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.
Robert Mackenzie
32 men on a Great Lakes boat
Quit the pier at Thunder Bay
28,000 tons of coal
On a cold November day
800 feet and 10 more long
80 feet across
The steel mills of Detroit
Our destination through the frost
At 2 AM on the 2nd
Waves were runnin' up to 40 feet
Winds were blowing 60 miles
Our engines crankin' heat
At 3:13 we took a wave
Our wheelhouse left behind
The radar slipped beneath the waves
And we were runnin' blind
Hear me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home some day
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
A captain name of Phillips
Seekin' shelter from the storm
Turned us south of Bête Grise Bay
By way of Keweenaw Point
But the wind was blowing at such a rate
We ended up driftin' north
A wave broke over a knife of rock
Six Fathom Shoal
Mackenzie she was cut in half
The stern she rammed the bow
The men were caught in metal jaws
Flames burned out of hell
Stern kept runnin' all her lights ablaze
Not one man would be found
Captain's last transmission read
32 men down
32 men down
Hear me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home some day
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
Down Down Down Down Down Down Down Down
And they call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home some day
Yes, I call across the waves
If i don´t come home tonight
I will make it home some day
32 men on a Great Lakes boat
Quit the pier at Thunder Bay
28,000 tons of coal
On a cold November day
800 feet and 10 more long
80 feet across
The steel mills of Detroit
Our destination through the frost
At 2 AM on the 2nd
Waves were runnin' up to 40 feet
Winds were blowing 60 miles
Our engines crankin' heat
At 3:13 we took a wave
Our wheelhouse left behind
The radar slipped beneath the waves
And we were runnin' blind
Hear me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home some day
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
A captain name of Phillips
Seekin' shelter from the storm
Turned us south of Bête Grise Bay
By way of Keweenaw Point
But the wind was blowing at such a rate
We ended up driftin' north
A wave broke over a knife of rock
Six Fathom Shoal
Mackenzie she was cut in half
The stern she rammed the bow
The men were caught in metal jaws
Flames burned out of hell
Stern kept runnin' all her lights ablaze
Not one man would be found
Captain's last transmission read
32 men down
32 men down
Hear me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home some day
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
(Steel boats and iron men)
32 down on the Robert Mackenzie
Down Down Down Down Down Down Down Down
And they call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home some day
Yes, I call across the waves
If i don´t come home tonight
I will make it home some day
Lyrics submitted by zen_child
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This was written by Paul Gross for the TV show "Due South". They had originally wanted to use Gordon Lighfoot's classic "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Lightfoot agreed on the condition that the families of the men lost agreed as well. Paul Gross decided against it "bothering" the families for the sake of a television show and this song was written.