This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my days
In backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints
While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day
I'm inside a still life with the other absentee
While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days
In the garden-grey pallor of lines across your face
While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made
I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints
Oh, my man my absentee
I'd do anything to please you
Come my love the stage is waiting
Be the one to save my saving grace
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my grace
On rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage
While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made
Through storms of red roses we've exited the stage
In backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints
While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day
I'm inside a still life with the other absentee
While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days
In the garden-grey pallor of lines across your face
While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made
I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints
Oh, my man my absentee
I'd do anything to please you
Come my love the stage is waiting
Be the one to save my saving grace
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my grace
On rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage
While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made
Through storms of red roses we've exited the stage
Lyrics submitted by mistercrinkles
Jesus Saves, I Spend Lyrics as written by Anne Erin Clark
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Annie has a lot of respect for Sufjan, so I doubt this is a direct reference to him.
Recent Reddit AMA:
"Will you ever collaborate with Sufjan again? Cheers for the music, the new album's great. [–]St_Vincent Annie Clark[S] 221 points 1 month ago i love sufjan's music. i played in his band for a couple of tours on "come on feel the illinois(e)?" -- it would give me too much credit to say i "collaborated" with him. he's a beautiful musician."
2009 interview with Flavorwire:<br /> <br /> "FP: You call yourself St. Vincent and toured with Sufjan. Sufjan’s known to include some religious subject matter in his work. Do you ever incorporate religion as a theme?<br /> <br /> AC: Hmmm. The name is actually a family name. It’s more honoring where you come from. I’m actually really interested in the human condition. I think in this culture, with the mythology we have to draw on, everybody knows their religious story. Whether they’re religious or not, they’re aware. So in terms of religious references, I tend to draw on religious mythology because it’s so ubiquitous. I’m definitely interested [in religion] in an intellectual sense.<br /> <br /> FP: Yeah. With your first record, there’s the reference to “Jesus saves, you spend,” etc.<br /> <br /> AC: Yeah, I just thought of that as silly wordplay. It’s a little bit of a light poking fun. I didn’t mean a whole lot more by it except for silly wordplay. But I don’t think that anyone misinterprets or really even interprets the way the artist intended for it to be. Which is wonderful, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.<br /> <br /> FP: That’s fair. How do you feel toward listeners who might end up misinterpreting what was meant to be religious? Sufjan is a great example.<br /> <br /> AC: Y’know, I don’t think there’s any big ideological conflict. You can enjoy things on a lot of levels If you are a person who is religious and want to imbue the music with that kind of lens, then you’ll filter it through that lens and have one kind of experience. If you’re not, and you think “oh! This is some really beautiful music, and I like it” then you’ll get that kind of experience. I don’t think anyone is in danger of any kind of ideological brain shift. I mean, with shows, with the Polyphonic Spree certainly brings up this religious imagery with the gospel robes, but people have been wearing costumes in rock n’ roll for a long time. [Laughs] It’s just performance art."