Though Stevens had announced plans to make an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, beginning the series with the albums 'Michigan' (2003) and 'Illinois' (2005), he has since then somewhat retracted the statement. "Sufjan Stevens is not going to write a record for each of the 50 states after all" was the original text included on the online liner notes for 'Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation' , a disc released on February 7, 2006. This statement was possibly included as a joke, as the text has since been removed and the current liner notes related to Sufjan Stevens reads: "Sufjan Stevens can fold a fitted-sheet (he once worked as a professional folder in a commercial Laundromat)."
Background
Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in the city of Petoskey in that same state. He attended Hope College on the west coast of Michigan.
The name Sufjan is an Arabic/Persian name that predates Islam and most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history. It has been mentioned in the press that the name was given to Stevens by the leader of Subud, a spiritual sect to which his parents belonged when he was born. Stevens has stated that the name is of Armenian origin and means "comes with a sword," and that it is "a charming militaristic Muslim name." In fact the name is not Armenian, and Armenia is a predominantly Christian country.
Sufjan is also the plural form of Sufi in Persian . Sufi is a practitioner of Sufism .This word is frequently used in the old Persian literature ,specially Sufi poetry .
His brother, marathonist Marzuki Stevens, has trained to compete in the 2008 Olympic trials, and has played on two of Sufjan's albums.
A multi-instrumentalist, Stevens plays the banjo, guitar, drums, and several other instruments, often playing all of these on his albums through the use of multi-tracking. While in school, he studied the oboe and English horn, which he also plays on his albums; he is one of the few musicians in popular music to use these instruments.
Career
Sufjan Stevens began his musical career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan. He also played (and continues to play) various instruments for Danielson Famile. While in school at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his debut solo album, A Sun Came, which he released on Asthmatic Kitty Records, a record label he founded with his step-father in 1999. He later moved to New York City, where he was enrolled in a writing program at the New School for Social Research.
While in New York, Stevens composed and recorded the music for his second album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, a song cycle based around the animals of the Chinese Zodiac that ventured into electronica.
Stevens followed this with the first of his 50 states albums, a collection of folk songs and instrumentals inspired by his home state of Michigan. The result, the expansive Michigan, included odes to cities including Detroit and Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation areas such as Tahquamenon Falls. Melded into the scenic descriptions and characters are his own declarations of faith in God, sorrow, love and the regeneration of Michigan.
Following the release of Michigan, Stevens compiled a collection of songs recorded previously into a side project, the Christian folk album Seven Swans, which was released in March 2004.
Next he released the second in the 50 states projects, entitled Come On Feel The Illinoise!. Among the subjects explored on Come On Feel The Illinoise! are the cities of Chicago, Decatur and Jacksonville, the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, the poet Carl Sandburg, and Mississippi Palisades State Park.
He has contributed to the music of Denison Witmer, Soul Junk, Half-handed Cloud, Brother Danielson, Danielson Famile, Serena Maneesh, Castanets, and Liz Janes. He played piano on for fellow Brooklyn musician's The National's album 2007 Boxer. A cover of "She Is" is included on the album Dream Brother, released in the United States on January 31, 2006.
Sufjan contributed a lot to the sound of the 2001 Liz Janes album Done Gone Fire as he engineered, recorded, produced and arranged it as well as playing many addition instruments.
Sufjan recently recorded with Rosie Thomas and Denison Witmer playing banjo and providing vocals. It is unknown how this record will be released. In April 2006, Pitchfork erroneously announced that Stevens and Thomas were having a baby together, but were forced to print a retraction. Witmer and Thomas later admitted it was an April Fools' prank.
The Fifty States Project
Beginning with Michigan, Stevens announced an intent to write an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, although in interviews he wavers between utter sincerity and self-deprecating irony when describing the idea.
Stevens spent the second half of 2004 researching and writing material for the second of these projects, this time focusing his efforts on Illinois. As with Michigan, Stevens used the state of Illinois as a leaping-off point for his more personal explorations of faith, family, love, and location.
