| Sufjan Stevens – Joy to the World Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Wow I can't believe anyone hasn't commented on this one before. I love the way he can take an old worn out Christmas song, and make it new again. I love his use of the electric guitar throughout the song, and if you listen to the acoustic guitar in the background, his picking is quite intricate. As a friend of mine once put it, he is our modern day Mozart. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhhh! Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I have an interesting interpretation of this song. I feel that it is connected with the three songs after it (“Let’s hear that string part again…”, “and In This Temple, As in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth”, and "The Seer's Tower) If you listen to the whole CD, the music is connected from Zombies, all the way to The Seer’s Tower. Therefore, if the music is connected, can’t the lyrics/meaning be connected? The first connection I see is between “They are Night Zombies…” and “The Seer’s Tower”. “In the powers of the earth, we wait until it rails and rails” – Seer’s “Waking the earth, it lifts and lags” –Zombies “Oh, my mother, she betrayed us, but my father loved and bathed us” – Seer’s Definition of rails: “To express objections or criticisms in bitter, harsh, or abusive language.” Definition of lags: “To arrest.” Or “To send to prison.” The first line is making the earth (world) out to be mean by saying she is bitter, harsh, and abusive. The second line, I feel, is saying that the earth (world) has judged us and found us guilty. It’s as if he is saying she (the world/judge) is lifting her gavel, and slamming it down to send us to prison. The Bible talks about following the sins of the world (we all do, we were born into it), and how, because of these sins, we are condemned to hell. But the next line gives us hope. It starts off repeating the fact that our mother (the world) has betrayed us by sending us to prison (hell), but ends with the statement that our father (Jesus) loves us. So it’s almost as if Sufjan is telling the whole Story of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins, in these three lines. The second connection I see deals with the very next lines in both of these songs. “We see a thousand rooms to rest Helping us taste the bite of death I know, I know my time has passed I'm not so young, I'm not so fast I tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot”- Zombies “Still I go to the deepest grave Where I go to sleep alone”- Seer’s Although I’m not a hundred percent sure as to the exact connection between these lines, the only thing I could find was that they both deal with death. The Third connection I see is between “They are Night Zombies…” and “Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Hear It All The Way Out in Bushnell”. We see the connection, because the string part he is talking about is taken directly from Zombies. This string part is only played once in Zombies, and the exact lyrics that are being sung, while the strings are being played are these: “I know, I know my time has passed I'm not so young, I'm not so fast I tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot” I take, that it is not the strings he actually want us to hear again, but rather what he is saying. It is as if he is saying to us, “I don’t think I said that loud enough, so let me repeat myself, so you can hear me.” As to why he wants us to hear this again, I’m not so clear on. Maybe he is talking about a fear of being forgotten by God once he dies, therefore ending up in Hell. The fourth connection I see deals again with “The Seer’s Tower”, and “They Are Night Zombies…” This one deals with the word “divide”. “Hold your tongue and don't divide us Land of God, you hold and guide us”- Zombies “He comes dividing man from brothers”- Seer’s The meaning of the first divide is: “To cause to separate into opposing factions; disunite” The meaning of the second divide is: “to separate or part from something else; sunder; cut off.” It’s as if Sufjan wants us to know the difference between the two divides. Also, the Bible talks about the tongue a lot, and how it is very powerful, and can be very evil. James 3:5-9 is one of the most notable examples of this, in the Bible. In “The Seer’s Tower” he talks about God dividing man from brother. Sufjan is essentially talking about how God separates those who love and believe in him, from those who don’t. If you look close enough, you can also see a connection between the line, “Land of God, you hold and guide us”, and the first connection I talked about. He is asking God to guide us, as opposed to us following the world. The fifth and final connection that I can see so far, deals with “They Are Night Zombies…”, “In This Temple, As in the Hearts of Man…”, and “The Seer’s Tower. This one you have to use your imagination on, but I think if you look hard enough, you can see the connection. At the end of “The Seer’s Tower”, starting at 3:38, you hear two sets of sounds. The first is a low pitched sort of moan, and the second is a high pitched angelic like singing. I feel that the low moaning sound connects to “They Are Night Zombies…”. It almost sounds as if it is the zombies (dead) moaning. On the other hand, the angelic like singing, is the same type of sound heard in the background throughout “In this Temple As in the Hearts of Man, For Whom He Saved the Earth”. To me, this is kind of like him saying that in the end you will either end up in one of two places. Heaven (angelic), or Hell (moaning), and that the only way to Heaven is to follow Christ. This is just what I got out of it; obviously I’m not stating that this is the only meaning in the songs. