Sufjan Stevens Album

When the revenant came down
We couldn't imagine what it was
In the spirit of three stars
The alien thing that took its form
Then to Lebanon, oh God
The flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow
Oh, history involved itself
Mysterious shade that took its form
Or what it was, incarnation, three stars

[No lyrics]

Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition

Oh great intentions
I've got the best of interventions
But when the ads come
I think about it now

In my infliction
Entrepreneurial conditions
Take us to glory
I think about it now

Cannot conversations cull United Nations?
If you got the patience, celebrate the ancients

Cannot all creation call it celebration?
Or united nation. Put it to your head.

Oh great White City
I've got the adequate committee
Where have your walls gone
I think about it now

Chicago, in fashion, the soft drinks,
expansion, oh Columbia!
From Paris, incentive,
like Cream of Wheat invented, the Ferris Wheel!

Oh great intentions
Covenant with the Imitation
Have you no conscience
I think about it now

Oh God of Progress
Have you degraded or forgot us?
Where have your walls gone
I think about it now

Ancient hieroglyphic, or the South Pacific
Typically terrific, busy and prolific

Classical devotion, architect promotion
Lacking an emotion. Think it about it now.

Chicago, the New Age,
but what would Frank Lloyd Wright say?
Oh Columbia!
Amusement, or treasure,
these optimistic pleasures,
like the Ferris Wheel!

Cannot conversations cull United Nations?
If you got the patience, celebrate the ancients
C o l u m b i a !

Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream

I cried myself to sleep last night
And the ghost of Carl, he approached my window
I was hypnotized; I was asked to improvise
On the attitude, the regret of a thousand centuries of death

Even with the heart of terror and the superstitious wearer
I am writing all alone, I am writing all alone

Even in my best condition, counting all the superstition
I am riding all alone, I am running all alone

And we laughed the beatitudes of a thousand lines
We were asked, at the attitudes, they reminded us of death

Even with the rest belated, everything is antiquated
Are you writing from the heart?
Are you writing from the heart?

Even in his heart the Devil has to know to the water level
Are you writing from the heart?
Are you writing from the heart?

And I cried myself to sleep last night
For the earth, and materials, they may sound just right to me

Even with the rest belated, everything is antiquated
Are you writing from the heart? Are you writing from the heart?

Even in his heart the Devil has to know to the water level

His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's t-shirts
When the swingset 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
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 sleight 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

I'm not afraid of the black man running
He's got it right, he's got a better life coming
I don't care what the Captain said
I fold it right at the top of my head
I lost my sight and the state packs in
I follow my heart and it leads me right to Jackson

Oh Keller Oh Oh Oh Oh
She gave us a medal, she gave us a map
Oh Canner Row Oh Oh Oh
If seeing is right, then look where you're at

I'm not afraid of Nichols Park
I ride the train and I ride it after dark
I'm not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it one more try

I said things that I meant to say
The bandstand chairs and the Dewey Day Parade
I go out to the Golden Age
The spirit is right and the spirit doesn't change

Oh Keller Oh Oh Oh Oh
She gave us a medal, she gave us a map
Oh Canner Row Oh Oh Oh
If seeing is right, then look where you're at

Andrew Jackson! All I'm asking
Show us the wheel, and give us the wine
Raise the Banner, Jackson Hammer!
Everyone goes to the capital line
Colored Preacher, nice to meet you!
The spirit is here, and the spirit is fine
Education! Ask the nation!
You gave us our sight and the hearing is fine
Andrew Jackson! All I'm asking

[No lyrics]

Our step mom we did everything to hate her
She took us down to the edge of Decatur
We saw the lion and the kangaroo take her
Down to the river where they caught a wild alligator

Sang-a-man River it overflowed
It caused a mudslide on banks of the Operator
Civil War skeletons in their graves
They came up clapping in the spirit of the Aviator

The sound of the engines and the smell of the grain
We go riding on the abolition grain train
Stephen A. Douglas was a great debater but
Abraham Lincoln was the Great Emancipator

Chickenmobile with your rooster tail
I had my fill and I know how bad it feels
Stay awake and watch for the data
No small caterpillar, go congratulate her!

Denominate her! Go Decatur!
Go Decatur! It's the great I Am.
Abominator! Why did we hate her?
Go Decatur! It's the great I Am.
Denominate her! Go Decatur!
Go Decatur! It's the great I Am.
Appreciate her! Stand up and thank her!

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

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 minds set
All things know, all things know
You had to find it
All things go, all things go

I drove to New York
In a 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

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

Goldenrod and the 4-H 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 shoulder blade
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 you 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 clean 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,

[No lyrics]

Trouble falls in my home
Toubled man, troubled stone
turn a moutain 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 half ways

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, and 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 bads, 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 can say:

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

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 Claus!
The Great Parade!
Peoria!
You have it made!

Into the crossfire
faithfully run
Middle America,
one on one
Peoria!

[No lyrics]

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 Horsehoe Lake. Hallelu--
trusting things beyond mistake. Hallelu--

We were in love. We were in love.
Palisades! Palisades! I can wait. I can wait.

Lamb of God, we sound the horn.
Hallelujah!
To us your ghost is born.
Hallelu--

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 back seat
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,
but 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, terrible storm

Dead!! Ahhhh!

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? Commemmorate it for you?)

We are awaken with the ax
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
walking 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 no 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

[No lyrics]

[No lyrics]

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

Seven miles above the earth
There is Emanuel of Mothers
With His sword, with His robe
He comes dividing man from brothers

In the Tower above the earth,
we built it for Emanuel
In the Powers of the earth,
we wait until it rails and rails
In the Tower above the earth,
we built it for Emanuel
Oh my Mother, she betrayed us
but my Father loved and bathed us

Still I go to the deepest grave

Part I: The Great Frontier

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!
Carptenter 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--
American, 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, dream cather

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

Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now

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?
GIver what you had, has it made you mad?
Celebrate the few. Celebrate the new.

[No lyrics]

[No lyrics]