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.
Animals on TV singing about some pain that they once felt
There's no one I disapprove of more or root for more than myself
I wanted to pretend that it was better, better, better on the phone
I didn't wanna tell you I was jealous, jealous, jealous and alone
So we talk about ourselves in hell
To forget the love we never felt
All the old jokes that work so well
Universal truth was a moment's lie
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Get out of the way
Got to get to climb your tree in the light of the living ghost I see
She sees her father in that old man's eyes while secretly he stares at her thighs
Animals on TV singing about some pain they felt at some point
I didn't wanna tell you I was jealous, jealous, jealous, what's the point?
As I watch the velvet drapes appear
And the door was closed for forty years
As we hide what we don't wanna hear
As we hide what's really in our ears
He is coming from a part of hell
Where lightning blue eyes don't go down well
He can tell that we're oblivious
It's addiction of routine as well
Making fools out of the best of us
Making robots of the rest of us
Innocence itself in America today
Is a crime just like Cornel West might say
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Get out of the way
There's no one I disapprove of more or root for more than myself
I wanted to pretend that it was better, better, better on the phone
I didn't wanna tell you I was jealous, jealous, jealous and alone
So we talk about ourselves in hell
To forget the love we never felt
All the old jokes that work so well
Universal truth was a moment's lie
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Get out of the way
Got to get to climb your tree in the light of the living ghost I see
She sees her father in that old man's eyes while secretly he stares at her thighs
Animals on TV singing about some pain they felt at some point
I didn't wanna tell you I was jealous, jealous, jealous, what's the point?
As I watch the velvet drapes appear
And the door was closed for forty years
As we hide what we don't wanna hear
As we hide what's really in our ears
He is coming from a part of hell
Where lightning blue eyes don't go down well
He can tell that we're oblivious
It's addiction of routine as well
Making fools out of the best of us
Making robots of the rest of us
Innocence itself in America today
Is a crime just like Cornel West might say
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Don't try to stop us
Get out of the way
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
PS: I think this might be my favorite song off the album, right ahead of Gratisfaction.