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.
Don't need a generation
Of burning on the ledge.
Don't need your ancient wisdom;
Two things I'll live without!
Relax,
(As children rest.)
Patience, people,
There's no need to react
So desperately tonight.
(You don't need to know the things I know.)
In fact,
(As children rest.)
All of you
Will be sleeping
With honesty intact.
(Our innocence intact.)
So just give up tonight.
(If I knew then what I know now, I'd stay six-years-old!)
If you lost everything in a moment,
Would you notice?
Could you rebuild something so hopeless?
Are you hopeless?
And when you wake alone, with no one left to hold,
You won't need to know all the things I know.
Paradise in every swimming pool!
Paradise in every playground slide!
Paradise, fresh baked in a cookie jar!
If I were you,
I would defend my innocence
Vigilantly!
I would fight all that tried to rob me of that,
'Cause there's some things you just don't need to know!
Tragedy in the dentist's office!
Tragedy in every skinned knee!
Tragedy spilled all over the kitchen floor!
Of burning on the ledge.
Don't need your ancient wisdom;
Two things I'll live without!
Relax,
(As children rest.)
Patience, people,
There's no need to react
So desperately tonight.
(You don't need to know the things I know.)
In fact,
(As children rest.)
All of you
Will be sleeping
With honesty intact.
(Our innocence intact.)
So just give up tonight.
(If I knew then what I know now, I'd stay six-years-old!)
If you lost everything in a moment,
Would you notice?
Could you rebuild something so hopeless?
Are you hopeless?
And when you wake alone, with no one left to hold,
You won't need to know all the things I know.
Paradise in every swimming pool!
Paradise in every playground slide!
Paradise, fresh baked in a cookie jar!
If I were you,
I would defend my innocence
Vigilantly!
I would fight all that tried to rob me of that,
'Cause there's some things you just don't need to know!
Tragedy in the dentist's office!
Tragedy in every skinned knee!
Tragedy spilled all over the kitchen floor!
Lyrics submitted by iamthenightstars, edited by CAKunited
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This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
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Not gonna lie, I'm horrible with lyrics and deciphering meanings, however a few things occurred to me when I was listening to this song today. It's been one of my favourite songs of theirs since they released Crisis and it kills me that it's relegated to a B-Side that only a handful of fans probably know about.
Anyways, everywhere I've read the lyrics for this song, it says the line "If I were you, I would defend my innocence. visually." I've always sung it as such, because hey, sure it doesn't make any sense but not all lyrics are straight forward. However for some reason listening to it for the 1000th time I noticed that it seemed a lot more like he's saying "If I were you, I would defend my innocence VIGILANTLY." Makes a lot more sense and I'm surprised at myself for not picking it up earlier, but anyways....
The other thing is that while I believe everyone else here has the right idea, I think that Dallas seems to be playing the role of opposition to George in this song. "When you awake alone with no one left to hold, you wont need to know all the things I know." Out of context this could really mean a number of things, but if you relate it to George's line of "If I knew then what I know now I'd stay six years old" it seems to make a lot more sense contextually, almost as a kind of counter argument. I think he's basically saying if you were to remain six years old and blissfully ignorant to the world forever, then you'll never learn anything or become attached to anything, you'll never have anyone to hold, you wont NEED to know anything. "If you lost everything in a moment, would you notice? Could you rebuild something so hopeless, are you hopeless?" Seems to support my theory and suggest that being young and oblivious and devoid of attachment to the things that matter makes everything lack a whole lot of depth and subsequently mean very little when they're taken away, however they are for the most part things that everyone needs. You're essentially "hopeless" without them.
"Relax, patience people, there's no need to react, so desperately tonight. In fact all of you will be sleeping with honesty intact so just give up tonight." It almost seems to me as though he's insinuating that loss of innocence is necessary in life, and that often times honesty will precede it.
Anyways, I've probably butchered all the points I've tried to get across because I seem to be struggling to formulate the ideas in my head into text, so I hope it wasn't too confusing!