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.
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
Her husband, was a hard working man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
Her husband, was a hard working man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
My girl, my girl, where will you go
I'm going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don't ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through
Lyrics submitted by bonj, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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As others have noted, this is a song with a very long history, apparently originating from Appalachia. I can see how it seeped deeply in archetypal human experience from this vantage point, from the gut, from the soul, from infidelity and murder, as primal and pre-verbal as the monther/child bond.
My girl, my girl, don't lie to me Tell me where did you sleep last night
(Cuts right to the chase. You're mine, my chance for genetic immortality, and you're not sleeping with me, the ultimate life/death betrayal. Tell the truth now or it's only gonna get worse)
In the pines, in the pines Where the sun don't ever shine I would shiver the whole night through
(The pines, or deep in the woods, could be metaphorical for many things, such as the shame of giving into forbidden sexuality, death or loneliness. It is the shadow archetype, that place we reject about ourselves, but in the act of disavowal, only empower it. The sun, that ever constant symbol of rebirth, truth, hope and life has no place here. And it gets colder and colder as you shiver and writhe, symbolic of jealously driven madness, despair and hopelessness).
My girl, my girl, where will you go I'm going where the cold wind blows
(You can't escape me. I'm done. I've had it. I can't go on without you. I'm coming to murder you, where the cold wind blows).
Her husband, was a hard working man Just about a mile from here His head was found in a driving wheel But his body never was found
(apparently "husband" has changed many times over the years from just about every imaginable personhood, so it can be sung from many different perspectives, like House of the Rising Sun. He was a "hard working," responsible, law abiding, good man. About a mile from here, deep in the pines, they found his decapitated head [driving wheel in previous incarnations indicates being severed by a train on the tracks]. His head [the soul] is "him" and "his body" [his instinct] is not him. The fact that the head was left and the body disappeared is very symbolic. One cannot be properly buried this way, so their fate is purgatory).