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.
There's a little house on the outskirts of town
Tilted in a vow of dissonance
You better walk behind me, walk behind me again
How many times have we burnt it all down?
Plumes of smoke, call it graveyard love
Walk behind me, walk these hallways again
The greatest illusion in the X-ray wind
Will take in my ruin, I keep clear of the windows
And I can't return, return to you
It's just the fear
Is this just the fear of not knowin' if you're there?
If you're there
Could never fathom how to wake you up
Crushed by the weight of your crucible
You better walk behind me, walk behind
And on the day that you wiped it all clean
Lost in a whisper, did you say
"I'll never walk behind you, walk behind you, again"
The greatest illusion in the X-ray wind
Will take in my ruin, I keep clear of the windows
And I can't return, return to you
It's just the fear
Is this just the fear of not knowin' that you're there?
That you're there
I don't want to remember why
I don't want to remember why
I don't want to remember
I don't want to remember why
Tilted in a vow of dissonance
You better walk behind me, walk behind me again
How many times have we burnt it all down?
Plumes of smoke, call it graveyard love
Walk behind me, walk these hallways again
The greatest illusion in the X-ray wind
Will take in my ruin, I keep clear of the windows
And I can't return, return to you
It's just the fear
Is this just the fear of not knowin' if you're there?
If you're there
Could never fathom how to wake you up
Crushed by the weight of your crucible
You better walk behind me, walk behind
And on the day that you wiped it all clean
Lost in a whisper, did you say
"I'll never walk behind you, walk behind you, again"
The greatest illusion in the X-ray wind
Will take in my ruin, I keep clear of the windows
And I can't return, return to you
It's just the fear
Is this just the fear of not knowin' that you're there?
That you're there
I don't want to remember why
I don't want to remember why
I don't want to remember
I don't want to remember why
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
Graveyard Love Lyrics as written by Omar Rodriguez-lopez Cedric Bixler Zavala
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
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The track is inspired by the brutal colonialist rule the United States has imposed on Puerto Rico, where guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López was born. Of the lyrics to “Graveyard Love,” vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala explains, They will seek your ruin, and burn your lands because if they can’t have you, no one can.” Rodriguez-López directed the accompanying “Graveyard Love” short film, a black &white collage that captures various locales and slices of life around Puerto Rico. In the video’s description on YouTube is included an extensive timeline of U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico, as well as further reading recommendations. The video also closes with a quote from Puerto Rican revolutionary Lolita Lebrón: “¡Yo no vine a matar a nadie; yo vine a morir por Puerto Rico!” (“I did not come to kill anyone, I came to die for Puerto Rico”).