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.
Mama told her baby, "Girl, take it real slow"
Girl told her mama, "Hey I really gotta go
He's waiting in the car"
Mama said, "Girl, you won't get far"
Thus are the dreams of an average Jane
Ninety miles an hour down a lovers lane
On a tank of dreams
Oh, if she could've only seen
That fate's got cards that it don't want to show, and
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her
He's the wrong kind of paradise
She's gonna know it in a matter of time
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Now just a little while into Abilene
He pulls into a station and he robs it clean
She's waiting in the car, oh, underneath the Texaco star
She only wanted love didn't bargain for this
She can't help but love him for the way he is
She's only seventeen and there ain't no reasoning
So she'll ride this ride as far as it can go, 'cause
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her
He's the wrong kind of paradise
She's gonna know it in a matter of time
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Somewhere in a roadside motel room
Alone in the silence she wakes up too soon
And reaches for his arm
But she'll just keep reaching on
For the cold hard truth revealed what it had known
That boy's just a walk away Joe
Born to be a leaver tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her
He's the wrong kind of paradise
But it was just another lesson in life
That boy was a walkaway Joe
Mm, yeah
All he was was a walkaway Joe
Ooh-hoo
(Ooh, walkaway Joe)
He was a walkaway Joe
Mm
Girl told her mama, "Hey I really gotta go
He's waiting in the car"
Mama said, "Girl, you won't get far"
Thus are the dreams of an average Jane
Ninety miles an hour down a lovers lane
On a tank of dreams
Oh, if she could've only seen
That fate's got cards that it don't want to show, and
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her
He's the wrong kind of paradise
She's gonna know it in a matter of time
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Now just a little while into Abilene
He pulls into a station and he robs it clean
She's waiting in the car, oh, underneath the Texaco star
She only wanted love didn't bargain for this
She can't help but love him for the way he is
She's only seventeen and there ain't no reasoning
So she'll ride this ride as far as it can go, 'cause
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her
He's the wrong kind of paradise
She's gonna know it in a matter of time
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
Somewhere in a roadside motel room
Alone in the silence she wakes up too soon
And reaches for his arm
But she'll just keep reaching on
For the cold hard truth revealed what it had known
That boy's just a walk away Joe
Born to be a leaver tell you from the word go
Destined to deceive her
He's the wrong kind of paradise
But it was just another lesson in life
That boy was a walkaway Joe
Mm, yeah
All he was was a walkaway Joe
Ooh-hoo
(Ooh, walkaway Joe)
He was a walkaway Joe
Mm
Lyrics submitted by Manderzterz
Walkaway Joe Lyrics as written by Vincent Edward Melamed Greg W. Barnhill
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Great song.