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.
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Pungent smells
They consummate my home
Beyond the black horizon
Trying to take control
See my girl
She shivers in her bones
The sun and zenith rising
Trying to take us all
There's a fire between us
So where is your god
There's a fire between us
I can't get off the carousel
I can't get off the carousel
I can't get off the carousel
I can't get off this world
This sickening taste
Homophobic jokes
Images of fascist votes
Beam me up
Cause I can't breath
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman
It's time to terminate
The great wide world
Morbid fascinations
Television takes control
Decimation different races fall
Electronic information
Tampers with your soul
There's a fire between us
So where is your god
There's a fire between us
I can't get off the carousel
I fall off this world
This sickening taste
Homophobic jokes
Images of fascist votes
Beam me up
Cause I can't breath
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman
Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman
Spaceman
Spaceman
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Pungent smells
They consummate my home
Beyond the black horizon
Trying to take control
See my girl
She shivers in her bones
The sun and zenith rising
Trying to take us all
There's a fire between us
So where is your god
There's a fire between us
I can't get off the carousel
I can't get off the carousel
I can't get off the carousel
I can't get off this world
This sickening taste
Homophobic jokes
Images of fascist votes
Beam me up
Cause I can't breath
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman
It's time to terminate
The great wide world
Morbid fascinations
Television takes control
Decimation different races fall
Electronic information
Tampers with your soul
There's a fire between us
So where is your god
There's a fire between us
I can't get off the carousel
I fall off this world
This sickening taste
Homophobic jokes
Images of fascist votes
Beam me up
Cause I can't breath
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Spaceman
I always wanted you to go
Into Spaceman (Intergalactic Christ)
Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman
Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman Spaceman
Spaceman
Spaceman
Spaceman
Lyrics submitted by shauncreaney, edited by dahliablack
Spaceman Lyrics as written by Jasbinder Mann Singh
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The narrator in the song has a couple of problems, one is his abhorrence of the outside world, the second the frustration of being unable to explore his inner self without a direction, map or compass.
The song starts with his admission that he gets high as fuck to escape the hell of what he sees around him. He's trying to get high to escape, but the wrong kind of high - he was to be "beamed up" type of high, and not have the come-down of drugs. On the come down now, he's blaming his grilfriend for his emptyness - "there's fire between us, so where is your god?" and at the same time he's removed from the meaning of a Christian "Christ" by a "fire" - his own disgust at what it's become by colluding with a meaningless world. He's discovering that his soul, while alive, doesn't know which way to go, so he's trying to contact "other worlds" or "his god" with a medium that can travel distances without leaving Earth - presumeably music in this case.
@Ralph26 "The sun and zenith rising<br /> Trying to take us all"<br /> <br /> This is an imprtant part of the story, too. He's anti-heroic. The sun at it's highest point is a traditonal symbol of the masculine hero before falling into mythical death. He doesn't want anything to do with the ready-made myths and "sun worship" of the past. Maybe he's already been down that road, or can see it's a deadend. So not only is he against cultural/gender roles, he's pretty sure that god is a woman, too.