Jesus Christ Pose

Read this: When asked about the "Jesus Christ Pose" itself, Chris says: "You just see it a lot with really beautiful people, or famous people, exploiting that symbol as to imply that they're either a deity or persecuted somehow by their public. So it's pretty much a song that is nonreligious but expressing being irritated by seeing that. It's not that I would ever be offended by what someone would do with that symbol."

true... i think that, in the most general way, it's about people (specially famous) that take a pose of victimism, of being unfairly persecuted (like christ) to justify themselves when they're criticized

It's all about Chris Cornell's hatred for male models. In an interview he gave on MTV, he said that the band where looking through some magazines, and found the whole imagery used in Calvin Klein, Versace ads etc was very distasteful. If you listen to the lyrics, you can make sense of it now. It's all about how the models are posed to look like Demi-Gods, powerful yet weak etc. Hope this helps..

it can also be about all the other rockstars pretending to be jesus onstage and making poses like him (Scott Stapp should take a hint)

I just wanted to say that Chris Cornell's vocal range, particularly in this song, is unbelieveably impressive - I can't even falsetta that scream he does at the end by singing with a NORMAL singing voice (as opposed to falsetta). That's INCREDIBLE.

A SONG ABOUT MANIPULATION This song is clearly NOT religious; Jesus is the symbol exploited by OTHERS, not Chris Cornell. I agree with the ideas expressed in previous posts that this is about those who claim to be martyrs to be superior, a kind of manipulation. Sure, the song could have been written about advertising models, but I think it has a more general interpretation, one that could be clarified with an example.

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION Let me give hypothetical situation. This song could represent a woman who claims to be suffering, who claims to need you, but at the same time seems to be superior to you. She holds our her arms compassionately, but really, she has intentions of control, telling you what to do, what feel. We feel sympathy for her, and we give in to her demands, but she really has other goals. She uses her seemingly vulnerable situation to get us to do things we might not otherwise do.

I suspect there are others out there who've experienced this kind of manipulation...

Nice.. Given the whole heroin thing, as others have commented on with slaves and bulldozers and burden in my hand. This would appear to be about a heroin dealer telling the addict that, A, I have no heroin for you (addict throws his arms out...) or, B, I'm not selling heroin anymore (addict throws his arms out...)

Staring at me like I'm driving the nails.. I'm not making you shoot up.. (nails represent syringes) I sell the drugs, but it's your fault you're addicted.

Would it pain your more to walk on water than to wear a crown of thorns? = From other posts on this site I believe every reference Chris makes to water is about heroin (that's what it looks like in a syringe), so to walk on water, is to rise above the heroin (the addiction) and to use it. Most dealers only sell to support their own habit.

I just wonder if this stuff is written from a 3rd person perspective or from real life experience..

From what I can see, the vast majority of soundgarden songs are about heroin.. I still love it all though..

I think this could be a few different things including fake victimization and manipulation but I also have a few ideas.

My first idea is hypocrisy. Someone in Jesus Christ pose is unfairly accusing someone of causing their pain.

My second is people like Jehovah's witnessea. He's tired of them coming and saying he needs to come to the light, change, etc.

where do i find out what this song is trying to say ?

It always sounded to me that this song was about someone giving their life for you, but you don't want to lose them. I do agree with the other posts though.