All the time we spent in bed
Counting miles before we set
Fall in love and fall apart
Things will end before they start
Sleeping on Lake Michigan
Factories and marching bands
Lose our clothes in summertime
Lose ourselves to lose our minds
In the summer heat, I might
Counting miles before we set
Fall in love and fall apart
Things will end before they start
Sleeping on Lake Michigan
Factories and marching bands
Lose our clothes in summertime
Lose ourselves to lose our minds
In the summer heat, I might
Lyrics submitted by avuncular
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This was the summer it got so hot we put a fan in each window. At night we teamed up with the Palestinian students and stole tulips from Centennial Park. We used them as garnishes: we arranged bouquets on table ends and desktops.
We burned a wicker chair on the beach at night. We cooked steaks and pork chops on sticks over the fire. We went skinny-dipping. We huddled under the towels. We told stories about our fathers, about our first kiss, about that one uncle who was always drunk at family reunions.
We bought guitars and accordions and played them under blankets in the park. We tried to follow the Dutch dancers. We mowed lawns and stole flags from construction sites and kissed on the lips at the drinking fountain. We drank Boone’s Sangria and cried and cried and cried on the couch.
We sewed shirts for our friends, with decorative borders made from ribbons, with zippers, with billowing collars, with floral patterns. Nothing fit right. We went around shirtless, even the skinny ones, even the fat ones, even the ones with terrific arms and shoulders.
We took our time talking things out; we listened carefully, with a serious look. We prayed. We read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. We tried very hard to understand this.
We went to a church that was in English and Spanish. We tried very hard to understand this.
We made omelets on the weekends. We whittled wood. We knitted hats. We smoked cigarettes. We gave each other gifts. Elaborate, handmade, complicated passive aggressive gifts.
We were afraid to be left behind. We were afraid to be loved. We were afraid this would come to an end, as all things do. We sat on the couch and cried and cried and cried.
Structurally, it's pretty neat; all the verses have seven syllables, and he makes good use of slant rhymes. The sort of thing one might write for (or study in) a college poetry class, in fact.
anyway, i am in love with this song. i never relate to songs - i just listen to them. but this one is different because it's like hope college and the summertime in holland bottled up into three and a half minutes of happiness, and i can completely relate. rollerblading to lake michigan at 3 in the morning and just sitting on the beach, freezing but so happy. smelling the pickle factory in the morning. walking to the civic center for nykerk rehearsals. the whole old-time clasic feel of the town. he nailed it.
i work at hope's radio station, and one time we were talking about sufjan, and somebody told this story about him. apparently he took a nerf gun to class on his professors birthday and shot his professor with it. and sufjan said i bet you've never been assasinated on your birthday. and then he just sat down. what a guy.