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.
Here on these cliffs of Dover
So high you can't see over
And while your head is spinning
Hold tight, it's just beginning
You come from parents wanton
A childhood rough and rotten
I come from wealth and beauty
Untouched by work or duty
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together
I found you, a tattooed tramp
A dirty daughter from the labor camps
I laid you down on the grass of a clearing
You wept but your soul was willing
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together
And my parents will never consent to this love
But I hold your hand
Meet me on my vast veranda
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, oh my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together
So high you can't see over
And while your head is spinning
Hold tight, it's just beginning
You come from parents wanton
A childhood rough and rotten
I come from wealth and beauty
Untouched by work or duty
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together
I found you, a tattooed tramp
A dirty daughter from the labor camps
I laid you down on the grass of a clearing
You wept but your soul was willing
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together
And my parents will never consent to this love
But I hold your hand
Meet me on my vast veranda
My sweet, untouched Miranda
And while the seagulls are crying
We fall but our souls are flying
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, my love
And oh, my love, oh my love
And oh, my love, my love
We both go down together
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This is not a prequel to Leslie Anne Levine. That song was about, in short, an aborted child whose ghost still haunts the general vicinity of her death. She is in love with the ghost of a chimney sweep, who most certainly would not come from "wealth and beauty". This is about star crossed lovers who commit suicide together. Snap.