This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my days
In backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints
While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day
I'm inside a still life with the other absentee
While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days
In the garden-grey pallor of lines across your face
While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made
I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints
Oh, my man my absentee
I'd do anything to please you
Come my love the stage is waiting
Be the one to save my saving grace
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my grace
On rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage
While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made
Through storms of red roses we've exited the stage
In backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints
While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day
I'm inside a still life with the other absentee
While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days
In the garden-grey pallor of lines across your face
While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made
I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints
Oh, my man my absentee
I'd do anything to please you
Come my love the stage is waiting
Be the one to save my saving grace
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my grace
On rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage
While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made
Through storms of red roses we've exited the stage
Lyrics submitted by mistercrinkles
Jesus Saves, I Spend Lyrics as written by Anne Erin Clark
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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i honestly have no idea why everyone is ripping on sufjan stevens. he has absolutely NOTHING to do with his song. why would this song be criticizing sufjan if she goes on tour with him and has, at multiple times, expressed admiration towards him?
to those that feel this is a criticism of sufjan: there is absolutely nothing to support your view.
i've read several interviews, and annie has expressed nothing but admiration for sufjan as a musician and a person. there's an interview with the onion av club which touches (briefly) on the religious imagery in her music.
"The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it."
-Saint Vincent de Paul (b. 1581 - d. 1660)
Annie has a lot of respect for Sufjan, so I doubt this is a direct reference to him.
Recent Reddit AMA:
"Will you ever collaborate with Sufjan again? Cheers for the music, the new album's great. [–]St_Vincent Annie Clark[S] 221 points 1 month ago i love sufjan's music. i played in his band for a couple of tours on "come on feel the illinois(e)?" -- it would give me too much credit to say i "collaborated" with him. he's a beautiful musician."
2009 interview with Flavorwire:<br /> <br /> "FP: You call yourself St. Vincent and toured with Sufjan. Sufjan’s known to include some religious subject matter in his work. Do you ever incorporate religion as a theme?<br /> <br /> AC: Hmmm. The name is actually a family name. It’s more honoring where you come from. I’m actually really interested in the human condition. I think in this culture, with the mythology we have to draw on, everybody knows their religious story. Whether they’re religious or not, they’re aware. So in terms of religious references, I tend to draw on religious mythology because it’s so ubiquitous. I’m definitely interested [in religion] in an intellectual sense.<br /> <br /> FP: Yeah. With your first record, there’s the reference to “Jesus saves, you spend,” etc.<br /> <br /> AC: Yeah, I just thought of that as silly wordplay. It’s a little bit of a light poking fun. I didn’t mean a whole lot more by it except for silly wordplay. But I don’t think that anyone misinterprets or really even interprets the way the artist intended for it to be. Which is wonderful, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.<br /> <br /> FP: That’s fair. How do you feel toward listeners who might end up misinterpreting what was meant to be religious? Sufjan is a great example.<br /> <br /> AC: Y’know, I don’t think there’s any big ideological conflict. You can enjoy things on a lot of levels If you are a person who is religious and want to imbue the music with that kind of lens, then you’ll filter it through that lens and have one kind of experience. If you’re not, and you think “oh! This is some really beautiful music, and I like it” then you’ll get that kind of experience. I don’t think anyone is in danger of any kind of ideological brain shift. I mean, with shows, with the Polyphonic Spree certainly brings up this religious imagery with the gospel robes, but people have been wearing costumes in rock n’ roll for a long time. [Laughs] It’s just performance art."
This is what this song means to me...
Summary of Song: A description of her journey and movement from background to foreground on the stage and what it took for her to get there.
[in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints] Certain lyrics seem to describe this artists previous experience in the background. If I'm correct she did a lot of work in groups of people but didn't do much solo work.
[While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days/grace] Perhaps this is a reference to how much work she had to put into marketing herself for this adventure. I think the spending all my grace line is in reference to how much of a toll she may feel her friend s and family take on so that she can create an album and find her own sound.
[Come my love the stage is waiting/on rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage/etc.] Perhaps anticipation of getting to share her music and thoughts with other people? It sounds to me like she's looking forward to it and she hopes it goes well (which it is).
