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.
All those wasted hours we used to know
Spent the summers staring out the window
The wind it takes you where it wants to go
At first they built the road then they built the town
That's why we're still driving around and around
And all we see are kids in the buses longing to be free
Wasted hours before we knew
Where to go and what to do
Wasted hours that you make new
And turn into a life that we could live
Some cities make you lose your head
In this suburb stretched out thin and dead
What was that line you said?
Wishing you were anywhere but here
You watched the life you're living disappear
and now I see, we're still kids in the buses longing to be free
Wasted hours before we new
Where to go and what to do
Wasted hours that you make new
Turn into a life that we could live
Spent the summers staring out the window
The wind it takes you where it wants to go
At first they built the road then they built the town
That's why we're still driving around and around
And all we see are kids in the buses longing to be free
Wasted hours before we knew
Where to go and what to do
Wasted hours that you make new
And turn into a life that we could live
Some cities make you lose your head
In this suburb stretched out thin and dead
What was that line you said?
Wishing you were anywhere but here
You watched the life you're living disappear
and now I see, we're still kids in the buses longing to be free
Wasted hours before we new
Where to go and what to do
Wasted hours that you make new
Turn into a life that we could live
Lyrics submitted by jazzmaster5120
Wasted Hours Lyrics as written by Regine Chassagne Jeremy Gara
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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It's about all those times when you're a kid and a teenager, (possibly living in the suburbs, or maybe just in a suburban stage of your life where nothing much happens) and you wish you were free and could live the life you dream of. And then the singer grows up and realises they were wasted hours because he's still a kid on a bus longing to be free, and he's been asking the wrong questions all along.