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Seer's Tower Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I have an interesting interpretation of this song. I feel that it is connected with the three songs before it (“They are Night Zombies!!...”, “Let’s hear that string part again…”, “and In This Temple, As in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth”) If you listen to the whole CD, the music is connected from Zombies, all the way to The Seer’s Tower. Therefore, if the music is connected, can’t the lyrics/meaning be connected? The first connection I see is between “They are Night Zombies…” and “The Seer’s Tower”. “In the powers of the earth, we wait until it rails and rails” – Seer’s “Waking the earth, it lifts and lags” –Zombies “Oh, my mother, she betrayed us, but my father loved and bathed us” – Seer’s Definition of rails: “To express objections or criticisms in bitter, harsh, or abusive language.” Definition of lags: “To arrest.” Or “To send to prison.” The first line is making the earth (world) out to be mean by saying she is bitter, harsh, and abusive. The second line, I feel, is saying that the earth (world) has judged us and found us guilty. It’s as if he is saying she (the world/judge) is lifting her gavel, and slamming it down to send us to prison. The Bible talks about following the sins of the world (we all do, we were born into it), and how, because of these sins, we are condemned to hell. But the next line gives us hope. It starts off repeating the fact that our mother (the world) has betrayed us by sending us to prison (hell), but ends with the statement that our father (Jesus) loves us. So it’s almost as if Sufjan is telling the whole Story of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins, in these three lines. The second connection I see deals with the very next lines in both of these songs. “We see a thousand rooms to rest Helping us taste the bite of death I know, I know my time has passed I'm not so young, I'm not so fast I tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot”- Zombies “Still I go to the deepest grave Where I go to sleep alone”- Seer’s Although I’m not a hundred percent sure as to the exact connection between these lines, the only thing I could find was that they both deal with death. The Third connection I see is between “They are Night Zombies…” and “Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Hear It All The Way Out in Bushnell”. We see the connection, because the string part he is talking about is taken directly from Zombies. This string part is only played once in Zombies, and the exact lyrics that are being sung, while the strings are being played are these: “I know, I know my time has passed I'm not so young, I'm not so fast I tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot” I take, that it is not the strings he actually want us to hear again, but rather what he is saying. It is as if he is saying to us, “I don’t think I said that loud enough, so let me repeat myself, so you can hear me.” As to why he wants us to hear this again, I’m not so clear on. Maybe he is talking about a fear of being forgotten by God once he dies, therefore ending up in Hell. The fourth connection I see deals again with “The Seer’s Tower”, and “They Are Night Zombies…” This one deals with the word “divide”. “Hold your tongue and don't divide us Land of God, you hold and guide us”- Zombies “He comes dividing man from brothers”- Seer’s The meaning of the first divide is: “To cause to separate into opposing factions; disunite” The meaning of the second divide is: “to separate or part from something else; sunder; cut off.” It’s as if Sufjan wants us to know the difference between the two divides. Also, the Bible talks about the tongue a lot, and how it is very powerful, and can be very evil. James 3:5-9 is one of the most notable examples of this, in the Bible. In “The Seer’s Tower” he talks about God dividing man from brother. Sufjan is essentially talking about how God separates those who love and believe in him, from those who don’t. If you look close enough, you can also see a connection between the line, “Land of God, you hold and guide us”, and the first connection I talked about. He is asking God to guide us, as opposed to us following the world. The fifth and final connection that I can see so far, deals with “They Are Night Zombies…”, “In This Temple, As in the Hearts of Man…”, and “The Seer’s Tower. This one you have to use your imagination on, but I think if you look hard enough, you can see the connection. At the end of “The Seer’s Tower”, starting at 3:38, you hear two sets of sounds. The first is a low pitched sort of moan, and the second is a high pitched angelic like singing. I feel that the low moaning sound connects to “They Are Night Zombies…”. It almost sounds as if it is the zombies (dead) moaning. On the other hand, the angelic like singing, is the same type of sound heard in the background throughout “In this Temple As in the Hearts of Man, For Whom He Saved the Earth”. To me, this is kind of like him saying that in the end you will either end up in one of two places. Heaven (angelic), or Hell (moaning), and that the only way to Heaven is to follow Christ. This is just what I got out of it; obviously I’m not stating that this is the only meaning in the songs. |
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