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.
It's a garbage truck hour, I'm sleeping in the shower
I'm feeling like I'm waiting on a train
By the sounds from my bed I think somebody's bled
All over something someone's keeping clean
I don't need anything, just make it bright
then turn it low
You don't need more than me
You could live right there beneath the stairs
I've done it, I've said all I can, I've reached the end
Now you must learn to bend
Bend to the floor, taste the core
You're not going nowhere
leave the money right there
I feel the arrow sticking in my ear
We owe so much we pawned
Now watch the power come undone
I'm standing on my head to watch the day just drift away
This city always makes the same mistakes, asleep or awake
I'm sick of waking up inside white balloons
Inside of blue balloons
New York air is sweet tonight
there's no stars but that's all right
I'm breathing
I feel you through your fear
Pull the arrow from my ear
Tonight we'll take a different way home
They say the fire burns but won't consume
But it does consume
You're slick, you shoplift
What's left of my brain
You haven't changed
This city always makes the same mistakes,
it's just like me
It always breaks in two
I'm sick of me for being sick of you
We'll take a gypsy cab to heaven or hell
Time will tell
I'm feeling like I'm waiting on a train
By the sounds from my bed I think somebody's bled
All over something someone's keeping clean
I don't need anything, just make it bright
then turn it low
You don't need more than me
You could live right there beneath the stairs
I've done it, I've said all I can, I've reached the end
Now you must learn to bend
Bend to the floor, taste the core
You're not going nowhere
leave the money right there
I feel the arrow sticking in my ear
We owe so much we pawned
Now watch the power come undone
I'm standing on my head to watch the day just drift away
This city always makes the same mistakes, asleep or awake
I'm sick of waking up inside white balloons
Inside of blue balloons
New York air is sweet tonight
there's no stars but that's all right
I'm breathing
I feel you through your fear
Pull the arrow from my ear
Tonight we'll take a different way home
They say the fire burns but won't consume
But it does consume
You're slick, you shoplift
What's left of my brain
You haven't changed
This city always makes the same mistakes,
it's just like me
It always breaks in two
I'm sick of me for being sick of you
We'll take a gypsy cab to heaven or hell
Time will tell
Lyrics submitted by Major Valor
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