Celebrate The Few, Celebrate The New. It Can Only Start With You/Sufjan Stevens Illinois Tracks Nineteen to Twenty Two

Part of A Series: Route 66: Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

To View the whole series as one LONG post CLICK HERE

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track One:

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Two

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Three

John Wayne Gacy, Jr./Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Four

Jacksonville/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Five

A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane But for Very Good Reasons/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Six

Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" and Track Eight "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Seven

Chicago/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Nine

Casimir Pulaski Day/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Ten

Rock River Valley, Superman, Peoria and Drones/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Eleven to Fourteen

Wasps and Zombies/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Fifteen to Eighteen

Celebrate The Few, Celebrate The New. It Can Only Start With You/Sufjan Stevens Illinois Tracks Nineteen to Twenty Two 

Building The Tower of Babylon

Welcome back to Old Highway Notes as we continue our journey through Sufjan Stevens Illinois.  As we approach the end of the album we come upon the track the "Seers Tower". In this track Sufjan continues as themes of dissolution that that he is carried through the rest of the album. The song title is a play on words seer being a profit while at the same time the Sears Tower is one of the major tourist attractions in the city of Chicago. This is one of the most overtly religious tracks on the album. Here are the lyrics:

In the tower above the earth
There is a view that reaches far
Where we see the universe
I see the fire, I see the end

Seven miles above the earth
There is Emmanuel of mothers
With his sword, with his robe
He comes dividing man from brothers

In the tower above the earth,
We built it for Emmanuel
In the powers of the earth,
We wait until it rails and rails

In the tower above the earth,
We built it for Emmanuel
Oh, my mother, she betrayed us,
But my father loved and bathed us

Still I go to the deepest grave
Where I go to sleep alone

The title of the song is a pun relating Tower of Babylon, the original Seers Tower, and the modern Sears Tower. The Sears Tower is a tribute to commerce and material things. Again and again in the album we find Stevens showing a disdain for material progress as he has found the hollow aftermath of a post-industrial Illinois. As he says "I see fire I see the end" it can reference the biblical Book of Revelations, the Great Chicago fire,  the collapse of the Tower of Babel, or maybe just the end of the album. Again he leaves much open for personal interpretation.

Stevens continues by introducing Emmanuel as the Savior from the mother. I believe he's referring to the mother as being Babylon, whose full title was "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth" which could again be reference to the way modern man prostitutes himself for superficial material objects . In making the statement that Emmanuel will save you from Babylon, he stays consistent with the themes earlier in the album. Once again he sees redemption in the spiritual as the solution to being let down by the material world.  But he is also making a biblical reference here to the turning against the mother with a strong reference to Matthew 10:35:

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35"For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household."

This quote talks about how a generation will need to break with the traditions of the past if they wish to embrace Christianity. A parallel likely applies to the State Of Illinois as well. For it to continue as a force on the American scene it youth need to break from the industrial modernizing past. "Oh, my mother, she betrayed us, But my father loved and bathed us" is his conclusion. The worldly comforts of Babylon are temporary and fleeting while a strong spiritual base, in his case his Christian faith in the Father, is what is true and comforting. Yet in the end we all die. Sufjan Stevens, ever the cheerful fellow.

Moving on through the gleeful wonderland that is Sufjan Stevens Illinois, we arrive at what is lyrically the conclusion to the album: "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders" (Part I: The Great Frontier – Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now)" This is where Stevens reaches the conclusions he has been building towards. Musically the song harkens back to "Come On feel the Illinoise" earlier in the album. Here are the lyrics:

I count the days the Great Frontier
Forgiving, faced the seventh year
I stand in awe of gratefulness
I can and call forgetfulness

And when I, and when I call
The patient, the patient fall
The Spirit, the Carpenter
Invites us to be with her

What have we become America?
Soldiers on the Great Frontier!
Carpenter and Soldier, one on one
It's the battle, volunteer!

Run from yourself
From your friends, from ya-
Run for your life
For your friends, for ya-
America, merica, meri-
Oh Illinois, Illinois, Illi-

The prairie, the frontier
The perfect farm, it's from here
The fortress, the faker, the cornerstone, the baker
The dancer, the fisher, audition and the disher
The boxer, the fetcher
The chewing gum, dreamcatcher

I count the days the Great Frontier
Forgiving, faced the seventh year
I stand and strain to make ends meet
Five Spirits on the Grand Marquee

And when I, and when I call
The patient, the patient fall
The Spirit, the Carpenter
Invites us to be with her

There was a man at the wall
He was grateful for us all
I saw the wise woman sing
She wasn't asking anything
She wasn't asking anything
How she made the nations sing!

