The year after the track was released on Illinois, three further versions were included on the outtakes album, "The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album", these being an acoustic version, the "Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version", which is a baroque pop version of the original track, and a "Multiple Personality Disorder Version", of which Stevens stated: "James, my drummer was in town, and we decided it would be kind of fun to deconstruct the song". One further demo version was recorded during the album recording sessions in 2004 and released digitally on Stevens' homepage on February 25, 2016. It was released as a 12" bundled with the "Illinois: Special 10th Anniversary Blue Marvel Edition" on April 1, 2016.
The lyrics of "Chicago" are a particularly striking aspect of the song, in Pitchfork's review of the album Illinois it was said that ""Chicago" cagily celebrates the innate (and deeply American) tendency to employ highways as escape routes, ditching old mistakes for new swatches of land, new plates of eggs, new parking lots."
Chicago
Sufjan Stevens Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
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
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 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
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)
The song "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens is a bittersweet reflection on love, mistakes, and the passage of time. The first verse sets the scene, with the singer falling in love and driving to Chicago, a place that holds significance for the singer. The second verse takes a darker turn, with the singer selling their clothes to the state, indicating financial struggles or perhaps a reliance on government aid. The singer then reflects on the mistakes they have made, indicating a sense of regret or guilt.
The chorus, "You came to take us, all things go," suggests that change is inevitable and that everything, good or bad, will eventually come to an end. The lyric "To recreate us, all things grow," hints at the possibility of redemption or renewal, a theme that is present throughout the song. The repetition of "We had our mindset, all things know" and "You had to find it, all things go" creates a sense of cosmic inevitability, and the repeated admission of making mistakes suggests a wrestling with the consequences of one's own actions.
The song's final lines, "If I was crying in the van with my friend, it was for freedom from myself and from the land," suggest a desire to escape from something, whether it be a troubled past or a sense of entrapment in a particular place. The repetition of "I made a lot of mistakes" at the end of the song hammers home the central theme of the song - the recognition of one's own flaws and the hope for redemption and growth.
Line by Line Meaning
I fell in love again
I fell in love once again
All things go, all things go
Everything moves on, everything ends
Drove to Chicago
Went to Chicago by car
All things know, all things know
Everything is aware and knows what's happening
We sold our clothes to the state
We sold our clothes to the government or authority
I don't mind, I don't mind
I don't have any problem with that
I made a lot of mistakes
I made many errors
In my mind, in my mind
Only in my thoughts
You came to take us
You came to take us away
To recreate us
To make us anew
All things grow, all things grow
Everything develops and flourishes
We had our mindset
We had our own way of thinking
You had to find it
You had to discover it
I drove to New York
I went to New York by car
In a van, with my friend
In a camper, with my buddy
We slept in parking lots
We slept in parking areas
If I was crying
If I was shedding tears
It was for freedom
It was for liberation
From myself and from the land
From myself and from the land
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Sufjan Stevens
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@LDixon007
My Top Ten albums list. If I kept going, the Illinois album would be on the list, maybe around #15.
1. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
2. Revolver - The Beatles
3. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
4. After The Goldrush - Neil Young
5. (_) - Sigur Rós
6. The Wall - Pink Floyd
7. Let it Bleed - The Rolling Stones
8. Music from Big Pink - The Band
9. Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues
10. Graceland - Paul Simon
@bishalroy76
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 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
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)
@fluffyakara
I literally never skip the intro to politician because of this song
@koshiraru
Rita Johnson not just the song the intro is pretty satisfying
@jordanmrtz3916
Rita Johnson Same
@yaelpardo9252
SAMESAMESAME
@bportraitd4707
Omg, same!!
@neon_ice7122
Same
@huntrrams
I’m so happy Hulu’s The Bear used this to open up Episode 7 with a montage of Chicago. Beautiful 👌🏻
@GUILLEVANDREI
Happy to see I'm not the only one to came here after watching it
@thelastpepsi9369
One of my favorite directorial choices in the show. The city manages to feel like a character rather than a setting and it feels like it shows everything about the city and what we know from the outside before diving into the most insane and tense episode in the season
@lildoc
That's why I am here :)