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.
Ey yo man, my labelmate Don Newkirk
Man step to him
Thanks Serch!
And now for the Prime Minister
Sinister Pete N-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hice!
Nice Nice Nice
Kick 'em in the grill Pete!
Verse One: Pete Nice
Gas, past tense, made facially
3rd Bass'll express, KMD
Three blind mice on sight
Zev Lover, gave it the first light
A grin shows a trick up a sleeve
What a tangled web they weave
Deceivers, stupefied through fable
Say Let's Make a Deal at the dinner table
Put you on tour, put your record on wax ("Trust me!")
Sign your life on the X
You eXit, X-off, but what you really get:
A box of Newports, and Puma sweats ("damn!")
Tex feeds and frowns upon Emus
To give up Gas Face he drinks from a Thermos
Sub Roc cut at you with a clipper
Gas Face given, I beg to differ
Pete that was real def man but I gotta get serious now
Ey yo Don, step to 'em again
Everybody MC Serch!
Black cat is bad luck, bad guys wear black
Musta been a white guy who started all that
(Make the Gas Face!) For those little white lies
My expression to the mountainous blue eyes
Then form a face, and shake my skull cap
Dismiss the myth, that evil is not black
But opposite spectrum, this done by red man
With horns on his head, laid down the ill plan
Got all his helpers, said, "Make it snappy!
Tell all the people that their hair can't be nappy!"
Blonde and blue-eyed, or dark-skinned half a G
A disease, created by leprosy
Don't speak of bleach, bend them to right
Say, "It was night WAY before the light"
Put aside spooks, Serch leaves a trace
I've set 'em correct with the effect of the Gas Face
Next up Don
A Gas Face, can either be a smile or a smirk
When appears, a monkey wrench to work one's clockwork
Perkin his brim to the rim of my cup
Don't tempt me, you're empty, so fill'er up!
Is I'm talkin' coffee or cocoa, is you loco?
Cash or credit for unleaded at Sunoco
KMD and 3rd Bass is just ace in the hole
I mean soul, so make the Gas Face (ha)
Damn, if looks could kill
You look like host was a ghost from your grill
But still, what's the new fed, to recollect
To our passing phase to facades to Eddie Decker
For my label reads Hood, street might have a tattoo
Don't pick any card or no rabbit from my hat
Never a magician if I ever tricked 'em
"Oh shit!" Another Gas Face victim
There it is, yo fellas man
Why don't you step to the mic man?
That's how I kicks it, for Eddie Decker
Ey yo, good lookin' out Don man peace
Punji, yo who gets the Gas Face?
Little Vic for the Gas Face
Tony Dick, gets the Gas Face
No Gas Faces for Plugs One Two and Three
No Gas Face for Professor Prince Pa-paul!
? My friend Tina gets the big Gas Face
No Gas Face for DJ Subroc
No Gas Face for KMD
Hammer, shut the fuck up! Gas Face! !
What do we think about Hammer?
? GYP
Get Yours Posse does not get the Gas Face
But P W Botha gets a Gas Face
? Dante Ross gets the Gas Face
Yo stop dissin Dante on records y'all!
Elroy Elroy Elroy Cohen, gets the Gas Face! That's all
Man step to him
Thanks Serch!
And now for the Prime Minister
Sinister Pete N-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hice!
Nice Nice Nice
Kick 'em in the grill Pete!
Verse One: Pete Nice
Gas, past tense, made facially
3rd Bass'll express, KMD
Three blind mice on sight
Zev Lover, gave it the first light
A grin shows a trick up a sleeve
What a tangled web they weave
Deceivers, stupefied through fable
Say Let's Make a Deal at the dinner table
Put you on tour, put your record on wax ("Trust me!")
Sign your life on the X
You eXit, X-off, but what you really get:
A box of Newports, and Puma sweats ("damn!")
Tex feeds and frowns upon Emus
To give up Gas Face he drinks from a Thermos
Sub Roc cut at you with a clipper
Gas Face given, I beg to differ
Pete that was real def man but I gotta get serious now
Ey yo Don, step to 'em again
Everybody MC Serch!
Black cat is bad luck, bad guys wear black
Musta been a white guy who started all that
(Make the Gas Face!) For those little white lies
My expression to the mountainous blue eyes
Then form a face, and shake my skull cap
Dismiss the myth, that evil is not black
But opposite spectrum, this done by red man
With horns on his head, laid down the ill plan
Got all his helpers, said, "Make it snappy!
Tell all the people that their hair can't be nappy!"
Blonde and blue-eyed, or dark-skinned half a G
A disease, created by leprosy
Don't speak of bleach, bend them to right
Say, "It was night WAY before the light"
Put aside spooks, Serch leaves a trace
I've set 'em correct with the effect of the Gas Face
Next up Don
A Gas Face, can either be a smile or a smirk
When appears, a monkey wrench to work one's clockwork
Perkin his brim to the rim of my cup
Don't tempt me, you're empty, so fill'er up!
Is I'm talkin' coffee or cocoa, is you loco?
Cash or credit for unleaded at Sunoco
KMD and 3rd Bass is just ace in the hole
I mean soul, so make the Gas Face (ha)
Damn, if looks could kill
You look like host was a ghost from your grill
But still, what's the new fed, to recollect
To our passing phase to facades to Eddie Decker
For my label reads Hood, street might have a tattoo
Don't pick any card or no rabbit from my hat
Never a magician if I ever tricked 'em
"Oh shit!" Another Gas Face victim
There it is, yo fellas man
Why don't you step to the mic man?
That's how I kicks it, for Eddie Decker
Ey yo, good lookin' out Don man peace
Punji, yo who gets the Gas Face?
Little Vic for the Gas Face
Tony Dick, gets the Gas Face
No Gas Faces for Plugs One Two and Three
No Gas Face for Professor Prince Pa-paul!
? My friend Tina gets the big Gas Face
No Gas Face for DJ Subroc
No Gas Face for KMD
Hammer, shut the fuck up! Gas Face! !
What do we think about Hammer?
? GYP
Get Yours Posse does not get the Gas Face
But P W Botha gets a Gas Face
? Dante Ross gets the Gas Face
Yo stop dissin Dante on records y'all!
Elroy Elroy Elroy Cohen, gets the Gas Face! That's all
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
The Gas Face Lyrics as written by Daniel Dumile Aretha Franklin
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Exploration Group LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Ave Grave
Thee More Shallows
Thee More Shallows
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Gas face