The widely acclaimed Illinois was the highest rated album of 2005 on the Metacritic review aggregator site, based on glowing reviews from Pitchfork, The Onion A/V Club, Spin, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and The Guardian. The 2006 PLUG Independent Music Awards awarded Stevens with the Album Of The Year, Best Album Art/Packaging, and Male Artist Of The Year. Pitchfork Media and Paste Magazine named Come On Feel The Illinoise! as the editors' choice for best album of 2005 and Stevens received the 2005 Pantheon prize, awarded to albums selling 500,000 copies or fewer, for Come On Feel The Illinoise!. In April of 2006, Stevens announced that 21 pieces of music he had culled from the Come On Feel The Illinoise! recording sessions would be incorporated into a new album, called The Avalanche. The album was released on July 11, 2006.
While there were other projects rumored to be released following 2005's Illinois, by 2009 and his live album The BQE, he was seemingly finished with the project, calling it "Such a joke", and accepting that the project was too massive and too cliché to ever reach an end.
Religious themes
Many of Stevens' songs have religious and spiritual allusions, but his album Seven Swans has the most direct religious references. Stevens has expressed that he is Christian, but does not overtly advertise this aspect of himself in his music. Stevens has also stated that he does not try to make music "with a message", or music for the sake of preaching. "I don't think music media is the real forum for theological discussions," says Stevens. "I think I've said things and sung about things that probably weren't appropriate for this kind of forum. And I just feel like it's not my work or my place to be making claims and statements, because I often think it's misunderstood."
The songs 'Abraham', 'Seven Swans', 'To Be Alone With You', 'We Won't Need Legs To Stand' and 'The Transfiguration' directly address Christianity on the album Seven Swans. In 'Abraham', Sufjan recounts the Old Testament story in the Book of Genesis when Abraham, ordered by God as a test of faith, leads his son, Isaac, up a mountain and prepares to kill him, as commanded (but before God sends an angel to intervene). The lyrics of 'The Transfiguration' follow the Biblical accounts of Jesus' Transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9: 1-8, and Luke 9:28-36.
Michigan and Come On Feel The Illinoise! are packed with Christian references and metaphors. Michigan contains "Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie", which implores "Oh Lamb of God! Tell us Your perfect design and give us the rod" ("Lamb of God" being a Biblical name for Jesus Christ). The song "Oh God, Where Are You Now?" asks God to "hold me now", to "save somehow", searching for God in the midst of personal turmoil. "There's no other man who could save the dead," the song states. The album closer, 'Vito's Ordination Song', was apparently originally written for Sufjan's friend Vito Aiuto, and its lyrics allude directly to Psalm 139 ("I always knew you. In your mother's arms, I have called your name", "I've made a crown for you"). The song speaks of "When the bridegroom comes" - the New Testament speaks of Jesus Christ as being the Bridegroom and the Church His Bride, finally being united together at the End of Time.
Come On Feel The Illinoise! features the song 'Chicago' with its refrain of "You came to take us, to recreate us", and 'Decatur' has the chorus of "It's the great I Am" ("I Am" being the name the Lord reveals Himself by to Moses in Exodus 3:14). "Casimir Pulaski Day" speaks of "All the glory that the Lord has made" in the midst of personal pain and loss. "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out To Get Us!" has the lyrics: "Lamb of God, we sound the horn. Hallelujah!" One instrumental passage has the title of "In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth". "The Seer's Tower" speaks of Emanuel, "With His sword, with His robe He comes dividing man from brothers" (an interesting side note is that "Sufjan" actually means "comes with a sword"). Indeed, the vast majority of songs of Come On Feel The Illinoise! contain lyric lines which can be readily identified as having a basis in Stevens' faith in Christ.
Sufjan's second, electronic album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, contains a song cycle based on of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, culminating with the song "Year of our Lord". Stevens released the original, Christian-themed song "God'll Ne'er Let You Down" on the "To Spirit Back the Mews" compilation on Asthmatic Kitty. The officially unreleased Christmas albums Sufjan Stevens made and then compiled into Songs for Christmas feature suitably Christmas and Christian themed music, both originals and covers of hymns and traditional songs.
Trivia
On Snow Patrol's 2006 album Eyes Open there is a reference to Sufjan and the song "Chicago" in the song "Hands Open" - "Put Sufjan Stevens on and we'll play your favorite song/"Chicago" bursts to life and your sweet smile remembers you."
