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.
In denial who will come clean
All the ravenous debris
In disguise sideswiped by penance
Cerecloth sentencing
This scapegrace will pay my barking harangue...Are you listening?
On the fourteenth you stole what
Hasn't grown old in denial,
File this under a bridge that he can't leave
Will those shadows glare from that blank
Rimmed stare in a vacancy hush
Aunque me dejaste ahogando en el mar Aquestete en la tierra, de la realidad ed tu sueno manos me recuerdo solamente a ti te odio yo ya me voy
In denial who will clean up
All this ravenous debris
In denial, file this under
A bridge that he can't leave
And the Storyville sawbones couldn't tell
The prescription to mend all the broken wills
In the white lie ward
Don't you pretend
Tangled in thorns to walk unborn
And the debt will collect
All the ravenous debris
In disguise sideswiped by penance
Cerecloth sentencing
This scapegrace will pay my barking harangue...Are you listening?
On the fourteenth you stole what
Hasn't grown old in denial,
File this under a bridge that he can't leave
Will those shadows glare from that blank
Rimmed stare in a vacancy hush
Aunque me dejaste ahogando en el mar Aquestete en la tierra, de la realidad ed tu sueno manos me recuerdo solamente a ti te odio yo ya me voy
In denial who will clean up
All this ravenous debris
In denial, file this under
A bridge that he can't leave
And the Storyville sawbones couldn't tell
The prescription to mend all the broken wills
In the white lie ward
Don't you pretend
Tangled in thorns to walk unborn
And the debt will collect
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dont forget that The Mars Volta also sound unique