I cannot disguise
All the stomach pains and the walking of the canes
When you do come out
And you whisper up to me in your life of tragedy
But I cannot grow
'Til you eat the last of me, oh, when will I be free?
And you, a parasite
Just find another host, just another fool to roast
[Pre-Chorus: Serj Tankian]
'Cause you, my tapeworm tells me what to do
You, my tapeworm tells me where to go
[Chorus: Serj Tankian]
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
[Verse 2: Serj Tankian & Daron Malakian]
I cannot deny
All the evil traits and the filling of the crates
When you, you, do come out, out
And you slither up to me in your pimpin' majesty
But I cannot grow
'Til you eat the last of me, oh, when will I be free?
And you, you, a parasite, site
Just find another host just another stool to post
'Cause you, my tapeworm tells me what to do
You, my tapeworm tells me where to go
[Chorus: Serj Tankian]
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of me, out of me
[Bridge: Daron Malakian with Serj Tankian]
I'm sitting in my room with a needle in my hand
Just waiting for the tomb of some old dying man
Sitting in my room with a needle in my hand
Just waiting for the tomb of some old dying man!
[Pre-Chorus: Serj Tankian]
You, my tapeworm tells me what to do
You, my tapeworm tells me where to go
[Chorus: Serj Tankian]
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
Pull the tapeworm out of your ass, hey
About
“Needles” is a song that talks about the danger of abusing drugs, more specifically heroin, comparing it to have a parasite in your body; the band advertises everybody, don’t do drugs—pull the tapeworm out of your ass!
The song has also more Daron Malakian’s vocal appearance, but is a little more melodic, as he said:
I wanted to add a bit more harmony for myself in the songs and that required tastefully mixing in some softer guitars between the really heavy parts.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In “Needles” I had my own vocal solo part—[sings] ‘Sitting in my room’—so, I’ve broken into that slowly because I didn’t want to just shoot the fans in the face. But the songs naturally mutated this way. The band is growing and naturally moving in this direction.
- 1.Prison Song
- 2.Needles
- 3.Deer Dance
- 4.Jet Pilot
- 5.X
- 6.Chop Suey!
- 7.Bounce
- 8.Forest
- 9.ATWA
- 10.Science
- 11.Shimmy
- 12.Toxicity
- 13.Psycho
- 14.Aerials
- 15.Arto
