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.
Invisible like all the reasons
Dark and cold like all the seasons
Things are not as you would have them
I'm no man and you're no woman
I guess I hope to see you sometime
Though our paths will never intertwine again
I hope you notice
I'm no hare and you're no tortoise
And I'm touched by the same sad feeling of dread
Just to know that you can't wait to see me dead
An idea in your head and a compass in your hand
On a mission to a foreign land
So now I'm out for political favors
A salary that corresponds with labor
Big house and a morning paper
Good fences that make good neighbors
I'm at the end
This here my rope
Another year to write and read the book I wrote
No dialing out
For a good time
To bathroom wall
Toss it a dime
Dead king dead swing
Ali look out!
We have new rules
To do without
You talk of Jesus
Until I'm well red
Swimming
Swimming
Swimming in my head
Why settle down?
Why even try?
Me tiger mouth
Meet bloodless eye
So drop dead stock
What hallen tree?
I leave New York
For other cities
Which let me play
With gas and fire
Took out an ad
Best friend for hire
Know that Mama told me
Never to come
But I cam softly, slowly
Banging me metal drum
Like Berryman
Bed-wet poet fears
That better men drink taller beers
Like scientist
I lost my glove
To bloody fists
And harder drugs
So split the night
And we get young
Like sacred cow
Without a tongue who sang a song sing
"time does not cut deep but cuts most absurdly....."
so la da dum
Dark and cold like all the seasons
Things are not as you would have them
I'm no man and you're no woman
I guess I hope to see you sometime
Though our paths will never intertwine again
I hope you notice
I'm no hare and you're no tortoise
And I'm touched by the same sad feeling of dread
Just to know that you can't wait to see me dead
An idea in your head and a compass in your hand
On a mission to a foreign land
So now I'm out for political favors
A salary that corresponds with labor
Big house and a morning paper
Good fences that make good neighbors
I'm at the end
This here my rope
Another year to write and read the book I wrote
No dialing out
For a good time
To bathroom wall
Toss it a dime
Dead king dead swing
Ali look out!
We have new rules
To do without
You talk of Jesus
Until I'm well red
Swimming
Swimming
Swimming in my head
Why settle down?
Why even try?
Me tiger mouth
Meet bloodless eye
So drop dead stock
What hallen tree?
I leave New York
For other cities
Which let me play
With gas and fire
Took out an ad
Best friend for hire
Know that Mama told me
Never to come
But I cam softly, slowly
Banging me metal drum
Like Berryman
Bed-wet poet fears
That better men drink taller beers
Like scientist
I lost my glove
To bloody fists
And harder drugs
So split the night
And we get young
Like sacred cow
Without a tongue who sang a song sing
"time does not cut deep but cuts most absurdly....."
so la da dum
Mama, Won't You Keep Them Castles in the Air and Burning? song meanings
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I'm curious to hear about thoughts on the meanings (not lyrics) to this song...