What have we become America?
Soldiers on the Great Frontier!

Run from yourself!
From your friends, from ya-
Run for your life!
For your friends, for ya-
America, merica, meri-
Oh Illinois, Illinois, Illi-

The mattress, the floozies
The actress at the movies
The lantern, the lotion
The wind that wakes the ocean
The Standard Edition
The architect's rendition
The fashion, the fevers
The house we got at Sears

Oh, Great Fire of Great Disaster
Oh, Great Heaven, oh, Great Master
Oh, Great Goat, the curse you gave us
Oh, Great Ghost, protect and save us
Oh, Great River, green with envy
Oh, Jane Addams, spirit send thee
Oh, Great Trumpet and the singers
Oh, Great Goodman, King of Swingers
Oh, Great Bears and Bulls, Joe Jackson
Oh, Great Illinois

Given what you lost, are you better off?
Given what you had, has it made you mad?
Celebrate the few, celebrate the new
It can only start with you

The song opens with an appeal to join the spirit, the carpenter and the soldier on the plains. Once again this can be taken literally or symbolically as spirit, carpenter, and soldier are all terms realted to Christ, yet those are also the sorts who settled the Midwest and built the state. After the inroductory appeal, the song takes the sort of list approach that he applied to various cities though the course of the album and applies it to the state. Finally, closing, he asks the questions: ":Given what you lost, are you better off? Given what you had, has it made you mad?" He doesn't answer the questions but ends in a challenge to the the listener, and the people of Illinois: "Celebrate the few, celebrate the new. It can only start with you." Perhaps my favorite line in the album.

"Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few", the next track is just a short reprise and other example of Stevens splitting a song into multiple tracks so he has a place to use a clever title.

Illinois ends with a musical post script and an opportunity for Sufjan Stevens to give us one more long title before we go: "Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run" The song itself is very reminiscent of The Black Hawk War earlier in the album, which I still maintain is a shout out to Koyaanisqaatsi as I outlined in my post on the earlier track. Still, it is an entertaining little bit of minimalism:








Thanks for joining me in my exploration of Sufjan Stevens Illinois. Its been a bit of long journey through its lyrics, but next week I plan to get started on Chicago as we start to examine the cities of Route 66 (I bet you thought I would never get there!). Don't forget to visit on Sunday as well as we continue to explore musical border curios in Tijuana, Mexico off Old Highway 101.

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Wasps and Zombies/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Fifteen to Eighteen

Part of A Series: Route 66: Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

To View the whole series as one LONG post CLICK HERE

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track One:

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Two

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Three

John Wayne Gacy, Jr./Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Four

Jacksonville/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Five

A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane But for Very Good Reasons/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Six

Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" and Track Eight "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Seven

Chicago/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Nine

Casimir Pulaski Day/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Ten

Rock River Valley, Superman, Peoria and Drones/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Eleven to Fourteen

Wasps and Zombies/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Fifteen to Eighteen

Celebrate The Few, Celebrate The New. It Can Only Start With You/Sufjan Stevens Illinois Tracks Nineteen to Twenty Two 

Predatory Wasp

As we approach the end of Sufjan Stevens Illinois, we have noticed a theme of dissolution and failed dreams. These are generally tempered by hope and redemption in some form. The next track we explore on the album, "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!" is particularly open for interpretation. It is a story told in reflection, on a cold night a wasp appears on the wall that takes the narrators memories back to an experience at summer camp in childhood. Here are the lyrics from Songmeanings.com:

Thinking outrageously, I write in cursive
I hide in my bed with the lights on the floor
Wearing three layers of coats and leg warmers
I see my own breath on the face of the door

Oh, I am not quite sleeping
Oh, I am fast in bed
There on the wall in the bedroom creeping
I see a wasp with her wings outstretched

North of Savanna we swim in the Palisades
I come out wearing my brother's red hat
There on his shoulder my best friend is bit seven times
He runs washing his face in his hands

Oh, how I meant to tease him
Oh, how I meant no harm
Touching his back with my hand, I kiss him
I see the wasp on the length of my arm

Oh great sights upon this state, hallelu–
Wonders bright, and rivers, lake, hallelu–
Trail of Tears and Horseshoe Lake, hallelu–
Trusting things beyond mistake, hallelu–

