end of it(the words fit perfectly, don't get me wrong)cause I always thought the words were just Wayne tripping his balls off talking about aliens, and barns, and babies, and frogs, and getting drunk, and needles, and god, and king bugs, etc.......but you managed to pull together a somewhat coheisive meaning (don't get cocky!)

Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

I think the second verse is just about how we use the science and the religion as an excuse for our cruelty. Actually we are not different from the animal kingdom. The only way to detach yourself from what's going on around you is "to get drunk fast".

Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain this song is about abortion (that's the one scenario where a person might "explore" a fetus with needles). I think the bulk of the lyrics are about the darwinian savagery of nature, i.e. strong killing the weak, and nothing is weaker than a fetus at the mercy of modern science.

"The chromosomes seem not to want the fetus" = the mother doesn't want the baby.

"They beat you up, they make you leave" = the fetus is killed/removed from his mother

"Knowing God will be pleased" = this verse is the one that throws me. i suspect it's either A) all babies go to heaven, and that makes dying easier. Or B) it's saying that the mother believes that God condones her abortion, at that makes it easier for her.

"when the spaceship beams you up, boy, get drunk fast'" = could refer to the father who is stunned by the mother's decision and feels transported into another world by the news, or it could be from the fetus' POV and be about the vaccuum used to suck the fetus out.

@pthalomarie I think you're damn close. I have no idea what it is about but I really love this song! But what if it isn't about abortion but instead, it is a reference to miscarriage? Perhaps that would explain "Knowing God will be pleased" and "The chromosomes seem not to want the fetus." The body is rejecting the fetus instead of the mother.

Again, I do not feel as though I have much grasp on the meaning of this song. Just throwing an idea out there.

Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

It's kind of like you are born, you die, you eat, you get eaten, who you are is at the mercy of which little dna molecules you got dealt one night your parents had sex, stuff happens, some of it fun, some pretty horrific, you might even get kidnapped by aliens at some point, its all a chaotic predatory bloody mess, but it's exactly how god makes it, so don't stress out over the details so much, relax and enjoy what you can, OK?

Song Meaning
Cover art for Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles lyrics by Flaming Lips, The

Wow this song is tight and amazingly put together. I really feel like a lot of y'alls comments have been right. When i first listened to the song i though it was about abortion and alpha predators and preys.

 
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