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.
Er geht auf der Straß'n
Sagt net wohin,
Das Hirn voll heavy Metal,
Und seine Leber ist hin
Seine Venen sind offen,
Und er riecht nach Formalin
Das alles macht eam kan Kummer,
Weil er ist in Wien.
Ganz Wien
Ist heut auf Heroin
Ganz Wien
Träumt mit Mozambin
Ganz Wien, ganz Wien
Grieft auch zu Kokain
Überhaupt in der Ballsaison
Man sieht ganz Wien
Is so herrlich hin, hin, hin
Kokain und Kodein
Heroin und Mozambin
machen uns hin, hin, hin.
Einmal wird der Tag kommen,
Die Donau außer Rand und Band,
Im U4 geigen die Goldfisch',
Der Bruno längst im sich'ren Land,
Der Hannes A, dann lernen wir
Schwimmen, treib'n tan ma eh.
Alle Teuferl weiße Gewandl,
weiß wie Schnee
Ganz Wien...
Sagt net wohin,
Das Hirn voll heavy Metal,
Und seine Leber ist hin
Seine Venen sind offen,
Und er riecht nach Formalin
Das alles macht eam kan Kummer,
Weil er ist in Wien.
Ganz Wien
Ist heut auf Heroin
Ganz Wien
Träumt mit Mozambin
Ganz Wien, ganz Wien
Grieft auch zu Kokain
Überhaupt in der Ballsaison
Man sieht ganz Wien
Is so herrlich hin, hin, hin
Kokain und Kodein
Heroin und Mozambin
machen uns hin, hin, hin.
Einmal wird der Tag kommen,
Die Donau außer Rand und Band,
Im U4 geigen die Goldfisch',
Der Bruno längst im sich'ren Land,
Der Hannes A, dann lernen wir
Schwimmen, treib'n tan ma eh.
Alle Teuferl weiße Gewandl,
weiß wie Schnee
Ganz Wien...
Lyrics submitted by Sitamun
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"Bruno already for a long time on the safe side Hannes too," Bruno = Bruno Kreisky, the austrian chancellor at the time. Hannes = Hannes Androsch, the austrian finance minister at the time, second rranking politician at the time, and horribly feuding with the Kreisky for the supremacy and 'heirdom' to politic leadership.
This basically meaning: regardless whether its the old guard' of the politic and power circle, or the new and coming ones, they got their shares to their side, when the 'danube rises above the riverbed and floods Vienna'; for the rest of us, we can only drug ourselves us down to bear everything and myke a ball out of it, and maybe learn to swim...