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.
Hold on this will
Hurt more than anything has before
What it was, what it was, what it was
I've brought this on us
More than anyone could ignore
What I've done, what I've done, what I've done
I've worked for so long
Just to see you mess around
What you've done, what you've done, what you've done
I want back the years that you took
When I was young
I was young, I was young
But it's done
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
We'll fall just like stars being hung by only string
Everything, everything, here is gone
No map can direct how
To ever make it home
We're alone, we're alone, we're alone
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
Hurt more than anything has before
What it was, what it was, what it was
I've brought this on us
More than anyone could ignore
What I've done, what I've done, what I've done
I've worked for so long
Just to see you mess around
What you've done, what you've done, what you've done
I want back the years that you took
When I was young
I was young, I was young
But it's done
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
We'll fall just like stars being hung by only string
Everything, everything, here is gone
No map can direct how
To ever make it home
We're alone, we're alone, we're alone
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
Oh, take it all away
I don't feel it anymore
Oh, take it all away
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
i relate to it in that i too had to tell my girlfriend, after we'd been together a significant amount of time, that i had done something horrible. i knew that i couldn't not tell her; it wasn't even an option... but, i also knew that if i did tell her it would leave an irreparable, irrevocable impression. it's especially difficult to think of it in terms of the way you'll change in this person's eyes, how they'll forever hold this somewhere in the recesses of their mind. the circumstances, mind you, were entirely irregular, and there was a lot of drinking and stuff involved. i didn't mean for it to happen, and it wasn't something i would do. in fact, it fucked me up a great deal, too.
she wasn't waiting for me to mess around or anything (i don't think), but... both my relationship, and myself personally, were complicated and had a fair share of issues. part of me, i think, can't help but feel that perhaps this was partially that thing that really did us in. time would pass, but seemingly at random, she would just break down. i'd find her, collapsed, crying on the bathroom floor, for instance. i couldn't make it go away, and so i knew there was nothing i could really do. all i wanted to do was take it back. i would've given anything for that.