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.
We charge into danger
No guarantees or safe places
No one can be trusted
Everyone is a suspect
And all the money's worthless
The town is trite and exaggerated
The food is turning
And the water is poisoned
And it's rotting your teeth right out of your head
Sight and hearing quickly faded
Your gut's expanding, your hairline's receding
The sores are opening and the cancer's spreading
And the antibiotics aren't working
All the drugs just strangely sobering
And the skeletons in your closet have
Opened the door and they started talking
[Repeat: x2]
Just like Miami (Miami)
Fucking Miami (Miami)
Sharks circling for the feeding
All hope has been abandoned
Like bodies drifting into the ocean
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Hey
They're in your room while you're sleeping
They're in your car behind the seat waiting
All the rifle sights are on the back of your head
They're slipping it into your drink when you're not looking
And they're selling it to you as art
It's every other word in movies and songs
All the public is buying
It's business as usual
And the business is capitalizing
On your fear, your greed, your perversions and vices
They say you're guilty, they got the evidence to prove it
The mistakes are obvious, the faults are glaring
The plane is on fire, the fucking ship is sinking
And you're swept away in a hurricane
You're buried in the rubble of an earthquake
It's terminal, inoperable
They're amputating
Massive hemorrhaging
Major fucking complications
[Repeat: x2]
Just like Miami (Miami)
Fucking Miami (Miami)
Sharks circling for the feeding
All hope has been abandoned
Like bodies drifting into the ocean
(Miami)
No guarantees or safe places
No one can be trusted
Everyone is a suspect
And all the money's worthless
The town is trite and exaggerated
The food is turning
And the water is poisoned
And it's rotting your teeth right out of your head
Sight and hearing quickly faded
Your gut's expanding, your hairline's receding
The sores are opening and the cancer's spreading
And the antibiotics aren't working
All the drugs just strangely sobering
And the skeletons in your closet have
Opened the door and they started talking
[Repeat: x2]
Just like Miami (Miami)
Fucking Miami (Miami)
Sharks circling for the feeding
All hope has been abandoned
Like bodies drifting into the ocean
Hey, hey
Hey, hey
Hey
They're in your room while you're sleeping
They're in your car behind the seat waiting
All the rifle sights are on the back of your head
They're slipping it into your drink when you're not looking
And they're selling it to you as art
It's every other word in movies and songs
All the public is buying
It's business as usual
And the business is capitalizing
On your fear, your greed, your perversions and vices
They say you're guilty, they got the evidence to prove it
The mistakes are obvious, the faults are glaring
The plane is on fire, the fucking ship is sinking
And you're swept away in a hurricane
You're buried in the rubble of an earthquake
It's terminal, inoperable
They're amputating
Massive hemorrhaging
Major fucking complications
[Repeat: x2]
Just like Miami (Miami)
Fucking Miami (Miami)
Sharks circling for the feeding
All hope has been abandoned
Like bodies drifting into the ocean
(Miami)
Lyrics submitted by redpatcher, edited by ncc74656m
Miami Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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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To poster: Like BALLOTS drifting into the ocean. Ferserious.
Definitely a really good song to open their new album. I'm not sure if it is better on the CD than on those stolen demos from 2004, but eh. AM! is one of those bands I can say nothing negative about.
I'm thinking the constant hyperbole in this song would suggest it deals with the culture of fear that is so rampant here in the States. And perhaps nothing is easier to point to as a jumping-off point for this culture than the 2000 election (right or wrong), hence the BALLOTS drifting into the ocean.