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.
Tears fall in slivers, you broke my shades
The light too bright, let me bury my heart
Filter emotions of green, cowardice gives blue
A restricted view, let me open my heart
I have a fleeting love
Searching when it lands
Fragile
Needing precious hands
Fragile, fragile, fragile
You eat my energy, give me more rope
Nail in the wall, let me hang my heart
Hang my heart
I have a fleeting love
Searching when it lands
Fragile
Needing precious hands
Fragile, fragile, fragile
The light too bright, let me bury my heart
Filter emotions of green, cowardice gives blue
A restricted view, let me open my heart
I have a fleeting love
Searching when it lands
Fragile
Needing precious hands
Fragile, fragile, fragile
You eat my energy, give me more rope
Nail in the wall, let me hang my heart
Hang my heart
I have a fleeting love
Searching when it lands
Fragile
Needing precious hands
Fragile, fragile, fragile
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It's about love, and how it is, by turns, wonderful and insufferably painful. Great little song, without which there would be no R.E.M.