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.
And when you're feeling blue
No one to talk to you
And you don't know what to do
Then see if I care
Oh, you think nothing of me
Say that you don't love me
The time is coming
When you won't feel like you do now
You gonna call my name
You know that you're to blame
Oh, you won't be the same
Then see if I care
Mending slowly, all wounds, effortlessly
As the burden of his sunken child is lifted
But effortlessly again carried
Faintly to the stone heart of an angry son
An angry son who has done his swallowing
His memories are bitten pills
So many bitten pills that he has collected
Like the fallen pieces of the broken ground which he now moves on
This ground so unsettled, so endlessly unsettled
He recounted with the weight of the sunken earth
And still he moves on
This is Earth
Earth which he has moved on and collected, settled to his own liking
And still he moves on
A voice in the back of his head reminding him
That this is stolen, that this is not his
All these moments, this precious time spent, moments in gravity
All this anxious waiting
All this time spent waiting
All this pain that you know
All this effortless moving, all this pain that you will ever know
In waking hours, time spent in these moments
Though he is living, silently in moments
And forgiving relevance, it is in his heart he is holding
And calling behind sadness of empty fields
It is in these moments of time well spent, in these moments of gravity
This time well spent
A look to heaven, sighing tears of angels and a night sky
Racing
Racing, yelling softly
This is the moment
This is the moment
A look to heaven, sighing tears of angels and a night sky
This is the moment
Holding moments and forgiving relevance, it is in his heart
Calling behind the sadness of empty fields
All these moments of time, time well spent, time knows better
Behind tired eyes, behind tired eyes, I think he's waiting
Knowing your destiny, he calls him the angry son
This is the moment
This is the moment
This is the moment
This is the moment of truth
Running out of time
They don't know me, know me
They don't know me
This is the next last moment
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
This is the moment
This is the moment
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
Sighing tears of angels and a night sky, this is the moment
No one to talk to you
And you don't know what to do
Then see if I care
Oh, you think nothing of me
Say that you don't love me
The time is coming
When you won't feel like you do now
You gonna call my name
You know that you're to blame
Oh, you won't be the same
Then see if I care
Mending slowly, all wounds, effortlessly
As the burden of his sunken child is lifted
But effortlessly again carried
Faintly to the stone heart of an angry son
An angry son who has done his swallowing
His memories are bitten pills
So many bitten pills that he has collected
Like the fallen pieces of the broken ground which he now moves on
This ground so unsettled, so endlessly unsettled
He recounted with the weight of the sunken earth
And still he moves on
This is Earth
Earth which he has moved on and collected, settled to his own liking
And still he moves on
A voice in the back of his head reminding him
That this is stolen, that this is not his
All these moments, this precious time spent, moments in gravity
All this anxious waiting
All this time spent waiting
All this pain that you know
All this effortless moving, all this pain that you will ever know
In waking hours, time spent in these moments
Though he is living, silently in moments
And forgiving relevance, it is in his heart he is holding
And calling behind sadness of empty fields
It is in these moments of time well spent, in these moments of gravity
This time well spent
A look to heaven, sighing tears of angels and a night sky
Racing
Racing, yelling softly
This is the moment
This is the moment
A look to heaven, sighing tears of angels and a night sky
This is the moment
Holding moments and forgiving relevance, it is in his heart
Calling behind the sadness of empty fields
All these moments of time, time well spent, time knows better
Behind tired eyes, behind tired eyes, I think he's waiting
Knowing your destiny, he calls him the angry son
This is the moment
This is the moment
This is the moment
This is the moment of truth
Running out of time
They don't know me, know me
They don't know me
This is the next last moment
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
This is the moment
This is the moment
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
I am the angry son
Sighing tears of angels and a night sky, this is the moment
Lyrics submitted by weallbleed
Angry Son Lyrics as written by Seth Nanaa Adam Nanaa
Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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to some things that were asked: yes he is saying "this is the moment" and then "they call him the angry son, I am the angry son". those are the screamed vocals.
from what the insert of the discography says about the songs that included the Bessie Smith samples, they were there to ""emulate the nights in oakland we spent fucked up/passed out with the needle dragging the end of the slint LP".
my band covered this song the other night in a basement to an audience of about 15 dirty sweaty hardcore punk kids. apparently every one was really into it. I sing my my back turned so i couldn't tell. this song has so much power, and if you know all the words and you sing it with a real band, it is just so much more explosive. I wish I could live those 7 and a half minutes over again. and I wish the mic was louder so I could have heard my whispered vocals. ouch my neck still hurts.
while I'm not sure this is my favorite Indian Summer song is, that may be a combination of Aren't you Angel and Waiting as a whole, this one is absolutely amazing.
love, John