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.
Crammed in a space
Less than six feet by two feet
Like veal ready for slaughter
He lies there
Unable to move
The walls binding him in his place
Are the flesh of the men around him
No room to even sit up
Iron clamps bind him to his partner
No bathroom in sight
He's forced to relieve himself
Right where he lies
Contributing to the unbearable stench
So foul that any man unaccustomed to it
Would surely pass out
No mats
No sheets
He lies there on the splintering wood
And on a stormy night
His flesh would be shed down
To the bare bone
Oozing puss and blood
Onto the already excrement filled floor
Any thoughts of mutiny
That may have crossed his brain quickly fade
As he views a fellow uncooperative slave
Flogged to near death with a cat of nine tails
Steel tips glistening with blood
In the hot equatorial sun
He falls
Down
Hopeless
Less than six feet by two feet
Like veal ready for slaughter
He lies there
Unable to move
The walls binding him in his place
Are the flesh of the men around him
No room to even sit up
Iron clamps bind him to his partner
No bathroom in sight
He's forced to relieve himself
Right where he lies
Contributing to the unbearable stench
So foul that any man unaccustomed to it
Would surely pass out
No mats
No sheets
He lies there on the splintering wood
And on a stormy night
His flesh would be shed down
To the bare bone
Oozing puss and blood
Onto the already excrement filled floor
Any thoughts of mutiny
That may have crossed his brain quickly fade
As he views a fellow uncooperative slave
Flogged to near death with a cat of nine tails
Steel tips glistening with blood
In the hot equatorial sun
He falls
Down
Hopeless
Lyrics submitted by open_veins
Crossings Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
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Obviously about a slave crossing the ocean in a ship.