| Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Nah, he's talking about the poetry he's reading! | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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When I was young man, my friends and I ascended the Sears Tower for the first time. It had been a typical rainy, midwestern spring day. We arrived at the top a few minutes before sundown. With Chicago below us, and the plains stretching out into infinity we felt we could see the entire earth if not universe. We turned West just as the sun dipped below the clouds and "set the whole world on fire." I found myself entrhralled, overwhelmed, and swept up into a mystical experience. I lost myself for awhile, and I'm guessing that Sufjan had a similar experience there. "There is Emmanuel of Mothers" God is with us, as father and mother, loving and caring for us no matter what. In this great universe, burning away, where we are just an insignificant speck, he knows and cares for us personally...WOW. However, the "sword" of love, the "robe" of sacrifice, divides us from our brothers, fellow humans, who pursue their security and happiness in the world of things and man (being of the world). They all think we are crazy, foolish and irrational. The Sears Tower is a monument to the materialism...built to our god of human wealth, security and power. The next line is obscure, and I have seen it rendered "rails and rails", "rips and rips", "resurrects" etc. Can someone give the definitive verse? I will skip it for now. Up to this point, he expresses a visionary experience triggered by something in the Sears Tower — then he suddenly sees his own, small life, mirrored in the broader vision (as all mystics do) — a mother who abandoned him and his siblings to pursue her own selfish desires, a father who served him (loved and bathed him). DO we live a life of selfish indulgence or one of servitude (this is the basic division of brothers by the sword by the way). As a side note, there is no evidence in the rest of Sufjan's music that he sees the Earth Mother as having betrayed us, so I do not believe he accepts that biblical misinterpretation. Finally, he is brought back to the realization that in the world of man, we are all ultimately alone, lonely — a grave for those unwilling or unable to pierce the mystery. It is only through the experience and grace of our relationship with God through Christ's example that we come to true communion with each other and with ourselves and escape that lonely grave. Just my experience of this mystical song. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| There's actually nothing else in any of Sufjan's songs that I know of to support the Earth as Mother (who betrayed us). This is a misreading of the bible anyway. I think you are right on in that this refers to his real mother and father and what they represent...those who pursue their own happiness and ultimately selfishness and those who serve for others. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Nice insight | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Yes, and if you are there at sundown, you'll see the fire in the west traditionally the place humans think of death and the end. It is a wonderful mixture of religious thought, actual experience and inspiration. By the way, Sufjan's real mother betrayed him, his real father raised him (loved and bathed him) |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| No, those lines refer to Sufjan's real mother and real father. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Much simpler to consider Sufjan's mother , who abandoned him and his siblings, and his fathers who stayed and raised them. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I wish everyone posting to this site would realize that Sufjan uses complex writing in his lyrics, shifting reference and narrator all the time...sometimes he speaks as one partner in a relationship or friendship sometimes as another. A great example of this is Springfield, where at times he speaks as the man in the affair and others as the woman. This is partly what makes his lyrics so mysterious, timeless and beautiful. It gives him great freedom to express the common human situation, frailty and triumph. Interpreting him too literally is a big mistake, and leads you to miss sooooo much in his music. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Well put. The problem with much "Christian Music" is that too much of it is based on the false belief that somehow we only praise God when we are happy and joyful. Much of official "Christian Music" is too bland and uninspired. This song hits the nail on the head when it points out that God's glory is still all around even when we don't get what we think we need "when we pray over her body". God and Jesus are not Santa Claus giving us exactly what we want, instead knowing us better than ourselves, they give us what we actually need! Even when we don't understand it. "Praise" music is inspired by God...it is a gift of the spirit and boy this is it! I wish the official "Christian Music" was as often as beautiful and inspired as this (...or David's Psalms, Bach'and Handel's oratorios, etc ,etc). When you hear inspired music, you know it! |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| He's taking the sorrow, fear and pain...not the friends life! Even in tragedy, especially in tragedy he still stays with us and takes what we need to give to him. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Pretty good scammaj12, except when he sings "And He takes and He takes and He takes", I do not think he is angry or frustrated with the Lord, just coming to the realization that Christ died as his friend died (and thus understands the fear, the pain, the grief, the sorrow), and is there with him now, STILL TAKING his fear, pain, grief and sorrow. Why do I think this? Because I was there when my twin sister's young husband (my close friend) died of "cancer of the bone", and I had the same realization and comforting experience. Sufjan is a person of faith remember. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Those of you who think this is referring to a song about someone who is gay are ignoring the fact that Stevens commonly changes perspective. Within his songs sometimes he is one person in a relationship, sometimes the other (same thing in Prdatory Wasp). It's one of the advanced writing styles in his lyrics that give his songs such mystery and universality. For me this is clearly a song about someone on the road to nowhere who takes up an offer for an affair in order to "not be boring like his father". He discovers too late this one move will destroy his marriage, his sense of who he is, his path in life. I believe the Shadfly caught in his hair line is a change of narrator to the woman in the affair making excuses to her husband/boyfriend, etc. It shows her greater degree of sophistication and ease with lying than Bobby who is devastated by the act. Now who ends up worse, Bobby who is devastated or the woman "with five husbands" who is able to live this lifestyle without apparent guilt... |
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