Songfacts®:

• Arthur Magazine asked guitarist/vocalist Josh Homme and bass guitarist John Paul Jones what the most frustrating thing is about being in Them Crooked Vultures. Homme replied citing this druggy, acoustic-backed blues number: "Learning some of the songs. Learning the song 'Reptiles' is frustrating. It's not even that the parts are difficult, it's that they're so contrary, there's so many… [looking at Jones] You're a trained organist: that's five things playing at once! I'm a guitarist, that's two things."
  Jones responded: "But you're singing at the same time, I could never do any of that."
  Homme added: "And they both have to be done with feeling, or it's just not that good. So being able to let both sides of your brain do stuff, that's been the frustrating part for me."
• Homme wasn't the only band member to be frustrated by this heavily grooved number. Drummer Dave Grohl admitted to The Sun November 20, 2009: "I only started understanding that song three weeks ago. It's f---ing insane. Josh said he wanted me to hear all the different beats playing on one stereo and so I sat there as the guinea pig, with headphones on. Man, I was so p---ed off that day. I was mad. I was in the worst f---ing mood because I didn't get the song - but I do now."