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.
Sixteen of June, nine-oh-five, door bell rings
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There's three things I need you to know
Three
Coming from a long line of traveling sales people on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you
These days are better than that
These days are better than that
Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can't defeat
Neither down nor out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
Sixteen of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you're fine, or dying
Please
Nine-oh-nine, St. John Divine on the line, my pulse is fine
But I'm running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease
The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it
Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown
Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There's three things I need you to know
Three
Coming from a long line of traveling sales people on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you
These days are better than that
These days are better than that
Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can't defeat
Neither down nor out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
Sixteen of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you're fine, or dying
Please
Nine-oh-nine, St. John Divine on the line, my pulse is fine
But I'm running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease
The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it
Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown
Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now
Lyrics submitted by young_jables
Breathe Lyrics as written by Dave Evans Adam Clayton
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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These lyrics are, to me, an expression of the beauty of an equal balance of both optimism and interpretation of both the dark and light in the human experience. There's a great relief in the acceptance of both the dark and light and a freedom that comes with allowing the whole experience to bring whole learning from our time on this Earth. No more running from the negative (creating even greater negative), always trying to be right and "good". Bono was born to sing... What was each of us born to do... fearlessly "singing" our expression of love mixed in with equal and healthy amounts of "not love" for a wholly balanced human picture?
I was born to be with you, in this space and time... Only love can leave such a mark, but only love can leave such a scare. I was born to sing for you... I didn't have a choice. From the womb... my first cry... it was a joyful one.
You can feel it that Bono sees no separation between himself and anyone alive today...
Magnificent! Truly Magnificent.
This is why they so generously perform and appear publicly. You get the sense that this is a gift... Quite the opposite of a profit-making endeavor.
Only love could leave such a mark.