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.
Passed to hand, behind the curtain
Letter brings change, now things are uncertain
Hand to hand, letter moves on
Like a series of shocks, like a series of shocks
Like a series of shocks, like a series of shocks
Like a series of shocks, but the contents are known
Oh, faint heart, when the letter arrives
You suddenly find things looking lifesize
Lifesize, lifesize, lifesize
Once the air rang with things unsaid
Now cruel outlines aren't easily read
Behind the curtain in the yellow bulb light
In the yellow bulb light, in the yellow bulb light
In the yellow bulb light, in the yellow bulb light
In the yellow bulb light, in the yellow bulb light
The letter reads
"Took my own life"
Letter brings change, now things are uncertain
Hand to hand, letter moves on
Like a series of shocks, like a series of shocks
Like a series of shocks, like a series of shocks
Like a series of shocks, but the contents are known
Oh, faint heart, when the letter arrives
You suddenly find things looking lifesize
Lifesize, lifesize, lifesize
Once the air rang with things unsaid
Now cruel outlines aren't easily read
Behind the curtain in the yellow bulb light
In the yellow bulb light, in the yellow bulb light
In the yellow bulb light, in the yellow bulb light
In the yellow bulb light, in the yellow bulb light
The letter reads
"Took my own life"
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No, the lyrics are correct, albeit seemingly abbreviated due to lack of repetition and speed. It is, indeed, about receiving a suicide's final letter. The lyric were written by Bruce Gilbert after seeing a peculiar carving or woodcut in which one hand passes a letter to another behind (betwixt?) the curtains of a window. He found it a very evocative piece, and so wrote this lyric, which is far more discernable in the original, slower version (see Behind The Curtain: Early Versions 1977-79).