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 preacher man says it's the end of time
And the Mississippi River, she's a going dry
The interest is up and the stock markets down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown
I live back in the woods, you see
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun and a rifle and a four wheel drive
And a country boy can survive, country folks can survive
I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk 'til dawn
Make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain't too many things these old boys can't do
We grow good old tomatoes and homemade wine
And country boy can survive, country folk can survive
Because you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
'Cause we're them ol' boys raised on shotguns
We say grace and we say ma'am
And if you ain't into that, we don't give a damn
We came from the West Virginia coal mines
And the Rocky Mountains and the Western skies
And we can skin a buck, we can run a trout line
And a country boy can survive, country folks can survive
I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a business man
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway Nights
And I'd send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For forty three dollars, my friend lost his life
I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my Ol' .45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Cause you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
And we're them ol' boys raised on shotgun
We say grace, we say ma'am
If you ain't into that, we don't give a damn
We're from North California and South Alabama
And little towns all around this land
We can skin a buck and run a trout line
And a country boy can survive, country folks can survive
Country boy can survive, country folks can survive
And the Mississippi River, she's a going dry
The interest is up and the stock markets down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown
I live back in the woods, you see
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun and a rifle and a four wheel drive
And a country boy can survive, country folks can survive
I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk 'til dawn
Make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain't too many things these old boys can't do
We grow good old tomatoes and homemade wine
And country boy can survive, country folk can survive
Because you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
'Cause we're them ol' boys raised on shotguns
We say grace and we say ma'am
And if you ain't into that, we don't give a damn
We came from the West Virginia coal mines
And the Rocky Mountains and the Western skies
And we can skin a buck, we can run a trout line
And a country boy can survive, country folks can survive
I had a good friend in New York City
He never called me by my name just hillbilly
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land
And his taught him to be a business man
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway Nights
And I'd send him some homemade wine
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife
For forty three dollars, my friend lost his life
I'd love to spit some beechnut in that dudes eyes
And shoot him with my Ol' .45
Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
Cause you can't starve us out and you can't make us run
And we're them ol' boys raised on shotgun
We say grace, we say ma'am
If you ain't into that, we don't give a damn
We're from North California and South Alabama
And little towns all around this land
We can skin a buck and run a trout line
And a country boy can survive, country folks can survive
Country boy can survive, country folks can survive
Lyrics submitted by Charlie the man, edited by BrunoP, uzushio2047, JayMish4701
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Definitely another classic redneck anthem. This is just perfect in delivery and instrumentation. It has a very ominous tone toward the evil that infests the city. No wonder there is little crime in the rural muncipalities.
@OpinionHead there's crime in the country to my naybur stoled my long more