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.
Road runner, road runner
Going hundred mile per hour
With your radio on
With your radio on
Road runner, road runner
Going hundred mile per hour
With your radio on
With your radio on
Somalia, Angola, Ghana, Ghana, Ghana (hey!)
India, Sri Lanka, Burma, bamboo banga (hey!)
This the bamboo banga
I said bamboo banga
This the bamboo banga
I said bamboo banga
And we're hittin our records like a tennis player
And the drummers do the shit like the macarena
This the jungle banga
Or the cold jammer
I said jungle banga
I said cold jammer
I said jungle banga
I said cold jammer
I'm bored of eating banana
I want guanabana
I wanna warm my buns this summer summer summer summer
Now I'm sittin' down chillin on some gun powder
Strike / match / light / fire
Who's that girl called Maya?
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
I said M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
Yeah, I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
Yeah, I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
Yeah, I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
You'll be hungry like the wolves hunting dinner dinner
And we're moving with the packs like hyena ena
Barbarella look like she's my dead ringer
When I?m dogging on the bonner of ya red Honda
I'm a road runner
I'm a world runner
I'm a road runner
I'm a world runner
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
Going hundred mile per hour
With your radio on
With your radio on
Road runner, road runner
Going hundred mile per hour
With your radio on
With your radio on
Somalia, Angola, Ghana, Ghana, Ghana (hey!)
India, Sri Lanka, Burma, bamboo banga (hey!)
This the bamboo banga
I said bamboo banga
This the bamboo banga
I said bamboo banga
And we're hittin our records like a tennis player
And the drummers do the shit like the macarena
This the jungle banga
Or the cold jammer
I said jungle banga
I said cold jammer
I said jungle banga
I said cold jammer
I'm bored of eating banana
I want guanabana
I wanna warm my buns this summer summer summer summer
Now I'm sittin' down chillin on some gun powder
Strike / match / light / fire
Who's that girl called Maya?
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
I said M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
Yeah, I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
Yeah, I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
Yeah, I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer
You'll be hungry like the wolves hunting dinner dinner
And we're moving with the packs like hyena ena
Barbarella look like she's my dead ringer
When I?m dogging on the bonner of ya red Honda
I'm a road runner
I'm a world runner
I'm a road runner
I'm a world runner
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
M.I.A. coming back with power power (power power!)
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
I'm big timer, it's the bamboo banga
Lyrics submitted by lalunacreciente
Bamboo Banga Lyrics as written by David James Andrew Taylor Mathangi Arulpragasam
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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i agree with azile, it's about poverty in the third world countries but also about how the hunger of these people turns them into criminals ( ->wolves, hunting for food). "Road runner, road runner Going hundred mile per hour" describes how they run away when they've stolen e.g. food, you run for your life. "I'm knocking on the doors of your hummer hummer" critizes the big gap between poor and rich, the poor distribution of money in our world. she's basically saying that they're people in the world sitting in their 70 k cars while others can't even afford a piece of bread. and that they should just give off a damn piece of their piles of money.
i always thought she'd be saying "I'm a woooolf/ I'm a road runner" instead of world runner.think of the looney tunes where the coyote (wolf/culprit) always hunts the road runner (victim). if so, it could mean that the criminals are victims themselves, simply because poverty has driven them into crime.