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.
A creature made of sunshine
Her eyes were like the sky
Rabbit howls like something old
As we twitch to a lullaby
The scalpel shines in god''s sunshine
The Streetlights whisper pain
Down here near the poison stream
Our god has gone insane
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry...
Like the scream of the butterfly
Sunshine in the house of flames
She loves it where she gets it
But it''s never felt the same
Surgery, in the house of dissection
When your candle burns out..I''ll resurrect you
She runs
Through fields of daisies
Yeah, it''s just a shame that they eat their own babies
Who cares
Cos the air is free
When you get there will you kiss the dead for me?
There''s blood on the moon and the summer is cold
There''s love in the room
But baby that''s getting old
There''s blood on my face sittin'' on uhh dead shore
A highway,highway of emptiness and I''m getting bored
There''s blood on the moon as we plan our escape
The goddess in bloom
Handcuffed and raped
There''s blood in the bathtub baby
Murder the king
There''s blood on the moon
There''s blood on just about everything
Sunshine in the house of flames
She loves it where she gets it
But it''s never felt the same
Surgery, in the house of dissection
When your candle burns out..I''ll resurrect you
She runs
Through fields of daisies
Yeah, it''s just a shame that they eat their own babies
Who cares
Cos the air is free
When you get there will you kiss the dead for me?
Something cold is forced inside her
A tears spill down her cheek
Stillborn songs of a dead dreamer
Hymn''s of a needle freak
With sunlight in her hair she smiles like she don''t care
Her dreams of liquid blue
I cut my self again and again to remind myself of you
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry...
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry...
Like the scream of the butterfly
I like the scream of the butterfly
I met an angel with a sawed-off shotgun
Wanted by the FBI
We dropped some acid
Killed our parents
Then we hit the road
I like the scream of the butterfly
Her eyes were like the sky
Rabbit howls like something old
As we twitch to a lullaby
The scalpel shines in god''s sunshine
The Streetlights whisper pain
Down here near the poison stream
Our god has gone insane
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry...
Like the scream of the butterfly
Sunshine in the house of flames
She loves it where she gets it
But it''s never felt the same
Surgery, in the house of dissection
When your candle burns out..I''ll resurrect you
She runs
Through fields of daisies
Yeah, it''s just a shame that they eat their own babies
Who cares
Cos the air is free
When you get there will you kiss the dead for me?
There''s blood on the moon and the summer is cold
There''s love in the room
But baby that''s getting old
There''s blood on my face sittin'' on uhh dead shore
A highway,highway of emptiness and I''m getting bored
There''s blood on the moon as we plan our escape
The goddess in bloom
Handcuffed and raped
There''s blood in the bathtub baby
Murder the king
There''s blood on the moon
There''s blood on just about everything
Sunshine in the house of flames
She loves it where she gets it
But it''s never felt the same
Surgery, in the house of dissection
When your candle burns out..I''ll resurrect you
She runs
Through fields of daisies
Yeah, it''s just a shame that they eat their own babies
Who cares
Cos the air is free
When you get there will you kiss the dead for me?
Something cold is forced inside her
A tears spill down her cheek
Stillborn songs of a dead dreamer
Hymn''s of a needle freak
With sunlight in her hair she smiles like she don''t care
Her dreams of liquid blue
I cut my self again and again to remind myself of you
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry...
She smiles like a child with flowers in her hair
With blood on her hands
Into the sun she stares
She feels it die
I heard her cry...
Like the scream of the butterfly
I like the scream of the butterfly
I met an angel with a sawed-off shotgun
Wanted by the FBI
We dropped some acid
Killed our parents
Then we hit the road
I like the scream of the butterfly
Lyrics submitted by tricky_dick, edited by Warbandit
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RabbitHowl definitely owned it. This song is NOT about abortion, but it IS about taking innocence from a child. The girl in the song is not Truddi Chase, as RabbitHowl suggested, but it is a girl who experienced the same abuse as Truddi. This girl was molested (probably by her father if you read the last lines of the song).
"She smiles like a child with blood on her hands" doesn't even make sense in reference to abortion. She was raped as a child, and reverts back to the abuse in her adult years. When he says "she feels it die" he is referring to her soul, not her baby.
"She runs through fields of daisies; yeah it's just a shame that they eat their own babies" is NOT saying she's eating her damn baby! She was permitted to frolic amongst the daisies as a child so long as she put up with the abuse. It is sarcasm, irony, which means he's NOT being literal.
@RecklessPiety it is about coat hanger abortion. The song does reference other aspects as it covers multiple things, but at the core it is about a coat hanger abortion. The lyrics from the original demo clarify it quite a bit.