His father was a drinker and his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's t-shirts when the swing set hit his head
The neighbors, they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things, rotting fast, in their sleep
Oh the dead
Twenty-seven people
Even more, they were boys, with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God
Ooh, are you one of them?
He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a slight of his hand, running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips, quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floor boards
For the secrets I have hid
Folding John Wayne's t-shirts when the swing set hit his head
The neighbors, they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things, rotting fast, in their sleep
Oh the dead
Twenty-seven people
Even more, they were boys, with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God
Ooh, are you one of them?
He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a slight of his hand, running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips, quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floor boards
For the secrets I have hid
Lyrics submitted by attractivecousin
John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Lyrics as written by Sufjan Stevens
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
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Even though I believe Sufjan Steven's prominent religious themes are discussed too heavily when it comes to discussing the meanings of his songs, ultimately I think Stevens is asking here "what constitutes a sin?" If 'sinners' go to hell, and every human is inclined to hurt someone and commit sin at some point in their life, doesn't that mean we're all going to hell? Are we really forgiveable for the sins we commit? Is murder really 'the ultimate sin', or is Stevens as guilty as Gacy for having sinned against others for his own sake?
People always end up regreting and questioning the bad things they do, as if they didn't really mean it and it was beyond their control. But what control did Gacy have over his troubled childhood, his indifferent father, or even his urge to kill and molest those boys? Could John Wayne Gacy's murderous tendancies be credited to the sins of other human beings? And did he deserve to become the troubled man that he became? Stevens is trying to say that nobody has the right to classify him as a 'monster', because ultimately he was just as much a human being as anybody else, a human distorted by the inevitable evil of the human condition.
Any one of us could have turned out like Gacy. His murders just go to show that human species is truly capable of evil, because we don't have control over how we are raised. We have all done things that we never thought we were capable of, and although we may want to deny it, we are all in some way like John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
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.
Romans 7 says "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing."
I know this is true because I see it played out in my own life everyday. We all have the capacity to do terrible evil things. Unfortunately that's just where our hearts are. take motives for example. I may think that my intentions are good but in my heart I'm really doing certain things for selfish gain. Sufjan (and yes he might be referring to the innocence of childhood, I'm not an expert) could be referring to the fact that we all have the capacity, like Gacy, to do terrible things. "look beneath the floor boards" refers to our hearts. check your hearts. there is evil in there that might not appear on the surface.
LOL.
I didn't really think of Sufjan as religious until I went online and read some of these comments.
That's probably just because I'm an atheist and Jesus isn't really ever on my mind.
It is one of the most beautiful songs that I have ever heard and it is about a serial killer. Sufjan is a true artist.
You see, the government judges us to protect others, so the more people you hurt, and the more you hurt them, the more of a crime you commit.
However, God judges purely our soul. He's not an idiot, so if you had a terrible childhood, He'll hold you less accountable than someone who's been raised well. Be grateful, dagsman - I'm assuming you won't be held as accountable for calling Him a "fucking asshole" as I would be :)
Whether we are murderers or small-time crooks, we are guilty before an omnipotent and infinitely holy God.
I'm not a Christian (at all) but I will be the first one to declare that non-Christians are so often just plain arrogant. Christians have at least begun to understand humanity's nature and state in the universe.
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.
Basically saying that this man was just a hurt child, much like his victims, and each of us has more in common than we think with both the killer and the killed.
We are all of us damaged and timid, wearing painted masks, running from something, running from everything. It's about fear.