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 neon lights go flashing by
Electric land is in my eyes
The underworld is on the move
And everybody's got something to prove
The taxi driver delivers the news
Somebody out there has blown a fuse
We're passing the scene a man is dead
A thirty eight blew away his head
A jolt of lightning set's me back a pace
Feel like a visitor from outer space
Please excuse me if I don't quite understand
I'm just a stranger in electric land
Willing to have a good time
You live for the moment the moment is fine
You're up in your room the lights are low
Before you know it's time for the show
A jolt of lightning set's me back a pace
Feel like a visitor from outer space
Please excuse me if I don't quite understand
I'm just a stranger in electric land
Electric land is in my eyes
The underworld is on the move
And everybody's got something to prove
The taxi driver delivers the news
Somebody out there has blown a fuse
We're passing the scene a man is dead
A thirty eight blew away his head
A jolt of lightning set's me back a pace
Feel like a visitor from outer space
Please excuse me if I don't quite understand
I'm just a stranger in electric land
Willing to have a good time
You live for the moment the moment is fine
You're up in your room the lights are low
Before you know it's time for the show
A jolt of lightning set's me back a pace
Feel like a visitor from outer space
Please excuse me if I don't quite understand
I'm just a stranger in electric land
Lyrics submitted by jhines0042
Electricland Lyrics as written by Paul Rodgers
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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No comments?!? This is one of my favorite songs by Bad Company!
I could not agree more, this song is awesome (:
I could relate this to a psychedelic experience.
"The neon lights go flashing by Electric land is in my eyes"
"The underworld is on the move And everybody's got something to prove"
besides physical changes, you begin to think differently. you see deeper meaning to everything somebody does or says
the next verse is about a taxi driver and a dead body; reality, yet it doesn't seem to touch you in the same way as usually
"A jolt of lightning set's me back a pace Feel like a visitor from outer space Please excuse me if I don't quite understand I'm just a stranger in electric land"
"Willing to have a good time You live for the moment the moment is fine You're up in your room the lights are low Before you know it's time for the show"
I had not heard this song in I don't know how many years - maybe, decades. Then I saw the title, went to YouTube and..."just wow." Immediately, at "Jolt of lightning...," I thought I was listening to a song Foreigner would do. It made me so curious, I had to check out Foreigner's repertoire on this site, just to see if they had never done a cover of it - or, was it a Foreigner song, and BC did THEIR cover of it? [laughing]
I do think this is the one song that helped me to remember that Bad Company exists. This, and "Feel Like Makin' Love." You could have told me years ago that Electric Land was originally by Foreigner, and I would have believed you until today. Just like I would have believed, if I'd been told that BC originally did "Hot Blooded," and Foreigner made it famous.
I will be hearing this song more often now, since I liked it so much back in the day when it was on the air so often.