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.
Wasted feelings
Broken meanings
Time is fleeting
See what it brings
Hellos, goodbyes, a thousand midnights
Lost in sleepless lullabies
Heaven's dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts my friends
We know we'll be ghosts again
Sunday's shining
Silver linings
Weightless hours
All my flowers
A place to hide the tears that you cried
Everybody says goodbye
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we'll be ghosts again
Heaven's dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts my friends
We know we'll be ghosts again
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we'll be ghosts again
Broken meanings
Time is fleeting
See what it brings
Hellos, goodbyes, a thousand midnights
Lost in sleepless lullabies
Heaven's dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts my friends
We know we'll be ghosts again
Sunday's shining
Silver linings
Weightless hours
All my flowers
A place to hide the tears that you cried
Everybody says goodbye
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we'll be ghosts again
Heaven's dreaming
Thoughtless thoughts my friends
We know we'll be ghosts again
Faith is sleeping
Lovers in the end
Whisper we'll be ghosts again
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
Ghosts Again Lyrics as written by Richard Preston Butler Jr. Martin Lee Gore
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Ghosts Again is a song about death and mortality. In the lyrics, Depeche Mode reflects on how life looks temporary, and weightless, when we think about death and how it can suddenly put everything into a different perspective. In the video, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan reenact the historical chess game with the Death from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, a symbol of the impossible challenge for a human to win over death. The lyrics of Ghosts Again are short and highly symbolic. They describe how things in life can suddenly disappear, break, and vanish. Reflecting on our mortal nature, we realize that one day we will be ghosts (again), dissolving our material consistency. It’s a series of thoughts that don’t really bring us in any specific direction. If any, they invite us to be less attached to the material things of life: they will all be gone, and they can disappear in a single moment if death comes to visit us. Even faith and love can’t help: inevitably, life will turn into a ghost one day. The meaning of the lyrics in Ghosts Again, therefore, represents Depeche Mode’s first take on life and death, after Andy Fletcher left the world. Memento Mori, the title of their new album, is a Latin expression meaning “remember you must die,” revealing that death will be a heavy topic of their music in 2023. Let’s wait for more songs and words in the upcoming months. Source: auralcrave.com
@EternalTearsOfSorrow My uncle died in early January, and while I didn't know him all that well, it's left the heady ideas of mortality and my own advancing age planted firmly in my mind. This song's certainly come out at an interesting time and actually carries a lot more resonance than one would expect from a band 40 years into their career.