I believe that this whole song is about the internal struggles and insanity of people, and the escape from our own frightening insides, described as an apocalypse ("the hurricane that inclined us toppling on the floor", several mentions of darkness) into dreams ("our lives depended on the visions through the night"). The song is about the idiocy of humans and the simple sadness which accompanies being part of the species. The storm inside of us is growing, and the insanity is growing; the apocalypse that will bring our doom is growing inside of us, and we can do nothing but live inside our own dreams and hope that we can never return to our own heads.
"and they all prayed to the neon god they had made"- this is a reference to the golden calf which the Jews made in the bible to worship while Moses retrieved the ten commandments from Mt. Sinai, but the "neon" part is a contradiction. It makes one think of neon lights, artificial lights, and the city. This contrasts with the dreamy, drugged quality of the song- envisioning harsh city lights next to "in my restless dreams I walked alone, I walked alone". These are two ideas and two human ideals that are very similar but obviously quite different as well.
The lines, "And the people bowed and prayed/Oh I love you a lot, I love you from the top of my heart/And you can see through my mistakes" seem like a God reference. Although I originally thought he was talking about a woman, reading these lyrics make it seem like he is talking to God, and remembering the great human sin in the bible, and he is telling God of his sins. He is "gently laying" on God's breast, and feels safe there, like a mother and child.
"Your arms surround me in the lake"- is this his death? Is this suicide? If God is the arms, then that would be the lake drowning him. Or maybe it's only in his own head.
Another great line is "And what difference does it make/If the world is a mess, oh, if the world is a mess?" The world being a mess is also referenced in the fourth song of the EP: "From the Mouth of Gabriel". Maybe it makes no difference because people are individuals and should worry about themselves, and be happy with the life they have (which is the sort of vibe I get from his other songs and albums), or maybe it's a reference to death, and that we will all die and it doesn't matter anyway (which I think is more likely).
"the burning basement" would be hell, and I think in the 18th line he is saying that people think they can evade hell by being popular or strong or revolutionizing their society- evading hell by networking and loopholes, like they always have done, until it comes to God.
One thing I don't really understand is the chorus, the most important part: "All delighted people raise their hands". The way it is in a major key until the last note is nostalgic and almost ironic. It sounds like a bible reference but I'm actually not really familiar with the bible at all so I wouldn't know. I'm also not very religious, but I thought the God references are references that Sufjan would make. Those are just my thoughts, I'm excited to hear yours.
Okay so this is from the first page of this sites page on the sounds of silence by Paul Simon. I know it's a Simon and garfunkel song but I have a personal vendetta against garfunkel and we all know he didn't contribute to me getting to see them this summer with his whole "strained voice i'm a pussy" thing he pulled.
Okay so this is from the first page of this sites page on the sounds of silence by Paul Simon. I know it's a Simon and garfunkel song but I have a personal vendetta against garfunkel and we all know he didn't contribute to me getting to see them this summer with his whole "strained voice i'm a pussy" thing he pulled.
"The song sound of silence is a lyric that uses imagery and symbolism very heavily. The story of it is that the author has a dream about ten thousand people bowing to a god they made of neon light. The god represents the fake and shallow culture they are building on pop stars and the dollar bill. The media �talks without speaking� and the people �hear without listening� there is a cancer of silence which represents a widespred lack of meaning, in music namely. This is an extreemly well written poem and a good view on what is happening to the media. The so called artists are putting less and less art in their work.Their is mass prostitution of art happening in our culture and we all sit happily starring at the neon light and ignore the real art. I heard a good a good quote the other day i have eno idea who said it but I�ll close with it. �For the culture that tolerates shottyness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity and ignores excellence in plumbing because it is a humble activity. This is their fate. Neither their pipes nor it�s theories will hold water.� "
I forgot to copy the author so this is going uncredited but hey that's what the internet is for.
I just thought I'd start with that quote because this song is like half the sounds of silence (not an accurate figure).
Things to say.
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The concept of making a song using another song, and a very very good other song at that.
Sufjan has said recently that he is becoming less focused on the act of creating and sharing music with other people because he thinks the album as a concept is dying or dead and that the internet is destroying the world. That last part isn't something he said per say but I think it's kinda true. With all the people who are now able to share their work with all other beings except the poor souls without computers there is an excess of music and art. And in our lovely music which means so much to so many of us consists of 12 notes so it's hard to create something original and so much of it sounds similar but it's easy not to notice or to willfully suspend the knowledge of this. Anyway, people have been doing it for awhile and I feel like pretty much anything you could ever possibly want to say has already been said by someone else in another song. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm 20 and I wonder if people will still be around in another 60 years when I may or not be alive still and what music will be like and if there have been any major changes and 50 year I'll make my own 27 minute song that uses this song but branches off. Haha if you actually read this there isn't much coherency. And people always tell you how to write and to be more clear but maybe this exactly how I wanted to say it and don't you ever tell me how to live my life.
