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.
Did I see you down in a young girl's town
With your mother in so much pain?
I was almost there at the top of the stairs
With her screamin' in the rain
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
Did I see you walking with the boys?
Though it was not hand in hand
And was some black face in a lonely place
When you could understand?
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
Will I see you give more than I can take?
Will I only harvest some?
As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
Or fuse it in the sun?
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
With your mother in so much pain?
I was almost there at the top of the stairs
With her screamin' in the rain
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
Did I see you walking with the boys?
Though it was not hand in hand
And was some black face in a lonely place
When you could understand?
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
Will I see you give more than I can take?
Will I only harvest some?
As the days fly past will we lose our grasp
Or fuse it in the sun?
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
Dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup
With the promise of a man
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i'll say up front, im just as unsure as anyone else, but i been giving a lot of thought on this piece. first, im not sure the above lyrics are entirely correct, but even with the slightly different words ive considered, the general message feels the same to me... just as Reido and NeilYoungMan mentioned above, only more specific i think...
I read it as a man's perspective on his family: wife and child specifically... the marraige is teeter-tottering between hanging on ("will we lose our grasp, or fuse it in the sun?") and divorce ("a change of plan"). i see their child referenced as a kid sleeping in bed ("did she wake you up to tell you")... "she" being the mom, it would read something like, 'did mom wake you up to tell you things arent doing so good'... and his reply ("dream up, dream up, let me fill your cup with the promise of a man")... meaning something like 'dont worry, it will be ok'...
the most melancholy feeling in this song stems from how the father is comforting his child (promising to stick it out, maybe more to himself than her) despite the feeling that the love between he and his wife is fleeting... because even if he "olny harvest[s] some", his child's love is enough for him to stay.
shrugs that's my take on it...
the liricks are differentein here youtube.com/watch
@raius According to Jimmy McDonough's biography "Shakey" this song references his partner Carrie Snodgrass's childhood, where her mother used to waker her and her siblings up in the middle of the night to tell them she had changed her mind and decided not to go through with her plan to kill herself.