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.
Frank the new CEO had to answer to the board
The board was getting anxious and the shareholders
Were on the bed legs in air, ass cheeks open wide
They were about to get fucked like it was there first time
When one makes 20 million, and 10,000 people lose
What keeps that one from swallowing a shotgun
Dan the company man felt loyalty to the corp
After 16 years of service and a family to support
He actually started to believe the weaponry and chemicals were for our security
'Cause Danny had a mortgage and a boss to answer to
The guilty don't feel guilty, they learn not to
Helen is living in her car, and trying to feed her kids
She got laid off from work and her house was repossessed
Desperate people have been known to render desperate deeds
But when she shot that family and moved into their home
The paper read she suffered from dementia
The board was getting anxious and the shareholders
Were on the bed legs in air, ass cheeks open wide
They were about to get fucked like it was there first time
When one makes 20 million, and 10,000 people lose
What keeps that one from swallowing a shotgun
Dan the company man felt loyalty to the corp
After 16 years of service and a family to support
He actually started to believe the weaponry and chemicals were for our security
'Cause Danny had a mortgage and a boss to answer to
The guilty don't feel guilty, they learn not to
Helen is living in her car, and trying to feed her kids
She got laid off from work and her house was repossessed
Desperate people have been known to render desperate deeds
But when she shot that family and moved into their home
The paper read she suffered from dementia
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I like the first two stanzas of this song, but on the third Fat Mike shows his lacking sense of reality. Perhaps being a Californian, he could not help it. I mean he was making good points in the first two parts but then he says something really ridiculus in the last part and ruins whatever aura of wisdom could be conferred from this song.