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Sufjan Stevens - What song touched you most?
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15-06-2010 9:10pm#1For me it has to be Romulus
To me it is a biographic song of Sufjan growing up as a kid,
when he was roughly five his mother left to live with a new man and left him and his brother to live with their grandfather.
The song progresses as he as a kid grows up, the initial verse recalls a time when his mother called the house and the phone was passed around, when it came to his turn to talk to her he was ashamed to talk to her, perhaps he felt like it was his fault somehow for her leaving him, and he felt unworthy or undeserving of contact with her, and frustration of the awkwardness of not knowing what to say to her due to his lack of familiarity with her
He then describes a time that she visited perhaps as his grandfather was beginning to get sick, the moment that stuck out for him was simply touching her hair, his mother was with him and all he yearned for was that closeness that every child deserves
The line "We watched it all night, but grew up in spite of it"
is to me the most poignant of all, describing the VCR that his grand-father bouth them as a distraction or escape from their pain, which they embraced for hours on end yet still they grew up and felt a hollowness inside. The VCR was no replacement for the parental love they craved.
When he retells his grandfather's death in a far awal lonely hospital robe and the lack of empathy shown by his mother he captures this again through her hair. "She smoked in her room and coloured his hair" Her hair that once made him feel so close to her was now changed reflecting his sorrow and horror in the new light he was beginning to see her in.
He no longer was ashamed to talk to her on the phone but ashamed of her as a person. the way he almost whispers the words 'of her' is incredibly powerful here
I don't know what it is about this sad sad song that I like so much but there is an uplifting quality to how he no longer allows his mother to ring out shame in him but can see past her for what she is and is ready to move on with out her. The title Romulus brings throwbacks to the brothers Romulus and Remulus who too were left abandoned but grow on to found the great city of Rome, and is also the name of an airport town in Michigan, the state to which the whole album is based
What are your thoughts on this or other Sufjan songs?
Lyrics
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Once when our mother called,
She had a voice of last year's cough.
We passed around the phone,
Sharing a word about Oregon.
When my turn came, I was ashamed.
When my turn came, I was ashamed.
Once when we moved away,
She came to Romulus for a day.
Her Chevrolet broke down.
We prayed it'd never be fixed or found.
We touched her hair, we touched her hair.
We touched her hair, we touched her hair.
When she had her last child, Once when she had some boyfriends, some wild.
She moved away quite far.
Our grandpa bought us a new VCR.
We watched it all night, but grew up in spite of it.
We watched it all night, but grew up in spite of it.
We saw her once last fall.
Our grandpa died in a hospital gown.
She didn't seem to care.
She smoked in her room and colored her hair.
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her
I was ashamed, I was ashamed of her0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7oTRJU2120Comments
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the harmonies in the verses are great, seriously if they were the last harmonies i heard before i died i'd be a happy man.
especially when he sings "But Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator" - sublime.0 -
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I know its a bit easy but Casmir Pulaski Day is special IMO.
He's a rare genius
+1
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Happy to see Majestic Snowboard included on recent setlists. Hopefully a full studio version will appear sometime. Cracking song.
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Creamy Goodness wrote: »
the harmonies in the verses are great, seriously if they were the last harmonies i heard before i died i'd be a happy man.
especially when he sings "But Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator" - sublime.
I love it when it stops ... its just a second .... you think its finished and then all the harmonies kick in again ... beautiful
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Seven Swans leading into The Transfiguration.
Perfect.
And I'm a militant atheist.
For an atheist Seven Swans is a guilty pleasure - the closest you'll come to being nostalgic for religion. That said, he wasn't brought up in a religious environment, so there's the zeal of the convert to take into account. Low-fi perfection to boot.0 -
I absolutely adore "The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" The way the final 90 seconds fuses together all the different motifs heard previously in the song is bloody fantastic.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwVclzYzJxg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxiWj4Af6II
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