We were in love, we were in love
Palisades, Palisades
I can wait, I can wait

I can't explain the state that I'm in
The state of my heart, he was my best friend
Into the car, from the backseat
Oh, admiration in falling asleep
All of my powers, day after day
I can tell you, we swaggered and swayed
Deep in the tower, the prairies below
I can tell you, the telling gets old
Terrible sting and terrible storm
I can tell you the day we were born
My friend is gone, he ran away
I can tell you, I love him each day
Though we have sparred, wrestled and raged
I can tell you, I love him each day
Terrible sting and terrible storm
I can tell you

The song, on its surface seems to be another story of how intentions like teasing can lead to unexppected consequences. The friend is stung by the wasp, teasing ensues followed by crying followed by a kiss which causes the friend to freak out and run away. Thus we have loss, both of a potential for a loving relationship as well as for the innocence of a kiss. 

The song is full of Christian tie-ins. WASP indicates religion.  Coming out of the water could be symbolic for baptism. The friend is stung seven times. Seven is a recurring symbolic number in the Bible. The turning point in the story is a kiss. Jesus was betrayed by a kiss.

The comments on SongMeanings.com featured a lively debate. Is the narrator Judas, a female, a gay male, Sufjan or a character? Was the kiss innocent or romantic? When I look at the depth of craftsmanship to be found on this album, and I consider his themes of assumptions and disappointments, I  wonder if he could be making a meta statement to this listener, who has followed along to the point and constructed assumptions about the narrator. Perhaps he is making a statement that those assumptions could be flawed. Here's what I mean. If you had been listening with the assumption that the album was narrated by a Christian man, then the kiss becomes a gay kiss and challenges your assumptions. Or if the kiss was made by a woman, then perhaps you have been wrong in assuming the narrator of the album was a man. I'm not sure if I am explaining the notion clearly or whether it is a flawed assumption in itself. As I said when I started exploring this album, many of these songs will require aging and repeated listens to really understand, this seems to be one of them.

Chicago Zombies

After such a personal sound Stevens pulls back yet again for a song that is about the state, "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!". The theme of loss continues as the song is largely a list of things that have faded from glory or passed away. Illinois connections abound and many once prosperous cities have succombed to the industrial decay that has hit the midwest so hard. Stevens personifies these cities as zombies, rising from the dead, To be sustained by the Land of God, which is what he is calling Illinois, in contrast to its more common name Land Of Lincoln. The Land of God is the afterlife, which zombies will never reach.  That would leave these once prosperous towns holding on, but never really dieing at the same time never really living. Yet they are part of the whole, "Hold your tongue and don't divide us." The Land of God emerges as a benediction and a prayer for the state and it "zombies".

Songmeaning.com for lyrics:

I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Ring the bell and call or write us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Can you call the Captain Clitus?
Logan, Grant, and Ronald Reagan
In the grave with Xylophagan
Do you know the ghost community?
Sound the horn, address the city

(Who will save it? Dedicate it?
Who will praise it? Commemorate it for you?)

We are awakened with the axe
Night of the Living Dead at last
They have begun to shake the dirt
Wiping their shoulders from the earth
I know, I know the nations past
I know, I know they rust at last
They tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot

I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Ring the bell and call or write us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Can you call the Captain Clitus?
B-U-D-A! Caledonia!
S-E-C-O-R! Magnolia!
B-I-R-D-S! And Kankakee!
Evansville and Parker City

Speaking their names, they shake the flag
Waking the earth, it lifts and lags
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

I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Ring the bell and call or write us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Can you call the Captain Clitus?
Comer and Potato Peelers!
G-R-E-E-N Ridge! Reeders
M-C-V-E-Y! And Horace!
E-N-O-S! Start the chorus

Corn and farms and tombs in Lemmon
Sailor Springs and all things feminine
Centerville and Old Metropolis
Shawneetown, you trade and topple us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Hold your tongue and don't divide us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Land of God, you hold and guide us

To reinforce his benediction, the song ends with Two reprises of sorts that he has given their own titles to. The first is a shout out to a large annual Christian Music festival that is held annually in Bushnell,  Illinois: "Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell".

 

Lincoln Memorial

The second reprise is "In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth" which is a play on words engraved on the Lincoln Memorial:

IN THIS TEMPLE, AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION, THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER.

