Overneath The Path Of Misery

Now that the OFFICIAL lyrics are available, I can now reassess about the song after much confusion caused by the unofficial lyrics in the past:

[I also base all of my analysis on interviews with Manson in the passed 6 months]

Born Villain is the coming off of The High End of Low, about his finding the way to being himself again after all the circumstances of life clouding his judgment as to who he wanted to be in life.

"Stare into my Kodak Rome jack-hammer ice eyes"

This seems to signify all he's been through in the past, and all the circumstances that confused him about who he wanted to be in life. As he speaks to the person opposite him, he wants them to understand his struggles.

"I never thought you’d see the asphalt crack, crack, crack like black eggshell."

This line reminds me of a line in the song White Knuckles they did back in 1990:

"Smack dab flat on my back, and the solid ground began to crack. I took her down, and down, and down, and down. I lost my breath. I thought I'd drown."

It has a similar theme. In White Knuckles, he would depend on his loved ones. But now, in Overneath the Path of Misery, its the other way around. He wants to be someone his loved ones can depend on.

"Don’t ever say I never warned you from the start. You’re not a shovel and I’m not your dirt."

This kind of follows the theme from 15:

"Not letting you win won't satisfy me, I'll teach you about loss. If you don't know what forever feels like, I'll show you what it feels like without it." - "I don't need you, I'll say it to myself. But it doesn't mean I won't need somebody."

So, once again, its about him breaking himself of his dependence on others.

"Is there any way to unswallow my pride. Can I fuck myself down?"

Before, he would have to swallow his pride to become dependent in order to properly love someone. Now, since he no longer confuses love with dependence he wants to "unswallow" his pride to gain back his confidence in himself to love someone and stay independent at the same time.

"While I die you can kill the father. 'Dad' is missing an 'E.' "

With I Ching being a big theme in this album, I think that has something to do with this line.

☰ is the symbol for "the creative one." It means force, strength. The head. The father.

I think in this line, he's talking about his change; and saying that while he changes, he must "kill" the circumstances that had caused him to be what he had become.

"No Macbeth confessed Oedipus, no longer present tense."

He is saying that despite all the confusion [since the GAG era] that he's moving on from who he'd become because of all the circumstances that caused it, and he's becoming "who I knew I could be." (From an interview)

MacBeth is a Shakespearean reference, to a play he did about a man, MacBeth, who killed his father to become king and further murdered to maintain his power.

So its like the previous line, also a Shakespearean reference to the same play, where he must "kill" all the circumstances which were clouding his judgment as to who he wanted to be, stripping his life down to restrict himself so he has time to think for himself.

"I won’t regret letting you live even if you forgot what you never saved me from. So I say whatever or for never."

Once again, coming off the previous album. Letting go of the past, all the ones who he felt had let him down; as he realises he shouldn't have depended on them in the first place.

"The Rape of Persephone was choreographed by all the wrong Greeks. The Rape of Persephone was a marketing scheme. Rape rape rape per so phony."

Here, he seems to be talking about his victimisation with the Columbine incident; realising he was never a victim at all, and that what he'd become to escape that was a facade of sorts that he used to run away from that.

"High and overneath, overblown, unbeloved; I cannot be low"

This just about reviews the song as a whole. This is about his feelings while he's been what he realised he didn't like he'd become, and about his overcoming those feelings and stripping his life down to restrict himself in order to think for himself. He's coming to the fruition of becoming confident in who he's always wanted to be.

"From the top of my lungs, to the bottom of my heart--I scream at the chasm in between, and the path of misery."

This wraps up the song, and is about coming out of his shell once again and facing his fears once again in order to achieve this next internal transformation.

Corrections:

Why die when you can kill the father? Dad is missing an E

I am Overneath*

I actualy can't figure any meaning for this lyrics :S The onely thing I get is that in the Born Villain trailer, the guy Marilyn is fighting with is his grandfather, the one that he says was a perverted, and after he say "the wages of sin is death" he kills him with a gun with a crucifix on it. I had to watch the video lots of times to realize that guy was his grandfather xD

ZimZum.

