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.
sleeping late i hear the sad horns
of labor truck sigh
my neighbor walks by
high heels click dry
like half a proud horse downbrook
i hear somebody's babbling i mistook
for a cavalry whispering victory
to the sparks in their kindling
but but all their green wood's wet and unmet
as of yet by the gases of flame
pressing again the pending physics
of my passed down last name
living in the tear between two spaces condemned
in one of the many places
you're not i am
hiding from my friends in the bathroom at thrift town
to write this tune down.
(just doesn't stop)
today after lunch i got sick and blew chunks
all over my new shoes in the lot behind whole foods
this is a new kind of blues and what about losing
limb or loved one in a duel dissatisfies you or seems just
as a kid i did not shit my pants much,
why start now with this stuff
and man i do not bluff
second caller gets bit by a dog or jeff dahmer
kisses or stitches no mitt for these pitches
lone pone one master of the cheap pun,
if i'm not raw i'm just a bit underdone
but i'd be okay cool as a rail
if they'd just let us have health food in hell
good heavens background radiation
and the black arts of waiting
not the same since i
switched my hair part and started shaving
got hexed my hidden hair gone corners
oh i'll never be a joiner
life long local foreigner i
raw lung homegrown fake in co-ed naked choir
second tenor highest riser blessed clever compromiser
i'll be proudly mouthing watermelon every song
i put the phone to my ear
but all's i hears a dial tone
will they map my skull and wrap my bones
when my wig is gone hmmm
i'll go unknown by torpedo or crohns
only those evil live to see
their own likeness in stone
my brother said that
i can decide
while i'm alive i'll feel alive
and what's next
i guess i'll know when i've gotten there
of labor truck sigh
my neighbor walks by
high heels click dry
like half a proud horse downbrook
i hear somebody's babbling i mistook
for a cavalry whispering victory
to the sparks in their kindling
but but all their green wood's wet and unmet
as of yet by the gases of flame
pressing again the pending physics
of my passed down last name
living in the tear between two spaces condemned
in one of the many places
you're not i am
hiding from my friends in the bathroom at thrift town
to write this tune down.
(just doesn't stop)
today after lunch i got sick and blew chunks
all over my new shoes in the lot behind whole foods
this is a new kind of blues and what about losing
limb or loved one in a duel dissatisfies you or seems just
as a kid i did not shit my pants much,
why start now with this stuff
and man i do not bluff
second caller gets bit by a dog or jeff dahmer
kisses or stitches no mitt for these pitches
lone pone one master of the cheap pun,
if i'm not raw i'm just a bit underdone
but i'd be okay cool as a rail
if they'd just let us have health food in hell
good heavens background radiation
and the black arts of waiting
not the same since i
switched my hair part and started shaving
got hexed my hidden hair gone corners
oh i'll never be a joiner
life long local foreigner i
raw lung homegrown fake in co-ed naked choir
second tenor highest riser blessed clever compromiser
i'll be proudly mouthing watermelon every song
i put the phone to my ear
but all's i hears a dial tone
will they map my skull and wrap my bones
when my wig is gone hmmm
i'll go unknown by torpedo or crohns
only those evil live to see
their own likeness in stone
my brother said that
i can decide
while i'm alive i'll feel alive
and what's next
i guess i'll know when i've gotten there
Lyrics submitted by oh ok
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That German guy is far put. Can you imagine actually asking the band something and then returning to songmeanings to say what they said it meant. Pretty awesome of that German guy.