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.
Hurtling through heavy snow
Our hands are cold and the moon sets low
Little sister let your sharp teeth show
Pass winter fields
Stop the car by the old wire post
Scaredy rabbits make good paper ghosts
That lick the salt off the Sussex coast
And fall into winter fields
Rows of white
Spelled our escape in the old torch lights
Oh mother, I'm scared to close my eyes
Some winter dreams, make you dive and dive and dive down
In sub zero I can't stand still
Colors of absence flooding the hill
In wonderment I trip and spill
Through winter fields
Under the stairs taps the metronome
The diver suit that we've all outgrown
I need to get to where all the wild things roam
Through all of my winter dreams
Rows of white
Spelled our escaped in the old torch lights
Oh mother, I'm scared to close my eyes
Some winter dreams, make you dive and dive and dive down
Our hands are cold and the moon sets low
Little sister let your sharp teeth show
Pass winter fields
Stop the car by the old wire post
Scaredy rabbits make good paper ghosts
That lick the salt off the Sussex coast
And fall into winter fields
Rows of white
Spelled our escape in the old torch lights
Oh mother, I'm scared to close my eyes
Some winter dreams, make you dive and dive and dive down
In sub zero I can't stand still
Colors of absence flooding the hill
In wonderment I trip and spill
Through winter fields
Under the stairs taps the metronome
The diver suit that we've all outgrown
I need to get to where all the wild things roam
Through all of my winter dreams
Rows of white
Spelled our escaped in the old torch lights
Oh mother, I'm scared to close my eyes
Some winter dreams, make you dive and dive and dive down
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Natasha explained it to Qthemusic:
"The end of Laura has these fading orchestral, minimal low notes, and moving into Winter Fields seemed to work because it's a similar set-up which is bass flutes and low cellos. They kind of relate to each other in some ways, but Winter Fields becomes much more rousing and moves into that English landscape place. I think it's the most nostalgic track on the record, harkening back to my memories of childhood, being in the back of a car driving through country lanes as it's snowing, looking out over the fields. Those real childhood depictions of the English landscape. It's a little bit haunted, lost in the flurries of snow."