Songfacts®:

• The Coral frontman James Skelly told Mojo this psych-rocker is about "how you need your dreams, but they can kill you, if you don't know when to stop. Maybe men suffer from a less realistic view of the world."
• The song was released as the lead track from Distance Inbetween. NME asked Skelly if there is an overall mood or thematic link on the album? He replied: "It's almost like Mad Men, where what you're seeing and what's going on in everyone's minds are two different things. It can seem like a normal situation but inside the person's mind it could be apocalyptic."
  
  "The first single, 'Chasing The Tail Of A Dream,' is sort of like that – it's about how your dreams can make you, but they can break you. Sometimes, you've got to know when to stop. I probably won't know when to stop; it'll probably break me."
• James Skelly told Drowned in Sound the story of the song: "I woke up one morning, went downstairs, got my guitar, took it back to bed and just started playing the riff. It was the first time I'd written over a riff that wasn't just a blues riff. In my head the lyrics are like some psychic detective in a film noir, but they're also pretty personal. We recorded the track and then Ian (Skelly) re-recorded the drums over the bass and guitar. Also, it's my first ever proper guitar solo, so I thought, may as well make it a big one (Laughs)."
• This song was the catalyst for The Coral to get back together again after a five year hiatus and record the Distance Inbetween album. James Skelly had originally penned the tune for his interim solo band, but when keyboardist Nick Power heard it, he agreed with Skelly that its woozy rhythm was uniquely Coral–shaped. "I thought it would have been a lot longer before we got back together," admitted Power to Q magazine, "but once there's a spark it's hard to stop. It took about four rehearsals and we had half a dozen new songs."