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.
Please sit down, just talk to me
We'll see if we can talk this through
I've tried so hard to understand it
Just tell me something that's close to the truth
I'd rather you were cruel than kind
Is all that I'm demanding
I've given up on peace of mind
For the open wound of understanding
You can't be here and someplace else
If your mind is in that other place
You're trying to convince yourself
But you're lying in my face
I've listened 'til my head would spin
I don't want half of anything
The sand sits in the hourglass
Time slips through our fingers fast
Your counterfeits deceived me
If you can't love me this way
Then you must leave me
Tell me how it came to this
Just don't think to spare me this
Perhaps the truth can set us free
From the half truths ensnaring you and me
This black hole of intensity
Collapses on its density
And sucks me to a darker place
That hides behind a broken face
Keep up appearances as they say
And all those reasons you might stay
Ring hollow in my mind today
I've listened 'til my head would spin
I don't want half of anything
I don't want half of anything
The fields are sown with seeds of doubt
The wine is warm, you spit it out
This drinking won't relieve me
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
Then you must leave me
The patterns in the distant stars
Our fates upon a loom
The changes in the temperature
When you walked into a room
The smell of your perfume
The taste of your skin
All those bitter reminders
Of the failed state I'm in
How do I breathe now, how do I inhale?
I'm a diver on the seabed, my oxygen's failed
How do I wake up, how do I sleep?
How do I laugh now, I can't even weep?
Where do I run to, where do I hide?
An insect preserved in formaldehyde
Yesterday's paper, its pages curled
How can I live in this broken world?
Keep up appearances as they say
But all those reasons you might stay
Ring hollow in my mind today
I've listened 'til my head would spin
I don't want half of anything
I don't want half of anything
The sand, it falls in the hour glass
And time slips through our fingers fast
And nothing that you say relieves me
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
Then you must leave me
We'll see if we can talk this through
I've tried so hard to understand it
Just tell me something that's close to the truth
I'd rather you were cruel than kind
Is all that I'm demanding
I've given up on peace of mind
For the open wound of understanding
You can't be here and someplace else
If your mind is in that other place
You're trying to convince yourself
But you're lying in my face
I've listened 'til my head would spin
I don't want half of anything
The sand sits in the hourglass
Time slips through our fingers fast
Your counterfeits deceived me
If you can't love me this way
Then you must leave me
Tell me how it came to this
Just don't think to spare me this
Perhaps the truth can set us free
From the half truths ensnaring you and me
This black hole of intensity
Collapses on its density
And sucks me to a darker place
That hides behind a broken face
Keep up appearances as they say
And all those reasons you might stay
Ring hollow in my mind today
I've listened 'til my head would spin
I don't want half of anything
I don't want half of anything
The fields are sown with seeds of doubt
The wine is warm, you spit it out
This drinking won't relieve me
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
Then you must leave me
The patterns in the distant stars
Our fates upon a loom
The changes in the temperature
When you walked into a room
The smell of your perfume
The taste of your skin
All those bitter reminders
Of the failed state I'm in
How do I breathe now, how do I inhale?
I'm a diver on the seabed, my oxygen's failed
How do I wake up, how do I sleep?
How do I laugh now, I can't even weep?
Where do I run to, where do I hide?
An insect preserved in formaldehyde
Yesterday's paper, its pages curled
How can I live in this broken world?
Keep up appearances as they say
But all those reasons you might stay
Ring hollow in my mind today
I've listened 'til my head would spin
I don't want half of anything
I don't want half of anything
The sand, it falls in the hour glass
And time slips through our fingers fast
And nothing that you say relieves me
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
If you can't love me this way
Then you must leave me
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
If You Can't Love Me Lyrics as written by Dominic Miller Gordon Sumner
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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A song about the desperation one feels at the height of an affair when a decision needs to be made about whether or not to continue it when one is already in a long term relationship.. Since it was co-written I expect it is a mode all three men may have identified with, as musicians on the road are notorious for fly by night encounters. Perhaps one or two of those instances meant something important to them. One cannot help but empathize for both parties as emotions can be very overwhelming..