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've been a moonshiner
For seventeen long years
I spent all my money on whiskey and beer
I go to some hollow
And set up my holy holy still
If drinking do not kill me
Then I don't know what will
I go to some bar room
And drink with my friends
If women and men would come to follow
To see what I might spend
God bless them handsome men
I wish they was mine
They're breath is as sweet as
The dew on the holy holy vine
You're already in hell, you're already in hell
I wish we could go to hell
When the bottle gets empty
Then life ain't worth the drown
For seventeen long years
I spent all my money on whiskey and beer
I go to some hollow
And set up my holy holy still
If drinking do not kill me
Then I don't know what will
I go to some bar room
And drink with my friends
If women and men would come to follow
To see what I might spend
God bless them handsome men
I wish they was mine
They're breath is as sweet as
The dew on the holy holy vine
You're already in hell, you're already in hell
I wish we could go to hell
When the bottle gets empty
Then life ain't worth the drown
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Yeah, I new I heard it from Bob Dylan too.. slipped my mind.