| Sufjan Stevens – They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhhh! Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
For me this song is, in essence, about the impermanence of all things. Just look at the third and fourth lines "Logan, Grant, and Ronald Reagan In the grave with Xylophagan" Shows how great men like these are now laid low (xylophagan being a species of beetle.) He then turns much of his attention to even larger matters -how cities and civilisations can die. "Do you know the ghost community?" "I know, I know the nations past I know, I know they rust at last" -speaking here about how great civilisations can be laid just as low as the figures he talks about in the first verse. "They tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot" - I love these lines. He's talking again about how things which seemed so huge and permanent to people at the time eventualy were wiped up and forgotten. It's sort of like that Jospeh Stalin quote: "the death of one is a tragedy, the death of millions is just a statistic." In the third verse his thoughts of death peak when he things about his own death: "We see a thousand rooms to rest Helping us taste the bite of death" - here he talks about how we should be prepared for death having seen it so often, yet we never are. The places which are named in the choruses are places in Illinoise which are ghost towns. (Shawneetown being one of the more famous.) He's obviously done his research. I love how the theme of zombies ties the whole thing together. Night of the Living Dead was shot in Pennsylvania though so I'm not too sure of the reason... |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
Yes, that interview sounds pretty much like what I thought. That there doesn't seem to be a reason why some people commit murder and some don't. Which is why sufjan writes himself into the song. So yes, Beulahrawk, I do refute that the song is about religion. "no one is good enough to save himself." That may be your belief, but that's not mine. And it's certainly not what this song in question is about. +1 trisweb. I definitely agree with your statement about spirituality. I get a more rounded holistic feel-good vibe from his songs than a loony Pat Robertson vibe. "Whether you are familiar with Christian beliefs or not, realize that it isn't so easy to disprove a religion founded over 2,000 years ago with a simple statement of logic." Uh, dude, watch me. :) This is not the place to get into an arguement about god. But, for the record, I'll say that I'm a spiritual person but I don't believe a word written in the bible. Having no proof of god really fails to stand up to logic in the real world. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Vito's Ordination Song Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
Having read the commentary about the song on his site I've come to the conclusion that the religious imagery of the song is being used as a metaphor for the depth of the relationship it's possible to have with someone. (In other words he's drawing comparisons between the relationship it's possible to have with god, [or the relationship between god and jesus] and relationships it's possible to have in the here and now.) On the site he hints that the lyrics are left ambiguous so that that someone can be a best friend, a husband, a wife, a lover. Whoever. The connection is the same. In the case of this song Vito has been "ordained" in friendship. There is a deep connection between himself and sufjan. (It's interesting to note that Vito also apparently lends his vocals to the song. I thought that was nice.) |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
You see, I don't think of Sufjan as a "christian artist" at all. He's certainly not a christian musician in the traditonal sense of the term. Perhaps he's trying to broaden the boundaries of the term, but when the readers of his lyrics have to delve into obsessive compulsive levels of pedantry to find specific spiritual meaning then I rather suspect that the lyrics are, for the most part, meant to be taken at face value. Why, when he has some songs that are *overtly* about his beliefs (a few on Seven Swans spring to mind) would he bother to wrap up his thoughts in such a cloud of mystery in this instance. Surely when he put in the line "oh my god", he didnt think that anyone would take it to mean something deeper than an exclamation of disbelief -because that's what my perception of the line is. Either way, by all accounts Gacy was a deeply religious man who had it instilled in him by a puritanical mother. Hence the song has nothing to do with religion. And as for whoever said that the song references the idea that unrepented sins are equal in the eyes of the lord; it strikes me that no one who would write a song as thoughtful as this (and the other from this album) could even *consider* that his indescretions even minutely compare to the monstrosities carried out by the serial killer in question. How illogical would you have to be to even *consider* murder to be comparable with swiping stationary from the office (or whatever). There's a little phrase that goes "over thinking, over analyzing seperates the body from the mind." Some of you people seriously need to stop cluttering up your lives by reading intricate layers of meaning into everything. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Vito's Ordination Song Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
I've always thought that the relationship which he describes has definite sexual overtones to it. For me lines like: "and when you write a poem/ i know the words i know the sounds/ before you write it down only wear your clothes/ i wear them too i wear your shoes/ and your jacket too" And, "rest in my arms/ sleep in my bed" will always be associated in my mind with an intimate sexual relationship. My guess is that he's invoking a great deal of religious imagery to impart greater feeling into how he's writing about this person. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Lyrics | 20 years ago |
|
I thought that it was pretty clear why he describes Gacy as being "just like him". The majority of the time when he refers to Gacy he talks about his childhood -and its normality. He gives a few little details which underline this. To all intents and purposes there is no reason that I, nor Sufjan can work out why Gacy turned out the way he did and Sufjan did not. That's what the song is mostly about. When he says "and in my best behaviour" it's like he's transporting himself back to his childhood (no adults seriously talk about themselves as being 'on their best behaviour') for the purposes of comparing himself directly with Gacy. In this respect the song is partly about a loss of innocence and the mystery behind why similar people take different paths. It always annoys me slightly when christians try to read too much into sufjan. It's like theyre *claiming* him and every song he's ever written for god. I love the purity of his spirituality (he references faults of and doubts about his god in his lyrics.) I doubt that god enters into everything stevens does -sure his religion is an influence but I think it would be a mistake to say that his beliefs influence his songs any more than say, the town where he grew up or his childhood. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.