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 had a girl I knew, she grew, became a woman now
I think that she teaches at one of the schools downtown
We used to roll the windows down and play the music loud
Smoking out in her car, lost in west Omaha
And we'd get drunk and kiss, our bodies twist like shoelaces
Yeah, we never came untied, I guess you were just my type
You know that summer never stopped, I still pretend I'm there
The band's in the living room, the neighbors, they never cared
So when I sat behind the drum set, your heartbeat's what I tried to play
But with the kick and snare so careless, not in time
So you got ahead of me, and I guess I'm still dragging behind
I had a friend who changed his name but couldn't change himself
Never quite figured out, how to deal with what life had dealt
He put a needle in his arm to calm his handsome hell
Who would've imagined it could've worked out so well?
Now he's a shape that moves like echoes through my empty room
And there's a voice that speaks, like someone's right behind me
I turned around and found exactly what you would expect
The clothes I left on my floor, the papers piled on my desk
But where the ink is wet, the cause, effects, what's meant by it?
The story that is incomplete, the picture's left unfinished
So I am writing my own ending, I let my pen bleed black or blue
And I will color in the meaning, it will be gold and green and true
And I'll learn to love my new discovered proof
I'll be grateful for this day
I will be grateful for each day to come
I think that she teaches at one of the schools downtown
We used to roll the windows down and play the music loud
Smoking out in her car, lost in west Omaha
And we'd get drunk and kiss, our bodies twist like shoelaces
Yeah, we never came untied, I guess you were just my type
You know that summer never stopped, I still pretend I'm there
The band's in the living room, the neighbors, they never cared
So when I sat behind the drum set, your heartbeat's what I tried to play
But with the kick and snare so careless, not in time
So you got ahead of me, and I guess I'm still dragging behind
I had a friend who changed his name but couldn't change himself
Never quite figured out, how to deal with what life had dealt
He put a needle in his arm to calm his handsome hell
Who would've imagined it could've worked out so well?
Now he's a shape that moves like echoes through my empty room
And there's a voice that speaks, like someone's right behind me
I turned around and found exactly what you would expect
The clothes I left on my floor, the papers piled on my desk
But where the ink is wet, the cause, effects, what's meant by it?
The story that is incomplete, the picture's left unfinished
So I am writing my own ending, I let my pen bleed black or blue
And I will color in the meaning, it will be gold and green and true
And I'll learn to love my new discovered proof
I'll be grateful for this day
I will be grateful for each day to come
Lyrics submitted by I Saw Star Wars
I Will Be Grateful For This Day [Companion Version] Lyrics as written by Mike Mogis Conor Oberst
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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*conor