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.
There is a bar they call The Bitter Sea.
And she sits and drinks a velvet crush--that's
cool Aid and gin--casing the clientele
Like a relentless cameraman. She is
Elsewhere. She says You keep a-knocking
But you can't come in, and I say
Little Sister, don't you do what your Big Sister does
Spiral down down down down down down down
Well desire looks just like you with an uzi nine
Gundown fifteen bystanders in a roadside driveby
Desire is the grassfire drinking gasoline
And she says Open up your mouth, man, let me come inside
Spiral down down down down down down down
She cracked
Now they call me Mr. Bitterness
She snapped
Now they call me Mr. Bitterness
She's gone,
Gone gone
Ah, leaning up against the wall
I will lash out dancing like a madman when you're gone
I will spit the blue flame and hurl my glass against the wall
And I will hear your name coming out from a boom box
I will hear your name called out from passing cars
Spiral down down down down down down down
She cracked
And she sits and drinks a velvet crush--that's
cool Aid and gin--casing the clientele
Like a relentless cameraman. She is
Elsewhere. She says You keep a-knocking
But you can't come in, and I say
Little Sister, don't you do what your Big Sister does
Spiral down down down down down down down
Well desire looks just like you with an uzi nine
Gundown fifteen bystanders in a roadside driveby
Desire is the grassfire drinking gasoline
And she says Open up your mouth, man, let me come inside
Spiral down down down down down down down
She cracked
Now they call me Mr. Bitterness
She snapped
Now they call me Mr. Bitterness
She's gone,
Gone gone
Ah, leaning up against the wall
I will lash out dancing like a madman when you're gone
I will spit the blue flame and hurl my glass against the wall
And I will hear your name coming out from a boom box
I will hear your name called out from passing cars
Spiral down down down down down down down
She cracked
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by "of the same name", i mean "Little Sister..