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.
Apartment in New York, London and Paris
Where will we rest, we're all living on top of it
It's all that we have the USA is our daily bread
And no one is willing to share it
Why can't we see our fortunancy
Living as legends have lived.
Bane and dismannered
We coax all the time
Knowing that nothing is left when we die
Come along Fool
A direct hit of the senses you are disconnected
It's not that it's bad?it's not that it's death
It's just on the tip of your tongue, and you're so silent
Wanting to live and laugh all the time
Sitting alone with you tea and your crime
Children with kids, and people with parents
Any which way there's no past and no presence
When the day comes and all of them bums
Will reveal enchanting persons
Come along...
When it's a rut and baby's no luck
Half of it's misunderstanding love
The war we have won we're winning again
Within ourselves and within our friends
Come along...
Where will we rest, we're all living on top of it
It's all that we have the USA is our daily bread
And no one is willing to share it
Why can't we see our fortunancy
Living as legends have lived.
Bane and dismannered
We coax all the time
Knowing that nothing is left when we die
Come along Fool
A direct hit of the senses you are disconnected
It's not that it's bad?it's not that it's death
It's just on the tip of your tongue, and you're so silent
Wanting to live and laugh all the time
Sitting alone with you tea and your crime
Children with kids, and people with parents
Any which way there's no past and no presence
When the day comes and all of them bums
Will reveal enchanting persons
Come along...
When it's a rut and baby's no luck
Half of it's misunderstanding love
The war we have won we're winning again
Within ourselves and within our friends
Come along...
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Great song. Obviously about the events surrounding 9-11, but more generall about bourgeois attitudes.
I love "children with kids and people with parents, anywhich way there's no past and no presence..." Excellent!