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.
“Leave a beer on the hospital steps with a lipstick kiss goodnight
Watch for me down Cambridge Street smashing out the lights.”
Your words came steady and your words came quick
Your talk was heavy as we walked the bricks
Of this town that you never would admit you loved -
A whole wide world it was keeping you from
Goodnight, make mends
We’ll see where this one ends
I’ll meet you at the bottom of the road
Goodnight, sweet friend
Until we meet again
I’ll keep you in my brokenhearted soul
Market Street’s never gonna be the same
Washington lost its rhyme
It’s gonna be quiet ‘round Union Square
With her withering neon signs
And your “desolate kingdom of sprawling bricks”
Came crashing to the ground
We strode like kings through the Allston snow
When the bars had kicked us out
Watch for me down Cambridge Street smashing out the lights.”
Your words came steady and your words came quick
Your talk was heavy as we walked the bricks
Of this town that you never would admit you loved -
A whole wide world it was keeping you from
Goodnight, make mends
We’ll see where this one ends
I’ll meet you at the bottom of the road
Goodnight, sweet friend
Until we meet again
I’ll keep you in my brokenhearted soul
Market Street’s never gonna be the same
Washington lost its rhyme
It’s gonna be quiet ‘round Union Square
With her withering neon signs
And your “desolate kingdom of sprawling bricks”
Came crashing to the ground
We strode like kings through the Allston snow
When the bars had kicked us out
Lyrics submitted by quamp
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A song saying farewell. To what depends on how you look at it. On one level, it's about how Covid-19 destroyed their local scene. Another level could say the local scene was destroyed by other methods. A third would be that the scene was not destroyed, but the parting of someone from it is going to leave a large vacuum in the scene.