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.
And if the snow buries my, my neighborhood
And if my parents are crying
Then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours
Yeah, a tunnel from my window to yours
You climb out the chimney
And meet me in the middle, the middle of the town
And since there's no one else around
We let our hair grow long
And forget all we used to know
Then our skin gets thicker from
Living out in the snow
You change all the lead
Sleepin' in my head
As the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn
Then we tried to name our babies
But we forgot all the names that
The names we used to know
But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms
And our parents' bedrooms
And the bedrooms of our friends
Then we think of our parents
Well what ever happened to them?
You change all the lead
Sleepin' in my head to gold
As the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn
The song I've been trying to sing
Purify the colors, purify my mind
Purify the colors, purify my mind
And spread the ashes of the colors
Over this heart of mine
And if my parents are crying
Then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours
Yeah, a tunnel from my window to yours
You climb out the chimney
And meet me in the middle, the middle of the town
And since there's no one else around
We let our hair grow long
And forget all we used to know
Then our skin gets thicker from
Living out in the snow
You change all the lead
Sleepin' in my head
As the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn
Then we tried to name our babies
But we forgot all the names that
The names we used to know
But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms
And our parents' bedrooms
And the bedrooms of our friends
Then we think of our parents
Well what ever happened to them?
You change all the lead
Sleepin' in my head to gold
As the day grows dim
I hear you sing a golden hymn
The song I've been trying to sing
Purify the colors, purify my mind
Purify the colors, purify my mind
And spread the ashes of the colors
Over this heart of mine
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This song reminds me of Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Except without Ice-9, and, regretably, Bokonon.