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.
Radio play my favorite song
Radio, radio
Radio I'm alone
Radio, radio
Please don't go radio
I peer through curtains on empty streets
Behind a wall of caller ID
No one's out there
To hear if I care
About the troubles in the air
As I of the mourning now gone
Pick up where my thoughts left off
'Cause I'm home to die on my own
As my radio plays my favorite song
Radio, radio
Radio, don't you know
Radio, radio
Radio, I'm alone
I've blown the dust off my guitar
In the attic with the stars
I read your letters to feel better
My tears upon the faded ink
As I of the mourning now gone
Pick up where my thoughts left off
'Cause I'm home to die on my own
As my radio plays my favorite song
Radio, radio
Radio, I'm alone
Radio, radio
Radio, please don't go
I sit in the dark light
To wait for the ghost night
To bring the past to life
To make a toast to life
'Cause I have survived
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want to change?
Radio, radio, radio, radio
Radio, radio, radio, radio
Radio, radio, radio, radio
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want to change?
Radio, radio
Radio I'm alone
Radio, radio
Please don't go radio
I peer through curtains on empty streets
Behind a wall of caller ID
No one's out there
To hear if I care
About the troubles in the air
As I of the mourning now gone
Pick up where my thoughts left off
'Cause I'm home to die on my own
As my radio plays my favorite song
Radio, radio
Radio, don't you know
Radio, radio
Radio, I'm alone
I've blown the dust off my guitar
In the attic with the stars
I read your letters to feel better
My tears upon the faded ink
As I of the mourning now gone
Pick up where my thoughts left off
'Cause I'm home to die on my own
As my radio plays my favorite song
Radio, radio
Radio, I'm alone
Radio, radio
Radio, please don't go
I sit in the dark light
To wait for the ghost night
To bring the past to life
To make a toast to life
'Cause I have survived
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want to change?
Radio, radio, radio, radio
Radio, radio, radio, radio
Radio, radio, radio, radio
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want?
What is it you want to change?
What is it you want to change?
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And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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To me, this song always seemed one of the more direct stories about Glass. Glass hears God speaking to him through the radio. The radio is calling him, telling him to reform his band, The Machines of God. Glass asks him back, "What is it you want? What is you want to change?" The repetition of "radio" at the end of the song is Glass begging for a response.
Of course, Glass is crazy.