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It's been about 50 years since the original song came out so that means about 50 years have passed and people are still getting emotional connections to this song and also that all the problems that were around then are still around if not worse maybe. I like that Sufjan did this so much because holy shit sometimes I love a song so much but the concept of diminishing marginal returns doesn't apply to me and I wish the song would go on forever and want to create more lyrics to sing for longer which is why the trapeze swinger by iron and wine is such a good song because it's 11 minutes long. And hey this song is 11 minutes too I'm beginning to see a pattern why aren't all songs 11 minutes long?
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The emotional connection one gets to music based on their own interpretation is just as important as what the creator put into it. As an atheist I interpret a lot of these things as him losing faith because man it would be cool if he were an atheist and we were a happily married atheist couple (And the people bowed and prayed and what difference does it make to me sounds like you're praying to nothing so it doesn't do anything except it does because placebo effect and shit). But at the same time there are all the people who are falling more and more in love with that Jesus guy when they hear this song and that's cool too, as long as Sufjan and I are still married. Which is why there is so much beauty in the second half of the song when he pulls out the I love you a lot line, because we all know how much he loves me. And amartascena said it's a god reference but I think it's cuter and lovely to say it to the person you love if love exists and you are in a monogamous relationship. Because I think it's more important to have strong emotional connections to actual people in your life because they will love you back but again this is just me and a lot of people get a lot of emotion shit out of eating praying loving god or other religious beings. Again see the part where I say this is my interpretation.
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(I see what I did there) At the same time when he talks about love it says but what difference does it make so it looks like somebody is having a little trouble finding meaning in ABSOLUTELY EVERY FUCKING THING and hey that's okay Sufjan, I'm here for you.
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Arms surround me in the lake remind me of to be alone with you because he was gonna swim across lake michigan so now he is doing that. But again remember where I interpret his songs to my own personal view of the world I think that song is about gay love because even if he is still talking about Jesus Jesus is a man and Sufjan is a man so that's homosexual love thing we've got going not to mention the millions of people who are in love with Jesus so he's probably gotten a few stds over the 2000 years since he kicked the bucket.
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7.I'm losing wind here but why isn't too much love also on the EP in place of the classic rock version of this song? That's another thing I do is sometimes there is a song or two I don't like on a cd but there are songs that should be on it so I put them on it if I burn the cd or something like I did that with the Shrek soundtrack because why are the baha men or leslie carter on that shit. But maybe that's the type of shit that is making Sufjan think the album as a concept is dying because of over-sharing on the internet but then this EP wasn't an album and you can't put two version of the same song on an album that close together and not put such an amazing song that is also new and should be on the ep not on the ep. But I wouldn't change a thing about any of his other cds.
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When I saw him last fall he didn't play super sexy woman so I was pretty bummed.
I believe that this whole song is about the internal struggles and insanity of people, and the escape from our own frightening insides, described as an apocalypse ("the hurricane that inclined us toppling on the floor", several mentions of darkness) into dreams ("our lives depended on the visions through the night"). The song is about the idiocy of humans and the simple sadness which accompanies being part of the species. The storm inside of us is growing, and the insanity is growing; the apocalypse that will bring our doom is growing inside of us, and we can do nothing but live inside our own dreams and hope that we can never return to our own heads. "and they all prayed to the neon god they had made"- this is a reference to the golden calf which the Jews made in the bible to worship while Moses retrieved the ten commandments from Mt. Sinai, but the "neon" part is a contradiction. It makes one think of neon lights, artificial lights, and the city. This contrasts with the dreamy, drugged quality of the song- envisioning harsh city lights next to "in my restless dreams I walked alone, I walked alone". These are two ideas and two human ideals that are very similar but obviously quite different as well. The lines, "And the people bowed and prayed/Oh I love you a lot, I love you from the top of my heart/And you can see through my mistakes" seem like a God reference. Although I originally thought he was talking about a woman, reading these lyrics make it seem like he is talking to God, and remembering the great human sin in the bible, and he is telling God of his sins. He is "gently laying" on God's breast, and feels safe there, like a mother and child. "Your arms surround me in the lake"- is this his death? Is this suicide? If God is the arms, then that would be the lake drowning him. Or maybe it's only in his own head. Another great line is "And what difference does it make/If the world is a mess, oh, if the world is a mess?" The world being a mess is also referenced in the fourth song of the EP: "From the Mouth of Gabriel". Maybe it makes no difference because people are individuals and should worry about themselves, and be happy with the life they have (which is the sort of vibe I get from his other songs and albums), or maybe it's a reference to death, and that we will all die and it doesn't matter anyway (which I think is more likely). "the burning basement" would be hell, and I think in the 18th line he is saying that people think they can evade hell by being popular or strong or revolutionizing their society- evading hell by networking and loopholes, like they always have done, until it comes to God. One thing I don't really understand is the chorus, the most important part: "All delighted people raise their hands". The way it is in a major key until the last note is nostalgic and almost ironic. It sounds like a bible reference but I'm actually not really familiar with the bible at all so I wouldn't know. I'm also not very religious, but I thought the God references are references that Sufjan would make. Those are just my thoughts, I'm excited to hear yours.
Okay so this is from the first page of this sites page on the sounds of silence by Paul Simon. I know it's a Simon and garfunkel song but I have a personal vendetta against garfunkel and we all know he didn't contribute to me getting to see them this summer with his whole "strained voice i'm a pussy" thing he pulled.