In changing the quote he, of course, continues his benediction. He's clever though. Illinois being the land of Lincoln. Lincoln was assassinated. Thus he also an example of the lost hopes that echo again and again though out the album. I can see why the critics loved this album so much. There is plenty to chew on.





We are approaching the album's conclusion, only another week or two more of Sufjan Stevens before we begin to what will likely be a long visit to Chicago. Join us next Saturday for a bit more Illinois as we ever so slowly move onto Route 66. And stop by on Sunday as we continue our Tijuana junket off old Highway 101.

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Rock River Valley, Superman, Peoria and Drones/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Eleven to Fourteen

Part of A Series: Route 66: Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

To View the whole series as one LONG post CLICK HERE

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track One:

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Two

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Three

John Wayne Gacy, Jr./Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Four

Jacksonville/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Five

A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane But for Very Good Reasons/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Six

Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" and Track Eight "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Seven

Chicago/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Nine

Casimir Pulaski Day/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Ten

Rock River Valley, Superman, Peoria and Drones/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Eleven to Fourteen

Wasps and Zombies/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Fifteen to Eighteen

Celebrate The Few, Celebrate The New. It Can Only Start With You/Sufjan Stevens Illinois Tracks Nineteen to Twenty Two 

Man Of Steel, Who Will Steal Our Hearts

Hello and welcome back to our tour of Illinois via the album of the same name by Sufjan Stevens. The eleventh track of the album is called  To The Workers of The Rock River Valley Region, I have an idea concerning your predicament, and it involves an inner tube, bath mats, and 21 able-bodied men. A short instrumental piece, it has very little to further discuss. The song doesn't explain the predicament or make any sense in the solution. The best guess I can find from poking around online is that the region has been hit hard by declines in manufacturing and has a lot of poverty as a result. What the solution is being offered has to do with that, I couldn't tell you. This image from Wikipedia shows the region:

Rock River Region

It is a peasant enough little scrap of music. Here is your YouTube clip and download link to follow:

Picking up some steam, we come upon one another pretty song: The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts. In a lot of ways it is a love song. There is a bit of a sense of loss at play on this song as on so much of the album. In my opinion, he is saying in his oblique way that heartbreak in his youth over failed summer romances and lost loves have made him a harder man, a man of steel. But he is still a man.  He still has needs and he wants love despite the chance of pain. Here are the lyrics:

Trouble falls in my home
Troubled man, troubled stone
Turn a mountain of lies
Turn a card for my life
Man of Steel, Man of Heart
Tame our ways, if we start
To devise something more
Something halfways

Only a steel man came to recover
If he had run from gold, carry over
We celebrate our sense of each other
We have a lot to give one another

I took a bus to the lake
Saw the monument face
Yellow tides, golden eyes
Red and white, red and wise
Raise the flag, summer home
Parted hair, part unknown
If I knew what I read
I'll send it half ways

Only a real man can be a lover
If he had hands to lend us all over
We celebrate our sense of each other
We have a lot to give one another

Took my bags, Illinois
Dreamt the lake took my boy
Man of Steel, Man of Heart
Turn your ear to my part
There are things you have said
Raise the boat, and raise the dead
If you take us away
Still can we say:

Only a steel man can be a lover
If he had hands to tremble all over
We celebrate our sense of each other
We have a lot to give one another

My research on fan sites is that some fans find this song to be a song about Jesus. I think that is a stretch and not worth further analysis by me, but I felt it was worth mentioning in the interests of completeness.Here is an appearance by Sufjan Stevens on the always wonderful KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. Your easy Amazon download link follows.

Moving on we arrive at the track Prairie Fire That Wanders About. This is a call out to Peoria Illinois. Like a few of the other tracks that were call outs on this album, this song is mostly a list of local references to Peoria. Of course, he HAD to acknowledge the phrase "will in play in Peoria". Honestly though, I have no idea What Stevens is talking about at the beginning of the song. Maybe as you read the lyrics it will make some sense to you:

Peoria! Destroyia!
Infinity! Divinity!

For Lydia! Octavia!
And Jack-of-Trades!
The Cubs! Hooray!

The Opera House
Where Emma sang!
America! Oh will it play?

And Santa Clause!
The Great Parade!
Peoria!
You have it made!

