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 you finally scaled the wall
Thinking you had heard the siren singing
What you really heard was a broken bird
Making out like it's a dove
When you stole the soldier's car
Everybody knew what you were thinking
Ivory towers and lover's flowers
But no one thought you were a fool
You never stopped to notice all
The stolen clothes stacked in the hall
From the others who scaled the wall just to
Find themselves fun off the road
When you showed up at the farm
Visions of the summer flying past you
The foxes had torn up
The mother and her pups
And the well was full of flies
When you walked down to the pond
Searching for the lover guiding you
It had been filled in with rusty nails and then
You finally knew that you were lost
Thinking you had heard the siren singing
What you really heard was a broken bird
Making out like it's a dove
When you stole the soldier's car
Everybody knew what you were thinking
Ivory towers and lover's flowers
But no one thought you were a fool
You never stopped to notice all
The stolen clothes stacked in the hall
From the others who scaled the wall just to
Find themselves fun off the road
When you showed up at the farm
Visions of the summer flying past you
The foxes had torn up
The mother and her pups
And the well was full of flies
When you walked down to the pond
Searching for the lover guiding you
It had been filled in with rusty nails and then
You finally knew that you were lost
Lyrics submitted by therapeuticsmile, edited by SaSaSushi
Run off the Road Lyrics as written by David Harvey Wingo
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
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Last verse:
No one thought you were a fool, Even though everyone knew What you wrote was the same, Just a different name Of those who escaped before you.