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.
[Thurston]
here it comes again
out of the rain
seems to have a new
kind of same
been playing on a
simple rhyme
the sign comes alive and
speaks the mind
it turns to me and
turns to gold [go???]
it turns to see
the fast lane slow
it's been away too long
it's been the way i'm goin'
it needs custard[?] on
to the west star
looking out i thought i
saw it blink
coming on to me
like a silver eye
pick it up and
turn it on and
head on out to
western starland
it's been a man and gone
now it's a singing song
like a western star
it's going my way
looking out i'm back in
time to stay
into the eastern
silent way
come to life
through the clearer
ghost arise
into the mirror
you've been away too long
it's been way too long
an eastern star is on
a disappearer
here it comes again
out of the rain
seems to have a new
kind of same
been playing on a
simple rhyme
the sign comes alive and
speaks the mind
it turns to me and
turns to gold [go???]
it turns to see
the fast lane slow
it's been away too long
it's been the way i'm goin'
it needs custard[?] on
to the west star
looking out i thought i
saw it blink
coming on to me
like a silver eye
pick it up and
turn it on and
head on out to
western starland
it's been a man and gone
now it's a singing song
like a western star
it's going my way
looking out i'm back in
time to stay
into the eastern
silent way
come to life
through the clearer
ghost arise
into the mirror
you've been away too long
it's been way too long
an eastern star is on
a disappearer
Lyrics submitted by shut
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Moik: "it is kind of like right when you are falling asleep and you have a very brief and fascinating thought. then you wake again and try to recall it and it slips away and makes absolutely no sense at all."
i thought i was the only one to think about things like this. but i really love what you came up with with this song. those are the type of thoughts that you try to capture but you never really can so sometimes you just let them slip by. but as you can see they tried to hold onto that idea just long enough to write it into a song, and i guess they managed.