Into the crossfire
Faithfully run
Middle America
One on one
Peoria!
We saddle the fun times

 

We close out this week with what is really just an outro to Prairie Fire That Wanders About. Sufjan Stevens does give it its own title: A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze. Truth in advertising here. It is a collection of droning sounds. As far as the Great Godfrey Maze, that is apparently a large corn maze that happens in the town of Godfrey in Southern Illinois near St. Louis. It must have blown Sufjan Stevens mind. With no lyrics to post we take you straight to video and the download

Well, that about does it for this week. As always I thank you for riding along on this voyage into Sufjan Stevens Illinois. Soon we will wrap this up and start looking at the city the highway starts in Chicago, That should be a rich treasure trove of musical lore so stay with us, Join us tomorrow as we continue our alternate trip and return to Tijuana Mexico for some Mexican Electronica and Hip Hop. Until then...Happy Trails!

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 0 Miles/1 State/549 Tracks/98 Videos/24 Posts
Highway 101: 13 Miles/1 State/459 Tracks/156 Videos/17 Posts
Interstate 95: 77 Miles/1 State/11 Tracks/40 Videos/6 Posts

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Casimir Pulaski Day/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Ten

Part of A Series: Route 66: Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

To View the whole series as one LONG post CLICK HERE

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track One:

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Two

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Three

John Wayne Gacy, Jr./Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Four

Jacksonville/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Five

A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane But for Very Good Reasons/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Six

Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" and Track Eight "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Seven

Chicago/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Nine

Casimir Pulaski Day/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Ten

Rock River Valley, Superman, Peoria and Drones/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Eleven to Fourteen

Wasps and Zombies/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Fifteen to Eighteen

Celebrate The Few, Celebrate The New. It Can Only Start With You/Sufjan Stevens Illinois Tracks Nineteen to Twenty Two 

Sufjan Stevens via Wikipedia

Continuing onward with our mission of exploring Illinois through the eyes of Sufjan Stevens, we reach track ten, "Casimir Pulaski Day". What is that? I didn't know so I turned to my old research buddy, Wikipedia where I found:

Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday reserved in Illinois on the first Monday of every March in memory of Casimir Pulaski (March 6, 1745^[1] – October 11, 1779), a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland as Kazimierz Pułaski. He is known for his contributions to the U.S. military in the American Revolution by training its soldiers and cavalry.
The day is celebrated mainly in areas that have large Polish populations, such as Chicago.

The fact that it is a state holiday certainly makes it a candidate for an Illinois album track. Being a Sufjan Stevens song it is really just a loose reference point to build a story around. And being the Illinois album, you have to expect it will be a song of loss and disappointment.

The song is the story of a losing a childhood lover to cancer. There was an attraction in their youth but it moved too far too fast and she ran away. Later they seem to be reconnecting, but it is only because she is dying and ultimately he will lose her again. It is one of the most overtly religious tracks with the narrator confronting and challenging his god at the close of the song. Here are the lyrics from songmeanings.com:

Goldenrod and the 4H stone
The things I brought you when I found out
You had cancer of the bone

Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car into the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry

In the morning, through the window shade
When the light pressed up against your shoulderblade
I could see what you were reading

All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications you could do without
When I kissed you on the mouth

Tuesday night at the Bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens

I remember at Michael's house
In the living room when you kissed my neck
And I almost touched your blouse

In the morning at the top of the stairs
When your father found out what we did that night
And you told me you were scared

All the glory when you ran outside
With your shirt tucked in and your shoes untied
And you told me not to follow you

Sunday night when I cleaned the house
I find the card where you wrote it out
With the pictures of your mother

On the floor at the great divide
With my shirt tucked in and my shoes untied
I am crying in the bathroom

In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window

In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March, on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing

All the glory that the Lord has made
And the complications when I see His face
In the morning in the window

All the glory when He took our place
But He took my shoulders and He shook my face
And He takes and He takes and He takes

As the narrator reacts to the death of the friend. He snaps and challenges his god. Or as Stevens puts it:"the cardinal hits the window". I had to research that expression but it refers to the spring when cardinals are nest building, if the catch the sight of their reflection in a window they will consider it a competitor and will try to attack it. So our narrator attacks himself, both by questioning his faith as well as his luck at having lost love once finding himself losing it again. "And He takes and He takes and He takes". Like Christ on the cross the narrator seems to be saying "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." So sad.

Here is your fan video of the song, with a download link to follow:

Thanks, as always for joining me on this leg of my voyage into route 66 though music. I hope you have found it to be interesting and enlightening. Come back tomorrow as we rejoin our Highway 101 adventure in Tijuana Mexico.

