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.
Looking at your watch a third time
Waiting in the station for the bus
Going to a place that's far
So far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello
They don't talk to anybody they don't know
You'll wind up in some factory
That's full-time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house
Sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
At night, I drink myself to sleep
And pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it's gonna be too late to bring you back
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
It's not as though I really need you
If you were here, I'd only bleed you
But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down
And that's not how it ought to be
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
Waiting in the station for the bus
Going to a place that's far
So far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello
They don't talk to anybody they don't know
You'll wind up in some factory
That's full-time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house
Sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
At night, I drink myself to sleep
And pretend I don't care that you're not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it's gonna be too late to bring you back
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
It's not as though I really need you
If you were here, I'd only bleed you
But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down
And that's not how it ought to be
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year
Lyrics submitted by xpankfrisst
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville Lyrics as written by Peter Buck Bill Berry
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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If I see another comment on an R.E.M. song about Stipe's supposed homosexuality (the man's not even gay, but bisexual), I am going to get seriously pissed off. First of all, why is it that people assume that every song written by an LGBT songwriter is about being LGBT? Is every song written by a straight songwriter about being straight? The correct answer is "no." You are being totally ignorant. Why don't you actually listen to the songs and pretend that Stipe is straight or, closer to R.E.M.'s actual songmeanings, asexual? Would you reach the same conclusions? Of course not. Listen to R.E.M. without thinking of sexuality as a factor. Very few of their songs deal with "conventional" lyrical topics such as love and sexuality. If they did, they wouldn't be R.E.M., would they? They weren't exactly a conventional band. Second of all, this song was not even written by Stipe. Anyone with even a remote interest in R.E.M. knows that. It was written by bassist Mike Mills in an effort to get his then-girlfriend (yes, GIRLfriend) to stay with him in Athens and not go back to her old town where her parents lived and wanted her to return to, Rockville, Maryland. The girl's name was Ingrid Schorr, and you can read her story here: webcitation.org/5k5EkfKI6. Also, this was one of R.E.M.'s earliest songs, written in and performed as far back as 1980.
@HyperBully I had a couple of classes at UGA (J-school) with Ingrid Schorr back in the day. She was a real scenester of the music scene at that point, totally plugged in. I was constantly at shows, pogoing for all I was worth, but never on the inside. I have no idea if she and Mills were ever an item, or if the song is really about her, but if so it must be really something to know you inspired something this great.<br /> <br /> Right from the start R.E.M. was a great live band. The first performance I saw was when they opened for the Brains in UGA's Memorial Hall. The Brains were a big deal because Rolling Stone had given them big coverage, but R.E.M. just blew them off the stage. I saw them when and wherever I could; Tyrone's, Legion Field, Piedmont Park, wherever, and they just always tore the joint down. Fantastic. In the early days they (like everyone, it seemed) were very punk influenced and played everything fast, including this song. Ah man, where has time gone
@HyperBully I totally agree. Also it irritates the **** out of me that so many people assume Michael Stipe is gay. He doesn't talk about it a lot, but IIRC it's well established that he's bi. I loathe the binary attitude most people seem to have towards sex & gender — gay or straight, man or woman, etc. It seems like only a handful of people in the "modern" world are mentally sophisticated enough to grasp the idea that you don't have to pick one sex or the other, that you don't have to conform to one of the two traditional gender archetypes, etc.