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.
The future lays unwritten
by hands that held power in the past
mouths of those who listened find voices in the words you've lost
the cracks that have begun to show will be the wings on which we soar
so pass a tool prise it open and a pen to write the future now
Stone in the water for every choice a consequence
like a ripple to the shore for every move can you defend
these dreams we've rolled over again in our fingers can begin
if we seek to live by a society we want to create
Chorus:
There an opening lies
there a hook to hold us
there an end that finds
a start to reasonings of a new kinds
Our minds were enticed first by colours that kept our hearts at bay
then secondly were taught to compete and not co-operate
the ones who possess little are much less possessed so praise be to a
moderate poverty and everything else is unnecessary
by hands that held power in the past
mouths of those who listened find voices in the words you've lost
the cracks that have begun to show will be the wings on which we soar
so pass a tool prise it open and a pen to write the future now
Stone in the water for every choice a consequence
like a ripple to the shore for every move can you defend
these dreams we've rolled over again in our fingers can begin
if we seek to live by a society we want to create
Chorus:
There an opening lies
there a hook to hold us
there an end that finds
a start to reasonings of a new kinds
Our minds were enticed first by colours that kept our hearts at bay
then secondly were taught to compete and not co-operate
the ones who possess little are much less possessed so praise be to a
moderate poverty and everything else is unnecessary
Lyrics submitted by Elective Amnesia
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