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.
I remember all my life
Raining down as cold as ice
A shadow of a man
A face through a window
Crying in the night
The night goes into
Morning, just another day
Happy people pass my way
Looking in their eyes
I see a memory
I never realized
How happy you made me, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
I'm standing on the edge of time
Walked away when love was mine
Caught up in a world of uphill climbing
The tears are in my eyes
And nothing is rhyming, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
Yesterday's a dream
Now I face the morning
Crying on the breeze
The pain is calling, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
Raining down as cold as ice
A shadow of a man
A face through a window
Crying in the night
The night goes into
Morning, just another day
Happy people pass my way
Looking in their eyes
I see a memory
I never realized
How happy you made me, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
I'm standing on the edge of time
Walked away when love was mine
Caught up in a world of uphill climbing
The tears are in my eyes
And nothing is rhyming, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
Yesterday's a dream
Now I face the morning
Crying on the breeze
The pain is calling, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
Well you came and you gave without taking
And I sent you away, oh Mandy
And you kissed me and stopped me from shaking
And I need you today, oh Mandy
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Mandy Lyrics as written by Scott David English Richard Kerr
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Spirit Music Group, MORRIS MUSIC, INC.
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