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.
When I walk beside her
I am the better man
When I look to leave her
I always stagger back again
Once I built an ivory tower
So I could worship from above
And when I climbed down to be set free
She took me in again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When she comes to greet me
She is mercy at my feet
When I see her pin her charm
She just throws it back again
Once I dug an early grave
To find a better land
She just smiled and laughed at me
And took her blues back again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When I go to cross that river
She is comfort by my side
When I try to understand
She just opens up her eyes
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
Once I stood to lose her
When I saw what I had done
Bound down and flew away the hours
Of her garden and her sun
So I tried to warn her
I'll turn to see her weep
Forty days and forty nights
And it's still coming down on me
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
I am the better man
When I look to leave her
I always stagger back again
Once I built an ivory tower
So I could worship from above
And when I climbed down to be set free
She took me in again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When she comes to greet me
She is mercy at my feet
When I see her pin her charm
She just throws it back again
Once I dug an early grave
To find a better land
She just smiled and laughed at me
And took her blues back again
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
When I go to cross that river
She is comfort by my side
When I try to understand
She just opens up her eyes
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
Once I stood to lose her
When I saw what I had done
Bound down and flew away the hours
Of her garden and her sun
So I tried to warn her
I'll turn to see her weep
Forty days and forty nights
And it's still coming down on me
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
There's a big
A big hard sun
Beaten on the big people
In the big hard world
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
I think that its about life in general, to sort of agree with sixofspades, that life itself is hard, we live in a big world with a big hard sun, but if we have someone to walk with us, someone who cares and understands us, its that much easier
I think its about those who stray from the righteous path.