Okay so this is from the first page of this sites page on the sounds of silence by Paul Simon. I know it's a Simon and garfunkel song but I have a personal vendetta against garfunkel and we all know he didn't contribute to me getting to see them this summer with his whole "strained voice i'm a pussy" thing he pulled.
"The song sound of silence is a lyric that uses imagery and symbolism very heavily. The story of it is that the author has a dream about ten thousand people bowing to a god they made of neon light. The god represents the fake and shallow culture they are building on pop stars and the dollar bill. The media �talks without speaking� and the people �hear without listening� there is a cancer of silence which represents a widespred lack of meaning, in music namely. This is an extreemly well written poem and a good view on what is happening to the media. The so called artists are putting less and less art in their work.Their is mass prostitution of art happening in our culture and we all sit happily starring at the neon light and ignore the real art. I heard a good a good quote the other day i have eno idea who said it but I�ll close with it. �For the culture that tolerates shottyness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity and ignores excellence in plumbing because it is a humble activity. This is their fate. Neither their pipes nor it�s theories will hold water.� "
I forgot to copy the author so this is going uncredited but hey that's what the internet is for.
I just thought I'd start with that quote because this song is like half the sounds of silence (not an accurate figure).
Things to say.
>
Sufjan has said recently that he is becoming less focused on the act of creating and sharing music with other people because he thinks the album as a concept is dying or dead and that the internet is destroying the world. That last part isn't something he said per say but I think it's kinda true. With all the people who are now able to share their work with all other beings except the poor souls without computers there is an excess of music and art. And in our lovely music which means so much to so many of us consists of 12 notes so it's hard to create something original and so much of it sounds similar but it's easy not to notice or to willfully suspend the knowledge of this. Anyway, people have been doing it for awhile and I feel like pretty much anything you could ever possibly want to say has already been said by someone else in another song. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm 20 and I wonder if people will still be around in another 60 years when I may or not be alive still and what music will be like and if there have been any major changes and 50 year I'll make my own 27 minute song that uses this song but branches off. Haha if you actually read this there isn't much coherency. And people always tell you how to write and to be more clear but maybe this exactly how I wanted to say it and don't you ever tell me how to live my life.
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It's been about 50 years since the original song came out so that means about 50 years have passed and people are still getting emotional connections to this song and also that all the problems that were around then are still around if not worse maybe. I like that Sufjan did this so much because holy shit sometimes I love a song so much but the concept of diminishing marginal returns doesn't apply to me and I wish the song would go on forever and want to create more lyrics to sing for longer which is why the trapeze swinger by iron and wine is such a good song because it's 11 minutes long. And hey this song is 11 minutes too I'm beginning to see a pattern why aren't all songs 11 minutes long?
i>
The emotional connection one gets to music based on their own interpretation is just as important as what the creator put into it. As an atheist I interpret a lot of these things as him losing faith because man it would be cool if he were an atheist and we were a happily married atheist couple (And the people bowed and prayed and what difference does it make to me sounds like you're praying to nothing so it doesn't do anything except it does because placebo effect and shit). But at the same time there are all the people who are falling more and more in love with that Jesus guy when they hear this song and that's cool too, as long as Sufjan and I are still married. Which is why there is so much beauty in the second half of the song when he pulls out the I love you a lot line, because we all know how much he loves me. And amartascena said it's a god reference but I think it's cuter and lovely to say it to the person you love if love exists and you are in a monogamous relationship. Because I think it's more important to have strong emotional connections to actual people in your life because they will love you back but again this is just me and a lot of people get a lot of emotion shit out of eating praying loving god or other religious beings. Again see the part where I say this is my interpretation.
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(I see what I did there) At the same time when he talks about love it says but what difference does it make so it looks like somebody is having a little trouble finding meaning in ABSOLUTELY EVERY FUCKING THING and hey that's okay Sufjan, I'm here for you.
i>
Arms surround me in the lake remind me of to be alone with you because he was gonna swim across lake michigan so now he is doing that. But again remember where I interpret his songs to my own personal view of the world I think that song is about gay love because even if he is still talking about Jesus Jesus is a man and Sufjan is a man so that's homosexual love thing we've got going not to mention the millions of people who are in love with Jesus so he's probably gotten a few stds over the 2000 years since he kicked the bucket.
i>
7.I'm losing wind here but why isn't too much love also on the EP in place of the classic rock version of this song? That's another thing I do is sometimes there is a song or two I don't like on a cd but there are songs that should be on it so I put them on it if I burn the cd or something like I did that with the Shrek soundtrack because why are the baha men or leslie carter on that shit. But maybe that's the type of shit that is making Sufjan think the album as a concept is dying because of over-sharing on the internet but then this EP wasn't an album and you can't put two version of the same song on an album that close together and not put such an amazing song that is also new and should be on the ep not on the ep. But I wouldn't change a thing about any of his other cds.
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The neon God is a modern version of the Golden calf that Aaron made.
The neon God is a modern version of the Golden calf that Aaron made.