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.
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pocket, full of sorrow
Run away with me tomorrow
June
We'll try and ease the pain
Somehow, we'll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go
I send a heart to all my dearies
When your life is so, so dreary
Dream
I'm rumored to the straight and narrow
While the harlots of my perils
Scream
And I fail
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Mother, weep the years I'm missing
All our time can't be given
Back
Shut my mouth and strike the demons
Cursed you and your reasons
Out of hand and out of season
Out of love and out of feeling
So bad
When I can, I will
Words defy the plans
But when I can, I will
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Dull enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pocket, full of sorrow
Run away with me tomorrow
June
We'll try and ease the pain
Somehow, we'll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go
I send a heart to all my dearies
When your life is so, so dreary
Dream
I'm rumored to the straight and narrow
While the harlots of my perils
Scream
And I fail
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Mother, weep the years I'm missing
All our time can't be given
Back
Shut my mouth and strike the demons
Cursed you and your reasons
Out of hand and out of season
Out of love and out of feeling
So bad
When I can, I will
Words defy the plans
But when I can, I will
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Dull enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
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This song to me is about two lovers who are forbidden to be together so they decide to runaway but instead kill themselves.
I think some of the comments on here are probably closer than my version of what the song really means.
Where do you see the killing part? I have read through the lyrics 4x and don't see it (or hear it). Curious as to why it's entitled Mayonaise. (Makes me think of the homemade treatment for lice I had to use on a child after a summer camp play about hats:)