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.
Every new day is a gift, it's a song of redemption
Any expression of love is the way to return
To that place that I think of so often, but now never mention
The one the voice in the back of my head says that I don't deserve
Come fire, come water, come karma
We're all in transition
The wheel I'm becoming erases the physical mind
Until all that remains is a staircase of misinformation
And the code we inherit, the basis, the essence of life
So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
Is it true what we're made of?
Why do I hide from the rain?
Inside's so cloudy, nostalgia
But there are no features
Look at ourselves through a porthole
The passage of time
See that sunny day that we snuck out, hid under the bleachers
Kissed as the band marched
Everything fell into line
So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd I get so lost? I'm amazed
It's just so bizarre
All the things I'm afraid of
Why do I hide from the rain?
Sure I have my doubts
But I know it now
We are Jejune stars
So it starts again
At our childhood's end
I'll die young at heart, heart
So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
Is it true, what we're made of?
Why do I hide from the rain?
Any expression of love is the way to return
To that place that I think of so often, but now never mention
The one the voice in the back of my head says that I don't deserve
Come fire, come water, come karma
We're all in transition
The wheel I'm becoming erases the physical mind
Until all that remains is a staircase of misinformation
And the code we inherit, the basis, the essence of life
So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
Is it true what we're made of?
Why do I hide from the rain?
Inside's so cloudy, nostalgia
But there are no features
Look at ourselves through a porthole
The passage of time
See that sunny day that we snuck out, hid under the bleachers
Kissed as the band marched
Everything fell into line
So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd I get so lost? I'm amazed
It's just so bizarre
All the things I'm afraid of
Why do I hide from the rain?
Sure I have my doubts
But I know it now
We are Jejune stars
So it starts again
At our childhood's end
I'll die young at heart, heart
So I go, umbrella under my arm
Into the green of the radar
How'd it get so dark in the day?
It's just so bizarre
Is it true, what we're made of?
Why do I hide from the rain?
Lyrics submitted by littlebabykatie
Jejune Stars [Companion Version] Lyrics as written by Conor M Oberst
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I don't think jejune stars, as he uses it here, is an oxymoron. While jejune can mean dull/boring/lacking in originality, etc - it can also mean childish (in terms of one's understanding of a subject). So when i read the title of the song (long before I heard it or read the lyrics), my first thought was "Baby Stars" - which ties in a bit to the Ladder Song's reference to a star being born. I think the idea here is that we are just at the beginning of our consciousness - that when we live a long life and die feeling old and decrepit, we'll still be just babies in terms of the universe. You see shades of this in Beginner's Mind (with the reference to dying young at heart) and even back in Don't Know When But A Day's Gonna Come (I'm not a child, I'm so much younger than that.)