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.
How do, how do you do?
My name is you
Flies, they all gather around me and you too
You can't see anything well
You ask me what size it is, not what I sell
The flies, they all gather around me and you too
I don't want you to be alone down there
To be alone down there, to be alone
The Devil's apprentice he gave me some credit
He fed me a line and I'll probably regret it
I don't want you to be alone down there
To be alone down there, to be alone
Ah.
I don't want you to be alone down there
To be alone down there, to be alone
My name is you
Flies, they all gather around me and you too
You can't see anything well
You ask me what size it is, not what I sell
The flies, they all gather around me and you too
I don't want you to be alone down there
To be alone down there, to be alone
The Devil's apprentice he gave me some credit
He fed me a line and I'll probably regret it
I don't want you to be alone down there
To be alone down there, to be alone
Ah.
I don't want you to be alone down there
To be alone down there, to be alone
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This is very interesting considering i took this song at face value. I think the meth explanation is the most obvious and indeed cogent, however the heaven/earth/hell connotations are intruiging. If we consider that these are two separate entities (rather than conflicting parts of himself), is it singer looking down on Earth from Heaven, or Hell from Earth? What is the significance of the flies? Dead bodies, the stigma of addiction or depression? (Wierdly, and irrelevently, this and the next line reminds me of Catch 22, and Yossarian telling Appleby that he can't see because he (Appleby) has flies in his eyes) If not a dealer, who is this devil's apprentice? However the bit I truly am perplexed by is "You ask me what size it is, not what i sell" (maniacal laughter) What's that about? How does it fit with the interpretation of drugs? He might be trying to be empathetic with someone in a bad state for some reason, and considering sacrificing something to join them "down there". However the most lucid of these explanations is that he is coming down from a trip and is looking at himself objectively, and realising that he is alone in this (self induced?) condition, and is filled with self pity. This also helps the "my name is you" conundrum. Very sorry, another interpretation jsut hit me. This is a song of two halves, perhaps the first half is sung by the malevolent side of his personality the "devil's apprentice" who feeds him lines etc. and the second, more human, wounded half is sung by some other, empathetic persona, that cares not for flies and who can't bear himself to be alone; existing only so that he is not.