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.
Goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye
Let me tell you, now, goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye
Ah, all night long you've been drinking your tequilla rye
But now you've sucked your lemon peel dry
So why not get high, high, high and
Goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
Goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye
Goodnight sweet ladies, all ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye, bye-bye
Ah, we've been together for the longest time
But now it's time to get high
Come on, let's get high, high, high
And goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
Oh, I'm still missing my other half
Oh, it must be something I did in the past
Don't it just make you wanna laugh
It's a lonely Saturday night
Oh, nobody calls me on the telephone
I put another record on my stereo
But I'm still singing a song of you
It's a lonely Saturday night
Now, if I was an actor or a dancer that was glamorous
Then, you know, an amorous life would soon be mine
But now the tinsel light of star break
Is all that's left to applaud my heart break
And eleven o'clock I watch the network news
Oh, oh, oh, something tells me that you're really gone
You said we could be friends, but that's not what's not what I want
And, anyway, my TV-dinner's almost done
It's a lonely Saturday night
I mean to tell you, it's a lonely Saturday night
One more word, it's a lonely Saturday night
It's time to say goodbye
Let me tell you, now, goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye
Ah, all night long you've been drinking your tequilla rye
But now you've sucked your lemon peel dry
So why not get high, high, high and
Goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
Goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye
Goodnight sweet ladies, all ladies goodnight
It's time to say goodbye, bye-bye
Ah, we've been together for the longest time
But now it's time to get high
Come on, let's get high, high, high
And goodnight ladies, ladies goodnight
Oh, I'm still missing my other half
Oh, it must be something I did in the past
Don't it just make you wanna laugh
It's a lonely Saturday night
Oh, nobody calls me on the telephone
I put another record on my stereo
But I'm still singing a song of you
It's a lonely Saturday night
Now, if I was an actor or a dancer that was glamorous
Then, you know, an amorous life would soon be mine
But now the tinsel light of star break
Is all that's left to applaud my heart break
And eleven o'clock I watch the network news
Oh, oh, oh, something tells me that you're really gone
You said we could be friends, but that's not what's not what I want
And, anyway, my TV-dinner's almost done
It's a lonely Saturday night
I mean to tell you, it's a lonely Saturday night
One more word, it's a lonely Saturday night
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar, edited by goodnews
Goodnight Ladies Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © SONY ATV MUSIC PUB LLC
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!! I was JUST about to write the same thing when listening and reading the Waste Land! It's in the poem's second part "A Game of Chess" that ends with the lines: "Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night. " And I was gonna ask if anyone else had noticed that or I was reading too much in to it. But then again it's a reference without any further point - Lou, like Eliot, being the master of fragment poetry.