Les Claypool, el inconfundible bajista de Primus, y Sean Ono Lennon llevan desde 2016 haciendo música juntos bajo el nombre The Claypool Lennon Delirium. "Meat Machines" es el tercer single de su tercer álbum, "The Great Parrot-Ox and the Golden Egg of Empathy" (2026), su primer trabajo desde "South of Reality" (2019). El disco es un álbum conceptual que viene acompañado de un cómic de 24 páginas, y plantea un mundo donde la tecnocracia aplasta lo humano.
La canción parte de una pregunta incómoda: ¿somos los humanos poco más que máquinas de carne? Sean Lennon lo explicó así: "Hay gente que cree que el libre albedrío es una ilusión y que estamos destinados a ser reemplazados por robots. Y no solo lo aceptan, sino que están trabajando activamente para que ocurra lo antes posible." En la canción, la voz de Lennon evoca tanto a su padre que por momentos da escalofríos, con ese psicodélico beatle flotando sobre el bajo marciano de Claypool.
Letra:
Are we the first to be the last
Have the die already been cast
It's such a very precarious line
Between stoned and petrified
If Oedipus never was told his fate
Would he have been able to shake it
If you can't see the cage you're in, how can you break it?
Is the signal gone?
Have we disintegrated yet?
Why do all the stars look so disaffected?
And are humans nothing more than meat machines?
Or is there more?
Is there more to us?
Too busy rewriting history
To see what tomorrow brings
Too busy pretending to be clean
You can never say what you're really thinking
Because if you question their beliefs
Or assumptions they'll destroy you
When you can't see the maze you're in, how can you escape it?
Is the signal gone?
Have we disintegrated yet?
Why do all the stars look so disaffected?
And are humans nothing more than meat machines?
Or is there more?
Is there more to us?