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.
I don't buy your explanations
Your short sighted expectations
Stop complaining, I don't care
(I told you the way it had to be)
I will fuck with you
If you try to fuck with me
(So don't try it)
Look at this face, I'm the one you love
The white light of truth from heaven above
An angel of shit, fucker
It's no road to ruin
Not a final solution
Just the grand execution
Of our Joyful Reunion
You squeezed the world in
the palm of your hand
But when it lay in pieces
Did you give a damn?
(Why should you?)
Don't play dumb and don't ask why
With a blink of my eye you
are cut and dried
And hung up -bye, bye
It was here, where did it go
I don't know, I don't know
Anything any more
In this ball of confusion
Through these painful convolutions
There's no clear-cut solution
Just a Joyful Reunion
What are you trying to escape
Your name calls me
Your mirror is my gate
(smash, through the looking glass, fucker)
I am your hated enemy
The friend that makes you start again
Just when you thought it
was finally the end
Hit me hard, tear me apart
To rise again is my special art
You can't kill me
With all the things that cut me down
Shake, brake, mutilate -
grind me into the ground
I'll grow up again with first
rain, just the same
We will raze the institutions
Make all new resolutions
Rebuild constitution
For that Joyful Reunion
Your short sighted expectations
Stop complaining, I don't care
(I told you the way it had to be)
I will fuck with you
If you try to fuck with me
(So don't try it)
Look at this face, I'm the one you love
The white light of truth from heaven above
An angel of shit, fucker
It's no road to ruin
Not a final solution
Just the grand execution
Of our Joyful Reunion
You squeezed the world in
the palm of your hand
But when it lay in pieces
Did you give a damn?
(Why should you?)
Don't play dumb and don't ask why
With a blink of my eye you
are cut and dried
And hung up -bye, bye
It was here, where did it go
I don't know, I don't know
Anything any more
In this ball of confusion
Through these painful convolutions
There's no clear-cut solution
Just a Joyful Reunion
What are you trying to escape
Your name calls me
Your mirror is my gate
(smash, through the looking glass, fucker)
I am your hated enemy
The friend that makes you start again
Just when you thought it
was finally the end
Hit me hard, tear me apart
To rise again is my special art
You can't kill me
With all the things that cut me down
Shake, brake, mutilate -
grind me into the ground
I'll grow up again with first
rain, just the same
We will raze the institutions
Make all new resolutions
Rebuild constitution
For that Joyful Reunion
Lyrics submitted by WildRunner
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i like how no one needs to explain what this song is about at all. it explains itself. nomeansno is still my favorite band.