| Sufjan Stevens – Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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There isn't much happening in Decatur. I did appreciate the city more after hearing this song, granted that was two years ago. The mall isn't even in Decatur, it's in Forsyth, and for the record it only has two empty stores. The Youth here pretty much can't wait to leave. We do have the Farm Progress show!! Like that counts for anything.... And to defame Decatur a little more here, Lincoln didn't live in Decatur, he techinally lived b/t Harristown and Niantic which is west of the city. I think he lived there one year through a bad winter and left as soon as he turned 21. "Once the clang and clamor of patriotism subsided, Sufjan's musical inquiry fell fast on the Land of Lincoln, stirred, perhaps, by sentimental recollections of his rebellious young adulthood on Clark Street in Chicago, Wrigleyville, the beachfront parks, the homeless kids with their pets, the abandoned school house, where he slept on a desk." ^ From his website at AsthmaticKitty.com |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I just love the fact that he wrote a song named 'casimir pulaski day'. Even in Illinois, where we get the day off from school, most of us don't even know who he is or that it's a holiday. I'm sure it's even more obscure in other states. I actually had someone tell me today that we got the day off because he founded the school system and that he heard that on "useless trivia"- pulling shit out his ass is more like it. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Her son, Robert, took her to court to commit her. She was known to buy hundreds of dollars worth of material which would have been used to make curtains with, but after abraham died she lived mainly in hotels until she moved in with her sister shortly before her death. After Abraham died, Tadd died, and then she lost it. She spent four (?) months in a sanitorium and afterwards disowned Robert. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother! Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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when i first listened to this song, certain lines jumped out at me. Just little things about decatur that i had forgotten. Especially the reference to the alligators... i remember thinking i've heard about that before, way back in elementary school. In response to the "I am" line comments: Decatur doesn't strike me as being an overly religous city, even in the history of it. Maybe because many decatur residents claim that the city is haunted. Once or twice i've heard it refered to as having 'more bars than churches'. Every fall 'haunted decatur' tours are available with books written of the same name. The civil war skeletons mentioned in the song have many stories about how they got to the cemetary, and that part of greenwood cemetary is known to be extremely haunted. About Sputnik22's speculation that the move to decatur had to do with God- i'm leafing through a short history of the area and it just seems that settlers moving west happened to settle along the Sangamon River and had no significance. The city itself is supposidly built on ancient indian burial grounds and during a harsh winter a group of settlers was rumored or have resorted to cannibolism. I always figured that the last lines were merely rhymes. I now doubt it, though. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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casimir pulaski day is the first monday in march, was previously stated. which year was march 1st the first monday? this year it is the 6th. i personally, don't know how old he but i'm interested how old he was when this person passed away. |
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| Elliott Smith – Strung Out Again Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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"i know my place hate my face i know how i begin and how i'll end strung out again" to me it feels like he's pondering his death. i.e. "i don't know where i'm going and i don't even wanna know" in the last part it sounds as if he's imagining that he could be in a beautiful fantasy land if he wasn't strung out, and how he's locked in. i think the two verses have other meanings but probably cynical thoughs about people and life. and the whole song sounds as if he believes he'll end up loosing to the dugs: "and how i'll end strung out again" |
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