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.
Got hips like Cinderella
Must be having a good shame
Talking sweet about nothing
Cookie, I think you're
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
I'm making good friends with you
When you're shaking your good frame
Fall on your face in those bad shoes
Lying there like you're
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
Tame
Tame
Tame
Must be having a good shame
Talking sweet about nothing
Cookie, I think you're
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
I'm making good friends with you
When you're shaking your good frame
Fall on your face in those bad shoes
Lying there like you're
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
Tame
Tame, tame
Tame
Tame
Tame
Tame
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Frank Black on "Tame":
"I don’t want to sound like a male chauvinist, but I have a male perspective, because I am male. ‘Tame’ is about women more than men. But the way some men treat their hair it’s incredible and I can[‘t] understand all that deodorant and stuff. I’ve never related to it. My family’s rather spartan. It’s about putting all that time into sexual presentation. I don’t mean it in a dirty kind of way. Where I live in the city, women spend time presenting themselves and still come out forever bland and mediocre."
I can see what he's getting at, but I don't care what he says, not wearing deodorant is kinda sick.