Many of us (Christians, Heathens, Pagans, Atheists) celebrate the cultural aspects of Christmas; gift giving, commercialism, drinking and being merry. Many of us thank God/Jesus and think warm thoughts about a babe in a manger with straw, animals and shepherds gathering round, the magi, a star. Jackson is saying, whatever he may be to you, Jesus, is not for the hypocritical, who take him out of mothballs every December and put him back in his box a month later. Jackson is saying that he is not a believer in Jesus as Savior, but that does not mean that the words...

Many of us (Christians, Heathens, Pagans, Atheists) celebrate the cultural aspects of Christmas; gift giving, commercialism, drinking and being merry. Many of us thank God/Jesus and think warm thoughts about a babe in a manger with straw, animals and shepherds gathering round, the magi, a star. Jackson is saying, whatever he may be to you, Jesus, is not for the hypocritical, who take him out of mothballs every December and put him back in his box a month later. Jackson is saying that he is not a believer in Jesus as Savior, but that does not mean that the words and actions of Jesus, who comingled and intentionally connected with the outcasts, the sick, the Samaritans; the marginalized should be forgotten and ignored. For all that Jesus was, is and represents, the few that try to live as He lived are condemned by the rest of us, as He was condemned for interfering in the business of the Sadducees.

(part 1)

(part 1)

"Cone of Shame" is a character study, a familiar Faith No More approach. This one is about two people who bring out the worst in each other. The lyrics use physical mutilation as a way to talk about emotional exposure, resentment, and the urge to pry into a partner's hidden motives. The violence is symbolic, showing how raw it feels to seek truth from someone distant.

"Cone of Shame" is a character study, a familiar Faith No More approach. This one is about two people who bring out the worst in each other. The lyrics use physical mutilation as a way to talk about emotional exposure, resentment, and the urge to pry into a partner's hidden motives. The violence is symbolic, showing how raw it feels to seek truth from someone distant.

"I'd like to peel the skin off this winter day / I'd like to burn the hair off this summer fling" - The narrator wants to strip away everything superficial....

"I'd like to peel the skin off this winter day / I'd like to burn the hair off this summer fling" - The narrator wants to strip away everything superficial. Skin and hair are thin layers. "Winter day" and "summer fling" point to larger experiences/memories over time. He believes the surface lies and wants to explore beneath it.

"What love can do when love's lost / Grow overweight" - This is bitterness building up. "Overweight" could metaphorically mean emotional mass that keeps accumulating because nothing has been resolved. Or literally, people often let themselves go once a partnership becomes unhappy but complacent. Flaws also become more noticeable than in the honeymoon phase.

"And smile as if there's nothing left to say / Wear the cone of shame" - The cone signals injury and restraint. Something has gone wrong, and someone is walking around with a visible mark, while maintaining a smile. In a relationship context, the cone is whatever humiliation, guilt, or resentment either person carries after things sour.

"Town is quiet now, like it's holding its breath" - This feels like the aftermath of a falling out or fight. It’s the tense quiet after an incident, not a peaceful one. "Stone marks the spot / You know who you are"- Feels like blame to me. A gravestone or memorial fits the mood. A relationship can leave the same kind of mark when it dies. "They outlined it in chalk" - Evocative image of a crime scene. Something ended violently, whether physically or emotionally. "Word to the wise" - A cautionary line to anyone listening, as if to say, "If you're smart, take notice of what's happened to me so it doesn't happen to you." "And the barman calls time" - Closing time in a bar or pub, where folks often go to drown their sorrows. The world winds down while he stays stuck in the fallout. The night is over, the incident is over, and now there's a forced pause. Everyone has to leave, but he's still picking at the wound. Life moves on, but he hasn't.

(continued)

Oh, this song...this is what it feels like to be stuck forever in a small, dull town, bored to tears, and you resort to thoughts of lost love...("a curse for this town")...and the bitterness and anger is somehow toned down to a jaded apathy because what use is it to be angry? You curse everyone and everything you see ("all the bakers at dawn, may they all cut their thumbs and bleed into their buns till' they melt away") and the days pass and you don't even seem to notice, and you think your life could have been so...

Oh, this song...this is what it feels like to be stuck forever in a small, dull town, bored to tears, and you resort to thoughts of lost love...("a curse for this town")...and the bitterness and anger is somehow toned down to a jaded apathy because what use is it to be angry? You curse everyone and everything you see ("all the bakers at dawn, may they all cut their thumbs and bleed into their buns till' they melt away") and the days pass and you don't even seem to notice, and you think your life could have been so much more if that one person had just stayed...(If you'd a took to me like a gull takes to the wind") And your self-esteem is gone entirely ("king of the eyesores," "too dumb to refine") and you reach your breaking point and you tell this person...five seconds later you realize you shouldn't have. ("Never should have called, but my head's to the wall and I'm lonely.") Talking to the person now, you realize they're happy, they're doing well, and here you are. ("I'm looking in on the good life I might be doomed never to find.") There's so much more than meets the eye to this song...The musical composition is so simple and monotonous-like the speaker's life-and the lyrics are so completely opposite. They're original and fresh, and thus all the more bitingly articulate-old cliches have lost their meaning in the face of lines like this-specific imagery painting a picture that's not quite coherent until the very end. I love this song.