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.
Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying, trying to keep them alive
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together, you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over Sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes
And it's the sum of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks
Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, 'You'd better look alive.'
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
Heard four winds leveling the pines
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves
There's people always dying, trying to keep them alive
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together, you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over Sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes
And it's the sum of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks
Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, 'You'd better look alive.'
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
Heard four winds leveling the pines
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves
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I just learned how to play this on guitar, but I'm still working on memorizing all the lyrics. To help me remember them and to attempt to understand what the song's all about, I'm going to break the lyrics down into sections and interpret what I think Conor Oberst means to say, working section by section.
Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
(I think these two lines are an overall criticism of the human need for identity and the violence caused by the need to preserve these identities.)
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight In an abandoned building where A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world Four winds blowing through her hair
(This seems to be about a personal experience the Conor Oberst had, or perhaps it's a fiction he came up with. Either way it sets the Apocalyptic feel for the rest of the song.)
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed She caves
(This is section is a reference to Revelations, the last book in the Bible. In Revelations, there's a series of events that occur in hyper-metaphorical language and one of them is the downfall of the Whore of Babylon. What the Whore of Babylon is, is really up to you.)
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an is mute If you burned them all together you'd be close to the truth ===>
(This is Conor Oberst speaking directly to the listener. Basically, that these religious texts have no value when it comes to seeking truth.)
==> still They're poring over Sanskrit under Ivy League moons While shadows lengthen in the sun
(Conor comments that although these religious books have no value as truth, people are still studying them in their original languages (ie. Sanskrit) at Ivy Leagues Universities, while the onset of a metaphorical night is upon them.)
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
(I'm not entirely sure what the "school of meditation" is, but I would guess it is referring to those who are studying the "Sanskrit" at the "Ivy League moons". In my opinion, the line that the "school of meditation" is "built to soften the times" do so by keeping the ideologies of these religions out of conflict with one another.)