submissions

The Who – Rael Lyrics

11 years ago

I think it's the opposite. Yellow = "my courage has ended," meaning he's given up the fight/has been overrun and needs rescue. It seems that at the end, the captain of his ship doesn't return ('he's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again") but the singer is overrun and sends up the yellow flag (the last verse is repeating the yellow flag verse) but there's no one there to save him. Presumably he's overtaken and killed by the invaders... which may be why "Rael 2" almost seems to be about the afterlife?

submissions

Sufjan Stevens – Sister Lyrics	12 years ago
And on both songs, I wish I had a version with just the lyrical part, which I could listen to over and over again. The prolonged instrumental on either, not so much.

submissions

Sufjan Stevens – Impossible Soul Lyrics

12 years ago

Sufjan had a very liberal upbringing - his parents were swingers, and were in and out of new-age cults and the like. He grew up to find christianity, but I think it's very apparent in his songs that he has struggled with same-sex attraction and possibly been involved with men before he became religion. That certainly doesn't rule out that he is also attracted to women, which also seems very apparent from his music. You can say that his lyrics don't have to be directly related to them, but he clearly speaks on very personal themes on many other things. No one would argue that he doesn't occasionally struggle with his faith, or his upbringing, or his family and stepfamily; I think it's very obvious that large parts of that struggle come from his issues with his own sexuality and the more liberal aspects of his youth versus his attempts to stay on a more strict christian path.

submissions

Sufjan Stevens – Vesuvius Lyrics

13 years ago

The problem I see with this theory is that Sufjan is a devout Christian and I don't think we're witnessing his musical conversion. He's certainly dealt with issues of doubt over his faith, but your interpretation seems to be that he has rejected religion and come down on the side of nature entirely (not that they are mutually exclusive, but they are positioned as such in your interpretation of the song), which doesn't fit with religiously explicit songs on the same album like "Get Real Get Right."

submissions

Sufjan Stevens – Too Much Lyrics

13 years ago

I think the line "But now I'm lonely as that" should be "But now how lonely is that?" He's saying that he could have (metaphorically) read of love and life and the object(s) of his affection, but instead he took action to gain real experience and live his life. It ties into the idea of the futility of words and that one should actively control the direction of their life instead of fantasizing about poetic ideals.

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