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.
Dear God, do you want to tear your knuckles down
And hold yourself?
Dear God, can you climb off that tree
Meat in the shape of a 'T'?
Dear God, the paper says
You were the King in the black limousine
Dear John and all the King's men
Can't put your head together again
Before the bullets
Before the flies
Before authorities
Take out my eyes
The only smiling are you dolls that I made
But you are plastic
So are your brains
Dear God, the sky is as blue
As a gunshot wound
Dear God, if you were alive
You know we'd kill you
Before the bullets
Before the flies
Before authorities
Take out my eyes
The only smiling are you dolls that I made
But you are plastic
So are your brains
And hold yourself?
Dear God, can you climb off that tree
Meat in the shape of a 'T'?
Dear God, the paper says
You were the King in the black limousine
Dear John and all the King's men
Can't put your head together again
Before the bullets
Before the flies
Before authorities
Take out my eyes
The only smiling are you dolls that I made
But you are plastic
So are your brains
Dear God, the sky is as blue
As a gunshot wound
Dear God, if you were alive
You know we'd kill you
Before the bullets
Before the flies
Before authorities
Take out my eyes
The only smiling are you dolls that I made
But you are plastic
So are your brains
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whenever i hear the verse "before authorities take out my eyes" i visualize government-directed snipers focusing their crosshairs at JFK's eyes, preparing to silence him.