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.
Outside, the world's on fire
You try to breathe but you're tired
There's nothing anyone can say
To point the people in the right way
Still, we say
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
I took a walk to the cafe
Passed the spots where the kids play
Those kids are all locked up inside
There's no seek now, there's only hide
Still, we say
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh-oh-oh, where to go?
Hey, hey, hey, we're locked away
And I can only cry
Yesterday, got a warning
Then we woke up in the morning
We're the ones who crashed this train
Now things will never be the same
Still, we say
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
You try to breathe but you're tired
There's nothing anyone can say
To point the people in the right way
Still, we say
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
I took a walk to the cafe
Passed the spots where the kids play
Those kids are all locked up inside
There's no seek now, there's only hide
Still, we say
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh-oh-oh, where to go?
Hey, hey, hey, we're locked away
And I can only cry
Yesterday, got a warning
Then we woke up in the morning
We're the ones who crashed this train
Now things will never be the same
Still, we say
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
Oh not today, good times are coming around
Oh not today, nothing is bringing us down
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in an interview, he said he wrote the lyrics when he was 16, in france, on a train, about a woman he saw but never talked to.