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.
One more time you find yourself huddled in silence.
Nicotine mingles with a mimic's tear, tarnishing moments forlon...
Remember the stages that you were compelled to wander
Where ideas were devised, where the phantom of fame
approached like a brief encounter.
Try to evoke the day...
But memories are cold comfort for the mourning result of a long-forgotten cause.
Passionless words defy the stage no more
There's no applause, just a drunkard asking for encore
A silent audience of dust and desperation
As you remember certain faces that once engaged these empty places.
With the fading light came desperate thoughts, as if
the ghost of an urge rode a blatant breeze.
And the wet ink on the paper blurred under your tears,
just like water's clearness in the rush of the spray...
Try to escape the day...
And after all you will find out that it's all the same
how many footprints you've left in the soil.
Empty eyes defy these empty halls
Empty faces examine empty walls
Empty words thrown in empty streams
Empty places are the end of empty dreams.
To be a whisper on the breeze, to be a stranger on violent seas,
To see the world through orphaned eyes could be a mission
Behind tangerine skies.
For there's no importance in a dream of posthume fame
And I don't want to be a fugitive repatriated, watching
these empty places...
Nicotine mingles with a mimic's tear, tarnishing moments forlon...
Remember the stages that you were compelled to wander
Where ideas were devised, where the phantom of fame
approached like a brief encounter.
Try to evoke the day...
But memories are cold comfort for the mourning result of a long-forgotten cause.
Passionless words defy the stage no more
There's no applause, just a drunkard asking for encore
A silent audience of dust and desperation
As you remember certain faces that once engaged these empty places.
With the fading light came desperate thoughts, as if
the ghost of an urge rode a blatant breeze.
And the wet ink on the paper blurred under your tears,
just like water's clearness in the rush of the spray...
Try to escape the day...
And after all you will find out that it's all the same
how many footprints you've left in the soil.
Empty eyes defy these empty halls
Empty faces examine empty walls
Empty words thrown in empty streams
Empty places are the end of empty dreams.
To be a whisper on the breeze, to be a stranger on violent seas,
To see the world through orphaned eyes could be a mission
Behind tangerine skies.
For there's no importance in a dream of posthume fame
And I don't want to be a fugitive repatriated, watching
these empty places...
Lyrics submitted by ruben
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