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.
He stumbled into faith and thought,
God this is all there is
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And all the gods in all the worlds
Began colliding on a backdrop of blue
Blue lips
Blue veins
He took a step but then felt tired
He said, I'll rest a little while
But when he tried to walk again
He wasn't a child
And all the people hurried past
Real fast and no one ever smiled
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away
He stumbled into faith and thought,
God this is all there is
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And no one saw and no one heard
They just followed lead
The pictures in his mind awoke
And began to breed
They started off beneath the knowledge tree
Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences
They marched along the railroad tracks
And smiled real wide for the camera lenses
They made it past the enemy lines
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away
Blue, the most human color
Blue, the most human color
Blue, the most human color
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of our planet from far, far away
God this is all there is
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And all the gods in all the worlds
Began colliding on a backdrop of blue
Blue lips
Blue veins
He took a step but then felt tired
He said, I'll rest a little while
But when he tried to walk again
He wasn't a child
And all the people hurried past
Real fast and no one ever smiled
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away
He stumbled into faith and thought,
God this is all there is
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And no one saw and no one heard
They just followed lead
The pictures in his mind awoke
And began to breed
They started off beneath the knowledge tree
Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences
They marched along the railroad tracks
And smiled real wide for the camera lenses
They made it past the enemy lines
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away
Blue, the most human color
Blue, the most human color
Blue, the most human color
Blue lips
Blue veins
Blue, the color of our planet from far, far away
Lyrics submitted by 16996602, edited by rswalrath, beyx2, scribyuniverse, KumonKitsune
Blue Lips Lyrics as written by Regina Spektor
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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A beautiful ambitious song: an attempt to sum up the entire human condition in a simple song.
Mankind, the "He" of the first line, is born into a world that seems insufficient to his imagination: our "blue veins" carry blood back to our hearts for oxygen until such time as we die and our "lips" too turn blue. We respond to the realisation of the brevity of life and fast-approaching death with dismay; "God. this is all there is!"
Burdened ("tired") by this realisation, man conjures up meanings for his life ("pictures in his mind awoke") and proceeds to believe in all sorts of Gods ("all the gods") and material ambitions ("all the worlds"). Each human taking smatterings of these awoken ideas and explanations to create their own belief system, which "collides" with the belief systems of other humans, on "a Backdrop" of our "Blue" planet.
We all can recall the first fascinating picture taken of our blue planet by the camera we sent into space, all those years ago. This blue planet is the context for all the hopes and dreams and ideas with which we frame our lives.
Regina does not say whether the ideas of gods "awoke(n)" in us are true or not. This is a tale of the lonely confused human condition we are all born into, not a commentary on which belief system is right. Regina simply describes the existential anguish we all feel as we try to figure life out.
And the evolution ("breeding") of all people's varying beliefs and ways of living causes us all to become disconnected from each other ("all the people hurried fast, Real fast And no one ever smiled"), so that we lose the human connections which do make us feel happy.
The "white picket fences" we construct around our lives, with our gathering "breeding" "evolving "knowledge" protect us from real existential danger ("the enemy lines"), providing necessary shelter, clothing, etc, but simultaneously, mankind is formed into lonely "assembly lines" of different people accepting different truths and roles in the world, no longer focused on the common truths of universal striving and death.
Our blue lives on this blue planet can indeed be mournfully, sadly blue, even as we phonily "smile real wide for the camera lenses" we created in our delusions of progress.