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.
The bears are in the forest
The pope's in Rome
I'm on a beach in Zanzibar
Or at least I'll be here soon
What a shame we carry with us
The residue of fools
Instead of better wisdom
And advance tools
we prefer to be standing
Looking out from higher ground
Breathing air to lift the spirits
Or racing balloons in the alps
While on the beach in Zanzibar
We're struggling in the surf
Seeing the look horizon
Moving further away from us
And I close my eyes
I think it's me
Out on the look horizon where I found you.
Across the Nile
The land of pharaoh is digging up its past
The broken amulets of history
Strewn in our path
I feel like someone's watching
Through a window frame
A child prodding a wounded insect
Next to a cow in the pouring rain
The pope's in Rome
I'm on a beach in Zanzibar
Or at least I'll be here soon
What a shame we carry with us
The residue of fools
Instead of better wisdom
And advance tools
we prefer to be standing
Looking out from higher ground
Breathing air to lift the spirits
Or racing balloons in the alps
While on the beach in Zanzibar
We're struggling in the surf
Seeing the look horizon
Moving further away from us
And I close my eyes
I think it's me
Out on the look horizon where I found you.
Across the Nile
The land of pharaoh is digging up its past
The broken amulets of history
Strewn in our path
I feel like someone's watching
Through a window frame
A child prodding a wounded insect
Next to a cow in the pouring rain
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This is one of my favorites by John Cale. A lament on the losses we as humans are bringing about on ourselves through our own stupidity.
For a long time I thought of the 'look horizon' in an abstract way-- like our depth of understanding is leaving us behind. But he could also be talking about the way the tide gets sucked away before a tsunami.