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.
The Atlantic was born today, and I'll tell you how
The clouds above opened up and let it out
I was standing on the surface of a perforated sphere
When the water filled every hole
And thousands upon thousands made an ocean
Making islands, where no islands should go (oh no)
Most people were overjoyed, they took to their boats
I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat
The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flatlands to your door
Have been silenced forevermore
And the distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
It seems farther than ever before (oh no)
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
So come on, come on
So come on, come on
So come on, come on
So come on, come on
The clouds above opened up and let it out
I was standing on the surface of a perforated sphere
When the water filled every hole
And thousands upon thousands made an ocean
Making islands, where no islands should go (oh no)
Most people were overjoyed, they took to their boats
I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat
The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flatlands to your door
Have been silenced forevermore
And the distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
It seems farther than ever before (oh no)
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
I need you so much closer
So come on, come on
So come on, come on
So come on, come on
So come on, come on
Lyrics submitted by heartattack, edited by g0ld3n, crackhitler
Transatlanticism Lyrics as written by Christopher Walla Benjamin Gibbard
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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To me this song isn’t about a long distance relationship at all but rather a person who is in love with someone who doesn’t feel the same way. The beginning of the song is describing the way he felt when he realized he was in love with her. The line “making islands where no islands should go, oh no.” is saying to me that he knows she doesn’t feel the same way but he is using islands as a metaphor for hope. The repeated line “I need you so much closer” means to me that he wants their relationship to be closer, like how you can be sitting right next to a person and still feel so far away because you want your relationship to be so much more. And then “so come on” he is pleading to her, come on. Lets do this.
@randatronic Hmm, I never really thought about it as being one-sided; to me the relationship is not so much non-mutual, but more like.. "tacit", in other words unspoken, but shared (I get this from the line "most people were overjoyed, they took to their boats", I get the sense that other people are completely unaware of his sorrow and heartbreak).<br /> <br /> I feel like something has forced them to be physically apart (something "natural" and unpredictable and unavoidable, symbolised in the song by "rain" which the "clouds opened and let out"). <br /> <br /> Nonetheless, interesting perspective.