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.
The tax man's taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
And I can't sail my yacht
He's taken everything I got
All I've got's this sunny afternoon
Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I got a big fat mama tryna break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
My girlfriend's run off with my car
And gone back to her ma and pa
Tellin' tales of drunkenness and cruelty
Now I'm sittin' here
Sippin' at my ice cold beer
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
Help me, help me, help me sail away
Well, give me two good reasons why I oughta stay
'Cause I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
Oh, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I got a big fat mama tryna break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
And left me in my stately home
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
And I can't sail my yacht
He's taken everything I got
All I've got's this sunny afternoon
Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I got a big fat mama tryna break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
My girlfriend's run off with my car
And gone back to her ma and pa
Tellin' tales of drunkenness and cruelty
Now I'm sittin' here
Sippin' at my ice cold beer
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
Help me, help me, help me sail away
Well, give me two good reasons why I oughta stay
'Cause I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
Oh, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze
I got a big fat mama tryna break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime
Lyrics submitted by dirtycasualtypunk
Sunny Afternoon Lyrics as written by Raymond Douglas Davies
Lyrics © Abkco Music Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I have no idea how so many people have managed to convince themselves that Ray Davies wrote "Sunny Afternoon" as a genuine attempt to engender pity for this character. Whatever his opinions on the fairness of British tax law in the 60's, this man is a blithering idiot. This is satire and sarcasm at their most obvious, which is not to say the criticism is any less biting. Evidence, you say? Simple: this man's catalog of grievances is objectively ludicrous. The taxman has "taken everything (he's) got"? Ok, he means besides the "STATELY home", the "ICE COLD beer" (which qualifying superlative suggests, beyond the fact that he's an idiot, the existence of other luxurious appliances in his position), his "car" (which clearly not taken by the taxman since it was driven off by a frightened, abused girlfriend). Besides a home, cold beer and a car, which Davies surely recognized were precisely the luxuries that sustained regular folk the whole world 'round, I guess he has nothing. Or, as I think Davies is obviously implying, this man is whining about what has befallen him while constantly letting slip that he still lives in extreme comfort. To working class people "lazing on a sunny afternoon" is a rarity and a luxury. For this man, it is an eternal torment. Now that I think of it, did the taxman even take his yacht? He just laments that he "can't sail (his) yacht". That is a strange way to put having one's boat repo'd. More likely, he is too down and out about having to give taxes away to enjoy his God-given right to, erm, sail in a giant yacht. To give this idea some credence, consider that he asks for someone to "help (him) sail away". Davies wasn't careless with his words, and the repetition of this word suggests that he does not mean another, heretofore unmentioned boat. In fact, maybe it's not that he's too "depressed" to take his yacht for a spin- maybe he really can't "sail (his) yacht" in a practical sense. He doesn't know how to do it, and possibly had to fire a Captain who had done the sailing for him. His plea, then, of "help me, help me, help me sail away" would not be a plea for someone to join him in his escape from a painful present. It's a request for someone to do his bidding without remuneration. He deserves to be waited on, just as he deserves to be on a yacht and to smack his wife around. That part is so obvious I will not mention it beyond laughing at this plea for sympathy for his lost "car" from an abusive, driunken spouse. Anyway, I could go on, but I just had to get the truth in there as I was so amazed that so many people were missing some of the clearest satire in rock n' roll history.