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.
Call it education
It was somewhere in between
You gave me some sound advice
But I wasn't listening
After we had capsized
I could tell you how you thought
Well, I'm not sure
But laid to rest on the city on the wall
Not quite conversation
It was somewhere in between
You said everything is taught
And I listened patiently
All this talking pony
Still monkies the whole time
We could not help from flinging shit
In our modern suits and ties
Our instincts, they were cringing
About how we lived our lives
It didn't seem we'd lived enough
To even get to die
All these diss distractions
So beautifully complex
Well, I loved life's surprises so much
I don't want to know what's happened
Stubborn shouting, said
"I don't do what you do"
I don't know
Could it really hear highly if you highly care?
And you don't
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I've been away
Hardly education
It was somewhere in between
Oh, I hit the roof but I had
Aimed for the ceiling
Hardly education
All them books I didn't
They just sat there on my shelf
Looking much smarter than me
Good old Nostradamus
He knew the whole damn time
That always being east from west
Someone is there fighting
Stubborn shouting, said
"I don't do what you do"
I don't know
Could it really hear highly if you highly care?
And you don't
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I've been away
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I don't know anyway
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I don't know
Could it really hear highly if you highly care?
And you don't
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Uh.. I fell away
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Oh, very well, then
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Oh, very well, then
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Oh, very well, then
Oh, very well, then
It was somewhere in between
You gave me some sound advice
But I wasn't listening
After we had capsized
I could tell you how you thought
Well, I'm not sure
But laid to rest on the city on the wall
Not quite conversation
It was somewhere in between
You said everything is taught
And I listened patiently
All this talking pony
Still monkies the whole time
We could not help from flinging shit
In our modern suits and ties
Our instincts, they were cringing
About how we lived our lives
It didn't seem we'd lived enough
To even get to die
All these diss distractions
So beautifully complex
Well, I loved life's surprises so much
I don't want to know what's happened
Stubborn shouting, said
"I don't do what you do"
I don't know
Could it really hear highly if you highly care?
And you don't
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I've been away
Hardly education
It was somewhere in between
Oh, I hit the roof but I had
Aimed for the ceiling
Hardly education
All them books I didn't
They just sat there on my shelf
Looking much smarter than me
Good old Nostradamus
He knew the whole damn time
That always being east from west
Someone is there fighting
Stubborn shouting, said
"I don't do what you do"
I don't know
Could it really hear highly if you highly care?
And you don't
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I've been away
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I don't know anyway
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
I don't know
Could it really hear highly if you highly care?
And you don't
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Uh.. I fell away
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Oh, very well, then
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Oh, very well, then
Stubborn beauty, stubborn beauty
Oh, very well, then
Oh, very well, then
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher, edited by ModestNova, lysdexia
Education Lyrics as written by Isaac Brock Eric Judy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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to me, i think it's just straight up making fun of modern society's educational system. saying he never focused and worked hard in school but he still made something of himself. he reduces the complex and intellectual things into something everyone can understand, eg. the Nostradamus line. Nostradamus was wise and had many famous quotes, but he simplified one or more of them into basically "there will be two sides and they'll always fight."
but, to tie in with the theme of death in the album (to me anyway) it could be looking back at his educational history and maybe regretting not trying, even though he does fine now. the lines about not reading his books makes it sound like he felt he was too dumb to read them and to try. to sum it up, he's looking back, wishes he'd have done better regardless of how he is now, but can't change anything as he nears death. something like that. that's just my opinion.