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.
I am a point in the sky
A star in a constellation
I am all you see
I am Orion's eyes
A towering giant's sight
Me being of mammoth's size
This comes as no surprise
I see all I've created
From my colossus stance
I watch as my investment
Is swarmed by the busy ants
They'll carry ten times their weight
If it means landing the deal
They'll eat what's not on their plate
If it means a full meal
Shine down on us now
Wash our hands clean
Lord knows they're filthy
Blackened with greed
Please be our Savior
Great deity
Well if you can't save us
Can this money?
I see all I've created
From my colossus stance
I watch as my investment
Is swarmed by the busy ants
They'll carry ten times their weight
If it means landing the deal
They'll eat what's not on their plate
If it means a full meal
Few have cut their strings
And risked it all to chase
Their dreams
Most seek the quick buck
The perfect tan
The easy fuck
Pay for their promotion
They stay in line
They please the queen
They wait their turn
Climb the hill
At all costs, avoid the pain
With my titan feet I could
End it with just one step
You cannot dodge agony
If all ten tons of it
Comes stomping
Down on you at once
Like a bullet to the brain
From my monster height
A healthy walk I contemplate
I see all I've created
From my colossus stance
I watch as my investment
Is swarmed by the busy ants
They'll carry ten times their weight
If it means landing the deal
They'll eat what's not on their plate
If it means a full meal
A star in a constellation
I am all you see
I am Orion's eyes
A towering giant's sight
Me being of mammoth's size
This comes as no surprise
I see all I've created
From my colossus stance
I watch as my investment
Is swarmed by the busy ants
They'll carry ten times their weight
If it means landing the deal
They'll eat what's not on their plate
If it means a full meal
Shine down on us now
Wash our hands clean
Lord knows they're filthy
Blackened with greed
Please be our Savior
Great deity
Well if you can't save us
Can this money?
I see all I've created
From my colossus stance
I watch as my investment
Is swarmed by the busy ants
They'll carry ten times their weight
If it means landing the deal
They'll eat what's not on their plate
If it means a full meal
Few have cut their strings
And risked it all to chase
Their dreams
Most seek the quick buck
The perfect tan
The easy fuck
Pay for their promotion
They stay in line
They please the queen
They wait their turn
Climb the hill
At all costs, avoid the pain
With my titan feet I could
End it with just one step
You cannot dodge agony
If all ten tons of it
Comes stomping
Down on you at once
Like a bullet to the brain
From my monster height
A healthy walk I contemplate
I see all I've created
From my colossus stance
I watch as my investment
Is swarmed by the busy ants
They'll carry ten times their weight
If it means landing the deal
They'll eat what's not on their plate
If it means a full meal
Lyrics submitted by BrianSeeders
Ants Lyrics as written by Thomas Garrett Hunter Thomas Dutton
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
zoobe_40 and Rosea pretty much summed it up:
The beginning of the concept album is this Corporate Head overlooking all his 'ants': the common man of the world. From high above, humans look like busy ants, scurrying around - never truly talking to one another; all to get the job done. We seek to please those with power (the 'queen ant') to get the things we want (the tan, the fuck, the promotion). The 3rd stanza voices the questioning of 'if the queen cannot save us, will all our material goods?'
Interestingly, as an introduction, the song foreshadows the Corporate Head's death (Comes stomping down on you at once/Like a bullet to the brain. -> See Harry Frazee and For a Dreamer). And obviously there is some pretty awesome ant/human analogies throughout this song ('carry 10 their weight');
Art: I'm thinking about scanning the picture, but the inside pamphlet includes a picture of a silhouette on top of a building with more shadows climbing up like ants.
Oh and if you have seen Waking Life and/or Pi, you'd understand the ants.
This song is really good it was one of my favorites on the album. I think its mainly describing a head honcho at some coporation that looks at his employess as ants. Seeing as he watches everything he built get swarmed by the "ants" resembling how he controls them. This is described when it says "They'll eat what's not on their plate if it means a full meal." All this aside the invesotrs and employers are pawns and he uses their greed to get what he wants and also end peoples lives in his so called society
i didn't mean like actually killing people i meant ending peoples money and stuff...yea haha...
If you go to their bio at the fueled by ramen site they say that a lot of the songs on the album were them mentioning how so many people only chase after money and end up leaving everything behind, including their dreams. They were commenting on the fact that they had done just the opposite and now in the end have come out better because they changed their dreams. So they're basically mocking all the Wall Street 'ants'
I'm not sure if the band intended for me to feel this way, but I take it as a metaphor for human behavior. We are essentially ants, whether we realize it or not, especially in the sense that we are greedy and all just go along doing out assigned jobs to keep the world turning.
The guy walking is a deity, kind of. In the sense that he is larger than life (from an ants perspective).
If we are like Gods to ants, then what are our Gods? Are we merely ants?
^Thought provoking.
Just take a look at the name of their album. "Wonderland" The whole album is focusing on people.