That would just be my take on it. I might be completely wrong.
I love this song and this entire album. I got to see her perform live as an opening act for Arcade Fire when they played Vancouver's Deer Lake Park in May! She rocks!
to me, this song seems to be a criticism of sufjan stevens and his religious zealotry, and how awkward it feels to be a secular backup singer for an extremely pro-christ musician who's reached superstardom:
"I'm spending all my days in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints"
perhaps the following lyrics suggest that sufjan is not as innocent and christ-like as he'd have the public believe:
"While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made" "While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made"
this is, naturally and of course, speculation from the point of view of a morally bankrupt christ-hater.
thelifejurassic said:<br /> 08-30-2007<br /> "to me, this song seems to be a criticism of sufjan stevens and his religious zealotry, and how awkward it feels to be a secular backup singer for an extremely pro-christ musician who's reached superstardom"<br /> <br /> I have to disagree with you, BUT i do understand where your coming from. If Sufjan Stevens and St. Vincent, were to create some sort of play or script with eachother in it. I could see Sufjan Stevens playing Jesus, and St. Vincent or (Annie Clark) playing Satan. Remeber its just for pretend, its a play. But Seeing the relation both have to god, this would be a very entertaining play to see. <br /> <br /> I made this assuption because of her many other songs, and myself being a fan of both her and sufjan's music. I also see Sufjan as using his real name or (True Self) in his band/music, and St Vincent uses her (False Self) a made up egotistical name.
Considering thelifejurassic seems to know more about the musician and her past experiences... I'd go with that one. =)
Doesn't it seem a little unfair to base expertise in interpretation of art on knowledge of the life of the artist? It's not to say that personal experience doesn't factor into art or that it's not something that should be considered, but it's hardly the only thing.<br /> <br /> Anyways. The first thing I thought of when I considered "the other absentee" of Christmas was Satan, which... might be a little obvious, considering, you know, the title and all that jazz, but then she's also "scultpting saints" (which... how would people become saints without something to preach against or others to martyr them for it?).<br /> <br /> You could argue that the garden (with the gray pallor) is a reference to Adam and Eve's fallen paradise. And along the lines of color symbolism, the first stanza doesn't mention any (although everything's portrayed as divinely good rather than bad), the next mentions gray (purgatory? And she's "sitting and scultping"-- she's not as inactive as in the first stanza where it's a still life, but she's still definitely not doing much, which is within the concept of purgatory, yes?), and the final stanza has lots and lots of red (Hell, if I needed to tell you. She's finally both involved and active here, too).<br /> <br /> I can't say that I'm sure what I think this means, but... I grew up Catholic and have taken any number of lit courses; it's in my blood to point out religious references, alright? Haha. Anyways... it does seem to be tracing her from being in the background in something divine, to just being present in something neutral (I guess regular people could be said to create saints, too, with their wickenesses and potential to be saved and tendencies to persecution), to finally being front and center in something entirely removed from grace but adored (even though by now she's a bit disparaging of it-- it's not a grand finale but "a mess we've made"). Then they exit the stage. Which would be dying. All in a metaphor for life or showbiz, where as soon as you've "made it" you're disenchanted with the whole thing and just leave?<br /> <br /> I dunno. It seems too obvious... but I definitely don't see how the Sufjan connection is anything but an association-based leap.
thelifejurassic most likely hates Christ because many Christians give Christ a bad name. Don't hate Christ for the mistakes of the Christians. Read the New Testament, maybe you'll see that he was actually pretty decent.
Anyway, why would she tour with Sufjan if she didn't at least support him in his beliefs? Obviously the actual meaning behind the music is what draws musicians together.
Maybe it's supposed to be the kind of opposing view? Like this is what people think that see bands like Surfjan Stevens and go, "What the hell, shouldn't they be missionary-ing or something, why are they making a bunch of money for music?"
Don't you think it could be about all the robes-and-choirish music of The Polyphonic Spree, of whom she was also a member? Or maybe it's just a testament to the power of love versus the power of religion, or the possibility of combining the two? Just thoughts, I dunno.