The Tragedy Behind …Like Clockwork

I might be biased here, because I love every single Queens of the Stone Age album. Every single one. They each feature heavily in my daily YouTube music playlist. It’s also a particular collection of albums that I often find myself listening in totality, from beginning to end.

I also love music documentaries, and I watch more YouTube than Netflix. “The Tragedy Behind… Like Clockwork” is a short documentary about the Queens of the Stone Age album …Like Clockwork on the YouTube channel Middle 8. An album that I can remember publicly fawning about like a teenage girl on Facebook by sharing a slice of the lyrics from “If I had a tail”

If I had a tail
I’d own the night
If I had a tail
I’d swat the flies

A friend on Facebook commented: “That’s stupid.”

For me it was everything but stupid. For me it was Josh Homme addressing people that hang around him because of who he is, rather than being a real friend. Fame of klout diggers.

I immediately understood that …Like Clockwork was not for everyone. For me it had a darker edge than any of the previous QOTSA albums. Even the artwork by Boneface echoed the darkness with beautifully dark imagery. And that sentiment was echoed by “The Tragedy Behind… Like Clockwork”.

This short 11 minute documentary gives you a type of insight you might not have had on the album. At the end of the day we all attach our own meanings, feelings and emotions to a particular song or album. It’s an album full of stories that will inspire a hundreds of thousands of stories for people for years to come. Middel 8 does a great job of illustrating that in this film.

If you like this film and you want to support Middle 8 they have a Patreon. Check out the rest of their YouTube channel. They also have a great film about Songs for the Deaf. And maybe consider supporting them for a few of their videos on Patreon.