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.
I am just a needle in your arm.
I am just the skin around a scar.
I am like a pill to help you heal.
I was only trying
To make you feel something.
I will
Breathe fire,
Never stop to think about myself
I'll just keep holding on
To everything for everybody else
You wasted every chance you ever had.
So when did you give up
And grow so sad?
You know that I can't push the world aside.
If only I could stop and
Turn back time
I would
You are watching the fall of an empire!
Send the soldiers home!
And as the flags come down
A new king is crowned.
Woke up on a beach.
I stared at the blue
And I watched the waves
Come and
Overtake you.
I am just the skin around a scar.
I am like a pill to help you heal.
I was only trying
To make you feel something.
I will
Breathe fire,
Never stop to think about myself
I'll just keep holding on
To everything for everybody else
You wasted every chance you ever had.
So when did you give up
And grow so sad?
You know that I can't push the world aside.
If only I could stop and
Turn back time
I would
You are watching the fall of an empire!
Send the soldiers home!
And as the flags come down
A new king is crowned.
Woke up on a beach.
I stared at the blue
And I watched the waves
Come and
Overtake you.
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I think this song means: there is someone that he loves that is just.. lost. maybe depressed? He would do anything in his power to help them, and is so concerned with them that it ends up hurting himself so he starts to feel the same way, but feels it would be selfish to give up (I will breath fire/and never stop to think about myself/i'll just keep holding on/to everything for everybody else). He is insignifigant to the person that he helps, and he expresses his frustration (I am like a pill to help you heal/I was only trying to make you feel something). Then when he finally gives up, everything comes crashing down for the one he loves, but it is too late.