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.
I got this graveyard woman, you know she keeps my kids
But my soulful mama, you know she keeps me hid
She's a junkyard angel and she always gives me bread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well, when the pipeline gets broken and I'm lost on the river bridge
I'm all cracked up on the highway and in the water's edge
And then she comes down a thruway, ready to sew me up with a thread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well, she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much
She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch
She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed, c'mon
Well, you know I need a steam shovel, mama, to keep away the dead
I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
She brings me everything and more, and just like I said
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
But my soulful mama, you know she keeps me hid
She's a junkyard angel and she always gives me bread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well, when the pipeline gets broken and I'm lost on the river bridge
I'm all cracked up on the highway and in the water's edge
And then she comes down a thruway, ready to sew me up with a thread
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Well, she don't make me nervous, she don't talk too much
She walks like Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch
She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed, c'mon
Well, you know I need a steam shovel, mama, to keep away the dead
I need a dump truck, baby, to unload my head
She brings me everything and more, and just like I said
Well, if I go down dyin', you know she's bound to put a blanket on my bed
Lyrics submitted by ZinbobDan, edited by Mellow_Harsher
From a Buick 6 Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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I think it's a shotgun.