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.
There was a knight, and a lady bright
And three little babes had she
She sent them away, to a far country
To learn their grammerie
They hadn't been gone but a very short time
About three months and a day
When the lark spread o'er this whole wide world
And taken those babes away
It was on a cold, cold Christmas night
When everything was still
And she saw her three little babes come running
Come running down the hill
She set them a table of bread and wine
That they might drink and eat;
She spread them a bed of winding sheet
That they might sleep so sweet
"Take it off, take it off," cried the eldest one;
"Take it off, take it off," cried she
"For I shan't stay here, in this wicked world
When there's a better one for me."
"Cold clods, cold clods, inside my bed
Cold clods, down at my feet —
The tears my dear mother shed for me
Would wet my winding sheet"
And three little babes had she
She sent them away, to a far country
To learn their grammerie
They hadn't been gone but a very short time
About three months and a day
When the lark spread o'er this whole wide world
And taken those babes away
It was on a cold, cold Christmas night
When everything was still
And she saw her three little babes come running
Come running down the hill
She set them a table of bread and wine
That they might drink and eat;
She spread them a bed of winding sheet
That they might sleep so sweet
"Take it off, take it off," cried the eldest one;
"Take it off, take it off," cried she
"For I shan't stay here, in this wicked world
When there's a better one for me."
"Cold clods, cold clods, inside my bed
Cold clods, down at my feet —
The tears my dear mother shed for me
Would wet my winding sheet"
Lyrics submitted by tiredgorilla
Three Little Babes Lyrics as written by Trad Joanna Newsom
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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A "winding sheet" is the sheet you wrap a dead person's body in. This song is so sad, but I think it's about the mother understanding her children's deaths. I think it shows how she never will get over it because her tears become wedded to the winding sheet which I think sortof shows how she'll always have a connection with them through her grief.