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Chicago/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Nine

Part of A Series: Route 66: Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

To View the whole series as one LONG post CLICK HERE

Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track One:

The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, 'I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Two

Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Three

John Wayne Gacy, Jr./Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Four

Jacksonville/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Five

A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane But for Very Good Reasons/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Six

Decatur, or Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!" and Track Eight "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' for the Pullman/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Seven

Chicago/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Nine

Casimir Pulaski Day/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Track Ten

Rock River Valley, Superman, Peoria and Drones/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Eleven to Fourteen

Wasps and Zombies/Sufjan Stevens: Illinois Tracks Fifteen to Eighteen

Celebrate The Few, Celebrate The New. It Can Only Start With You/Sufjan Stevens Illinois Tracks Nineteen to Twenty Two 

(Wikimedia Commons)

This was the big hit of the album Illinois. It went to number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart when the album was released. It also gained a lot of exposure due to it being used for the opening segment of the film Little Miss Sunshine. The song is a semi auto-biographical story of a few road trips made be Steven as an up and coming musician. It talks about experiences and hard times traveling to both Chicago and New York. Being a song from the Illinois album that actually is about a road trip it is particularly suited for coverage in this blog.Here are the lyrics from SongMeanings.Com:

I fell in love again
All things go, all things go
Drove to Chicago
All things know, all things know

We sold our clothes to the state
I don't mind, I don't mind
I made a lot of mistakes
In my mind, in my mind

You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow

We had our mindset
All things know, all things know
You had to find it
All things go, all things go

I drove to New York
In the van, with my friend
We slept in parking lots
I don't mind, I don't mind

I was in love with the place
In my mind, in my mind
I made a lot of mistakes
In my mind, in my mind

You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow

We had our mindset
All things know, all things know
You had to find it
All things go, all things go

If I was crying
In the van, with my friend
It was for freedom
From myself and from the land

I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes

You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow

We had our mindset
All things know, all things know
You had to find it
All things go, all things go

you came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow

We had our mindset
(I made a lot of mistakes)
All things know, all things know
(I made a lot of mistakes)

You had to find it
(I made a lot of mistakes)
All things go, all things go
(I made a lot of mistakes)

In the fan conversations I read when researching this post a lot is made of the  2nd verse:

We sold our clothes to the state
I don't mind, I don't mind
I made a lot of mistakes
In my mind, in my mind

What is meant by we sold our clothes to the state? Many folks take it as an expression of hitting rock bottom. And they are right. There is a certain amount of his fan base who think that this is a reference to Jesus's quote: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." While this is an interesting analysis, I think he is being more literal. 

For me the song continues the themes of unattained dreams that he explores in so many of the other tracks. For someone who wrote a whole album about Illinois I am starting to feel the state has offered the narrator nothing but unattained dreams. But we continue onward. 

I can certainly see the biblical allusions he is making throughout this album. I like that he is subtle about his testifying, leaving options for secular interpretation as well. If there is a biblical reference to be found in this song, rather than the quote about Caesar, it would be to the story of the prodigal son. Who, upon leaving and exploring the world finds that true riches aren't worldly possessions. That's not a literal translation of the parable, but I consider that the motivation for the son returning home in the timeless story.

In traveling to Chicago and then New York, Sufjan is quoted as having said that this was loosely based semi-autobiographically on a few trips he made trying to establish himself as a professional musician. These trips that caused a great change in the narrators world view.The narrator sums it in up in what I think may be the best verse in the song. The music stops as if to emphasize the abrupt change about to occur. Then in acapella verse Stevens sings:

If I was crying
In the van, with my friend
It was for freedom
From myself and from the land

He is held by his own mistakes. The land won't give him escape, yet he tries to make that happen. When he says you came to take us, he experiences a cathartic moment. Like being born again, or when Tommy shatters the mirror in the famous rock opera. That moments allows him to let go of those attachments and obsessions and to finally be truly free. I guess that would be the first line of the song: I fell in love again.

Or something like that. 

Anyway, here is a fan video of the tune for you to enjoy as well as a link to download the track from amazon on mp3.

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If you like what you have read here I'd like to ask you a favor. If you purchase any item on Amazon after you link to them in the Amazon banner below, I will get a little something from them. It doesn't cost you any extra and I cannot see what you have purchased.
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