So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Where people die and pain is real
No one gives a fuck about how you feel
Everything has a price or a consequence
No one has the time or the tolerance
To listen to you
When your crying boohoo
I don't know what to do
My rent is overdue
Pay it!
Pay it!
And if you don't have the cash
Then your out on your ass.
'Cause everyone has trouble achieving
Everyone has time disbelieving
May not be what you heard
Welcome to the real world!
Now I must admit I'm new to it myself
But I can understand how everyone else
Has their own way to feel and their own way to deal
With the same shit I do
But it just coming over and over and over again
Yeah that's right till the day your world ends
I'm sure you'll wake up one day thinking that's funny
Having no luck and no friends and no money
But I know your on your way
And I know you'll be okay
So there's no need to be afraid
No one gives a fuck about how you feel
Everything has a price or a consequence
No one has the time or the tolerance
To listen to you
When your crying boohoo
I don't know what to do
My rent is overdue
Pay it!
Pay it!
And if you don't have the cash
Then your out on your ass.
'Cause everyone has trouble achieving
Everyone has time disbelieving
May not be what you heard
Welcome to the real world!
Now I must admit I'm new to it myself
But I can understand how everyone else
Has their own way to feel and their own way to deal
With the same shit I do
But it just coming over and over and over again
Yeah that's right till the day your world ends
I'm sure you'll wake up one day thinking that's funny
Having no luck and no friends and no money
But I know your on your way
And I know you'll be okay
So there's no need to be afraid
Lyrics submitted by emptyskies
Welcome to the Real World Lyrics as written by Emma Anzai Chris Mileski
Lyrics © Royalty Network, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Although the meaing of this song's received considerable attention in academic circles (and, of course, the media) over recent months, I can't help but feel that the thoughtless comparisons between the Sick Puppies and their drum-snuff contemporaries (Yelping Apple Grope, Herman's Grotty Snack Puffer) do little justice to the triumphant vocal trampolining in "Welcome To The Real World".
A bold, flaming shot across the fragile bow of New Labor - Bonita Guggenheim's humpy voice does a little too much justice to the rocket surgery he so delicately performs in these lyrics. Guggenheim and his merry boff collective deserve to be hazed for this, their grittiest attempt at interpretative socialism.
Perhaps most forceful is the detente..."Welcome to the real world!", where Guggenheim finally rips the listener back through the space between her little earplugs, and into the golden age of funk-lash distro haplessness that this song so infamously laid the framework for.
Whilst this song will definitely be remembered, Sick Puppies' legacy will always be most firmly associated with their crowd-pleasing tribadist phase.