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.
Golden threads of silk flow through my fingers
Istanbul lay smouldering in the night
Black waters murmured
I felt so still
Turquoise evening merged through ice blue morning
Centuries of stone stared into silence
I felt the wind
I heard girls sing
They sang that no man lives for ever
Their voices echoed round the walls
Golden threads still blow across my forehead
Turkish darkness burns before my eyes
And heavy sleep
I'd never known
They sang that no man lives for ever
Their voices echoed round the walls
I will hold your hand across cold tombstones
Mosques may hold a vision outside time
We'll stroll through years
Through the shadows of frigid stone
Istanbul lay smouldering in the night
Black waters murmured
I felt so still
Turquoise evening merged through ice blue morning
Centuries of stone stared into silence
I felt the wind
I heard girls sing
They sang that no man lives for ever
Their voices echoed round the walls
Golden threads still blow across my forehead
Turkish darkness burns before my eyes
And heavy sleep
I'd never known
They sang that no man lives for ever
Their voices echoed round the walls
I will hold your hand across cold tombstones
Mosques may hold a vision outside time
We'll stroll through years
Through the shadows of frigid stone
Lyrics submitted by almightyapplejack
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