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.
Standing on some dotted line
Reacting to the hands of time
A circumstance that I've been fed
Leaving questions in my head
Find the space that was left bare
An empty space I'd gladly share
One must live while one must die
Combined paired up for so many years
Unsure if I really want to shed a tear
Signing off is always so clearly done
A number 2 is now reduced to one
Find the space that was left bare
An empty space I'd gladly share
When your clock is up
And you rest for good
I will cut off my armpiece
Just like we agreed we would
One must live while one must die
While the other argues that
The world ain't fair
But then who ever promised
Anybody equal share
You might as well forget
What you gambled on
'Cause plans never go by the way they're drawn
When your clock is up
And you rest for good
I will cut off my armpiece
Just like we agreed we would
One must live while one must die
I can't say goodbye
It's all I can do to get up every morning
And when all else fails I try
To face myself and everything else
But mostly I wonder why
Reacting to the hands of time
A circumstance that I've been fed
Leaving questions in my head
Find the space that was left bare
An empty space I'd gladly share
One must live while one must die
Combined paired up for so many years
Unsure if I really want to shed a tear
Signing off is always so clearly done
A number 2 is now reduced to one
Find the space that was left bare
An empty space I'd gladly share
When your clock is up
And you rest for good
I will cut off my armpiece
Just like we agreed we would
One must live while one must die
While the other argues that
The world ain't fair
But then who ever promised
Anybody equal share
You might as well forget
What you gambled on
'Cause plans never go by the way they're drawn
When your clock is up
And you rest for good
I will cut off my armpiece
Just like we agreed we would
One must live while one must die
I can't say goodbye
It's all I can do to get up every morning
And when all else fails I try
To face myself and everything else
But mostly I wonder why
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Great song that closes an under-rated album. I've always wondered about the armpiece as well. For a while i wondered if it was an odd military uniform reference(!). I also thought it could it be a tattoo of the lost loved one on the arm perhaps?
Thoughts, anyone?