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.
Coconut Grove
Is a very small cove
separated from the sea
by a shifting shoal
we didn't realize that
we had arrived
at high tide, high tide
barely made it out alive
red over white
fishermen working at night
not even once
did we see a light
we didn't realize
the forecast had been revised
by moonless skies and
shifty wind that gusts and dies
on the sand our keel is heaving
but tonight we've got to be leaving
travel through the day and into the evening
Marathon how long we've been gone
and still not yet set foot upon you
your low lying shore opens welcomingly
to one who's spent the night at sea
Adrift in the shallows, a modest repose
adorn with coral, your bright colors show
ushered in through a bridge that is never closed
Is a very small cove
separated from the sea
by a shifting shoal
we didn't realize that
we had arrived
at high tide, high tide
barely made it out alive
red over white
fishermen working at night
not even once
did we see a light
we didn't realize
the forecast had been revised
by moonless skies and
shifty wind that gusts and dies
on the sand our keel is heaving
but tonight we've got to be leaving
travel through the day and into the evening
Marathon how long we've been gone
and still not yet set foot upon you
your low lying shore opens welcomingly
to one who's spent the night at sea
Adrift in the shallows, a modest repose
adorn with coral, your bright colors show
ushered in through a bridge that is never closed
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It's about going sailing from the Florida Keys and getting to Coconut Grove, Florida where the tide is higher than they anticipated. Then a storm starts to roll in, not even the fishermen are out in these winds, and they're in danger of getting trapped. It's gonna take the night and the day to get back to Marathon.