“And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and gets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by and idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ”

• William Shakespeare Stare into my Kodak Rome Jack-hammer ice eyes I never thought you’d see the asphalt crack, crack, crack like black eggshell Don’t ever say I never warned you from the start Don’t ever say I never warned you from the start You’re not a shovel and I’m not your dirt Is there any way to unswallow my pride? Can I fuck myself down? Why die, when you can kill the father? Dad is missing an ‘e’ No Macbeth confessed Oedipus, no longer present tense No Macbeth confessed Oedipus, no longer present tense No no no no no reason No no no no no reason No no no no no reason High and overneath High and overneath I won’t regret letting you live even if you forgot what you never saved me from. So I say ‘whatever’ or fornever for for for for for fornever for for for for for fornever or for for for for fornever ‘whatever’ The Rape of Persephone was choreographed by all the wrong Greeks The Rape of Persephone was a marketing scheme rape rape rape per so phony rape rape rape per so phony rape rape rape per so phony rape rape rape per so phony High and overneath High and overneath overneath overneath overblown unbeloved cannot be low overneath overneath overblown unbeloved cannot be low from the top of my lungs to the bottom of my heart i scream at the chasm in between and the path of misery from the top of my lungs to the bottom of my heart i scream at the chasm in between and the path of misery High and overneath High and overneath No no no no no reason No no no no no reason No no no no no reason

I think this song is a coming off of the last album. Where before The High End of Low, he confused love with dependence and confused desire with weakness; after The High End of Low he didn't confuse those things together anymore. And that's where Born Villain picks up.

"Stare into my Kodaсhrome jackhammer eyes."

Kodachrome, as we all know, uses a range of subtractive colors--as opposed to using light--so the more colors you add it becomes black.

"I never thought you’d see the asphalt crack like a black eggshell."

This line reminds me of a line in the song White Knuckles they did back in 1990:

"Smack dab flat on my back, and the solid ground began to crack. I took her down, and down, and down, and down. I lost my breath. I thought I'd drown."

It has a similar theme. In White Knuckles, he fell for her and depended on her. It was a woman he could fear. In Overneath the Path of Misery, its the other way around. He is now a man she can fear.

"Don’t ever say I never warned you from the start. You’re not a shovel and I’m not your dirt."

This kind of follows the theme from 15:

"Not letting you win won't satisfy me, I'll teach you about loss. If you don't know what forever feels like, I'll show you what it feels like without it." - "I don't need you, I'll say it to myself. But it doesn't mean I won't need somebody."

"Is there any way to unswallow my pride. Can I fuck myself down?"

Before, he swallowed his pride to become dependent on who he's with. Now, he's taking it back.

"While I die you can kill the father. 'Dad' is missing an 'E.' "

With I Ching being a big theme in this album, I think that has something to do with this line.

☰ is the symbol for "the creative one." It means force, strength. The head. The father.

I think in this line, he's talking about his change; and saying that while he changes, she can "kill" the part of him that caused him to be what he is now.

"No Macbeth confessed Oedipus, no longer presentence."

In this line, it is neither "present tense" nor pre-sentence.

The word used here is presentence:

Presentence is when someone investigates the history of an accused person, on trial for crime before sentencing to determine whether or not the case could be deemed as less serious in order to lighten the sentence, or the could investigate that history and see if the case could be deemed as worse than thought in order to increase the sentence.

Assuming we all know who Macbeth is, and what the Oedipus complex is:

In this line, he is saying that despite all the things he's done in the past that he's past looking back on them and has "no reason" to ever do so again; just like Macbeth.

"I am overneath" is pretty self-explanatory, I think...

"I won’t regret letting you live even if you forgot what you never saved me from. So I say whatever or for never."

Once again, coming off the previous album. Letting go of the past, including his past relationship.

fornever forever

I corrected the lyrics using the BornVillain.com posting.

I think scd2104 was close to what it meant. I believe that this song, like many other songs by Manson, was inspired by Evan(she's a girl), whom he met when she was nineteen, so he was much older than her, not unlike the relationship between Hades and Persephone. They started to date and he brought her into his life. "Jackhammer eyes never thought you'd see the asphalt Crack, crack, crack like a black eggshell" I believe that his life is the crack in the asphalt that she fell through, and when she fell she got trapped and absorbed into his life. In this metaphor, she is Persephone and he is Hades, and the rest of the world that believes he is a bad influence are the Olympic gods.

while i die you can kill the father dad is missing an E.in the word dead if move out the E it remains dad.the missing E.many believe that words did not create random but there is hidden explanation.

You forgot to mension about the first texts took from the tempest of shakespear:

“And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” [William Shakespeare]