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.
Gotta get out of TV
Just pick a point and go
The ticker-tape tangles my feet
As I search for a face that I know
Come on, tower crane driver
There's not so far to go
I must have been working the ropes
When your hand slipped from mine
Now I live off the mirrors and smoke
It's a joke, a fix, a lie
Come on, tower crane driver
Oh, so far to fall
Send up a prayer in my name
Just the same
They say I'm on top of my game
Dwindle gentle rose
Send up a prayer in my name
Just pick a point and go
The ticker-tape tangles my feet
As I search for a face that I know
Come on, tower crane driver
There's not so far to go
I must have been working the ropes
When your hand slipped from mine
Now I live off the mirrors and smoke
It's a joke, a fix, a lie
Come on, tower crane driver
Oh, so far to fall
Send up a prayer in my name
Just the same
They say I'm on top of my game
Dwindle gentle rose
Send up a prayer in my name
Lyrics submitted by toadtws, edited by reubenoid24, broadpath, niteflite01
The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver Lyrics as written by Guy Edward John Garvey Craig Lee Potter
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song almost makes me cry every single time I hear it. I think it's something to do with Guy's delivery of certain lines. It's just heart-breaking.
"Send up a prayer in my name!!!" (was that one of the lines??) There is no band like this band! Artistic, Articulate, Ambitious, Emotional, Lonely.......etc. etc.
Should listen to the Live at Abbey Road version - that line is absolutely epic.
Sazzrah, ditto-ditto-ditto - I got the CD of that whole performance, which comes with the DVD, and was utterly blown away. Stunning.