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.
I see the deepest greens
I hear the darkest blues
Might not be synesthesia
Might be apartment fumes
G-g-get up and dance
G-g-get up and dance
I w-w-wipe my son's ass
And get shit on my hands
He'd get in my car and be like
"Daddy play some Busdriver"
Why the fuck's it take two lines to do a one liner
And why's it take three beats to do a two-step
Sick days, I got two left
So I take five, Dave Brubeck
I make jazz jokes so I'm flat broke
Mad at LOST and that black smoke
Fuck you if you're a white man that assumes I speak for black folks
Fuck you if you're a white man who thinks I can't speak for black folk
Let that soak in your rap quotes
And your head hurt, and your back broke
I'm half crack smoke and half black soap
I admit that it's an imperfect blend
Hold up it's my turn again
I'm playing thirteen games of Words With Friends
Lift your hands
Lift your head if your clothes are clean and your kids are fed
Mine's potty trained, so when he pisses the bed
Then he can tell I'm heated like infrared, yeah
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
They say they're looking for me, but I don't wanna hear it
You can find me in the park district, volunteering
With my hair disheveled, and my sneakers scuffed
Or use your gps and get your celly features up
I went to Africa, they played me on the radio
And did I weird the people out, yeah, maybe so
Cause all they knew was jive
And all I do is vibe
And 'Bright Green Light' made the program director lose his mind
He said "What type of rap is that? Ain't no bitches, hoes"
And I ain't even being funny, homie didn't know
Shoulda said it's whimsical
Like Serengeti taught me
My thoughts are very lofty
Response time is very faulty
I'm far too young to lead
And way to old to die
I ain't played Call of Duty, smoke you in Golden Eye
RPG, roll the die
JPG Kobe Tai
PG 13 Cobra Kai
PPG Luc Robitaille
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
I didn't write the words you hear me singing
I didn't sing a line before this one
And you are not the one I was addressing
That person took a train to Africa
And simultaneous events don't happen
We are isolated temporally
And the part is never called the whole thing
Though it bothers us to know it so
I hear the darkest blues
Might not be synesthesia
Might be apartment fumes
G-g-get up and dance
G-g-get up and dance
I w-w-wipe my son's ass
And get shit on my hands
He'd get in my car and be like
"Daddy play some Busdriver"
Why the fuck's it take two lines to do a one liner
And why's it take three beats to do a two-step
Sick days, I got two left
So I take five, Dave Brubeck
I make jazz jokes so I'm flat broke
Mad at LOST and that black smoke
Fuck you if you're a white man that assumes I speak for black folks
Fuck you if you're a white man who thinks I can't speak for black folk
Let that soak in your rap quotes
And your head hurt, and your back broke
I'm half crack smoke and half black soap
I admit that it's an imperfect blend
Hold up it's my turn again
I'm playing thirteen games of Words With Friends
Lift your hands
Lift your head if your clothes are clean and your kids are fed
Mine's potty trained, so when he pisses the bed
Then he can tell I'm heated like infrared, yeah
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
They say they're looking for me, but I don't wanna hear it
You can find me in the park district, volunteering
With my hair disheveled, and my sneakers scuffed
Or use your gps and get your celly features up
I went to Africa, they played me on the radio
And did I weird the people out, yeah, maybe so
Cause all they knew was jive
And all I do is vibe
And 'Bright Green Light' made the program director lose his mind
He said "What type of rap is that? Ain't no bitches, hoes"
And I ain't even being funny, homie didn't know
Shoulda said it's whimsical
Like Serengeti taught me
My thoughts are very lofty
Response time is very faulty
I'm far too young to lead
And way to old to die
I ain't played Call of Duty, smoke you in Golden Eye
RPG, roll the die
JPG Kobe Tai
PG 13 Cobra Kai
PPG Luc Robitaille
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
We're the best, mostly
Sometimes the freshest rhymers
We the tightest kinda
Respect my qualifiers
I didn't write the words you hear me singing
I didn't sing a line before this one
And you are not the one I was addressing
That person took a train to Africa
And simultaneous events don't happen
We are isolated temporally
And the part is never called the whole thing
Though it bothers us to know it so
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Ave Grave
Thee More Shallows
Thee More Shallows
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?
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
Word Alive, The
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.
Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"