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.
Penniless and tired, with your hair grown long
I was looking at you there and your face looked wrong
Memory is a fickle siren song
I didn't understand
Image and a light as the morning nears
You don't say a single word of your last two years
Well, you will be, you'll reach the frontier
I didn't understand, oh
See your rugged hands and a silver knife
Twenty dollars in your hand that you hold so tight
All the evidence of your vagrant life
My brother, you were gone
And you will try to do what you did before
Pull the wool over your eyes
For a week or more
Let your family take you back to your original mind
There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can say
I can say
"It's recording"
"We going?"
"Yup"
I was looking at you there and your face looked wrong
Memory is a fickle siren song
I didn't understand
Image and a light as the morning nears
You don't say a single word of your last two years
Well, you will be, you'll reach the frontier
I didn't understand, oh
See your rugged hands and a silver knife
Twenty dollars in your hand that you hold so tight
All the evidence of your vagrant life
My brother, you were gone
And you will try to do what you did before
Pull the wool over your eyes
For a week or more
Let your family take you back to your original mind
There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can say
I can say
"It's recording"
"We going?"
"Yup"
Lyrics submitted by chickenflicker, edited by Doccy11, Brassfinch, stegokitty, DsquareD
He Doesn't Know Why Lyrics as written by Robin Noel Pecknold
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
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It's kind of scary how much I relate to this.
His brother came back after a while, but he wasn't the same. He can't figure out what happened to him, or what made him this way. When he looks into his brothers eyes he can just tell that something is wrong. He's a different person now. And when his brother says he'll change back, it's only for a short while. Then he turns back into this stranger. And he wishes his brother would let his family help him, or at least tell his family what's the matter. But he can't figure out what to say or do, because nothing ever helps.