Sufjan has twice been featured on the FOX television show "The OC". "To Be Alone With You" and "For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti" can be heard on episodes 202 and 315, respectively.
Sufjan Stevens' music has appeared twice on the Showtime dark comedy "Weeds". "All The Trees Of The Field Will Clap Their Hands" appears on S1E02 over the end credits, and "Holland" appears near the end of S2E10.
Two of Sufjan's songs appear on the soundtrack to "Little Miss Sunshine": "Chicago" and "No Man's Land"
The song "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." appears on the 3rd season of the tv show "Nip/Tuck".
Several songs can be heard on the movie "Driving Lessons"
You can also hear snippets in between CSI shows on 5US
In the TV show "Austin City Limits", he mentioned that when he was a kid, he and his best friend saw something in the sky which they couldn't figure out. They thought it was a spaceship or UFO first, then an eagle or a dragon. Finally they realized it was a giant wasp. He wrote the song "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" about the incident and mentioned that the reason they (the band) all have wings on stage is to overcome his fear of flying things.
The song "Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)" is heard in the 2012 "World of Red Bull" television commercial. he is quoted as saying "selling out never looked so good." and "somebody had to pay for all of that Christmas confetti." referring to his recent Christmas album and supporting tour.
In 2017 Stevens wrote two Original Songs to be featured in the gay drama film “Call me by your Name”, entitled “Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon”. He also made a reworked version of his Song “Futile Devices” which is also featured on the soundtrack.
Website:http://sufjan.com
Come On! Feel The Illinoise! -Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition -Part II: Carl Sandburg Visit
Sufjan Stevens Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
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
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 laws gone?
I think about it now
Ancient hieroglyphic or the South Pacific
Typically terrific, busy and prolific
Classical devotion, architect promotion
Lacking in emotion think 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
Columbia
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 riding 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 at 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 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 the water level
Are you writing from the heart? Are you writing from the heart?
The lyrics of Sufjan Stevens' "Come On Feel The Illinoise!" offer a complex commentary on modernity and progress, weaving together references to Chicago, ancient civilizations, and global politics. The song opens with Stevens expressing his "great intentions" to do good in the world, yet acknowledging how easily he is distracted by "ads" and "entrepreneurial conditions." He questions whether conversations and collaborations can truly bring about unity and progress, and wonders if the God of Progress has forgotten humanity.
Throughout the song, Stevens juxtaposes the modern era with ancient history and classical influences. He references the Ferris Wheel, Cream of Wheat, and Frank Lloyd Wright, all of which are associated with Chicago's rapid modernization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet he also alludes to hieroglyphics, South Pacific cultures, and classical architecture, suggesting that contemporary society may be lacking in the emotional and spiritual richness of the past. The song's final verse takes a haunting turn, with Stevens describing himself as "riding all alone" and questioning whether he is truly writing from the heart.
Overall, "Come On Feel The Illinoise!" provides a thought-provoking exploration of the complexities of modernity, progress, and artistic expression. The song blends together a wide range of references and influences, creating a multi-layered commentary on the human condition.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh, great intentions
The singer has good intentions
I've got the best of interventions
They have the best possible actions planned
But when the ads come
Their intentions are compromised when faced with advertising
I think about it now
The artist reflects on their actions and motivations
In my infliction
In their current state
Entrepreneurial conditions
They are in a business environment
Take us to glory
They strive for success
I think about it now
The artist still contemplates their actions
Cannot conversations cull united nations?
Can't meaningful discussions bring countries together?
If you got the patience, celebrate the ancients
Celebrate the past if you're willing to put in the effort
Cannot all creation call it celebration?
Can't everyone celebrate together?
Or united nation, put it to your head
Think of unity in your decision making
Oh, great white city
An address to Chicago
I've got the adequate committee
They have the right resources for success
Where have your walls gone?
Questioning the disappearance of certain structures in the city
Chicago, in fashion, the soft drinks, expansion
Chicago has been expanding its influences in fashion and soda companies
Oh, Columbia
A reference to the city of Columbia, Illinois
From Paris, incentive, like Cream of Wheat invented
Chicago was inspired by Paris and invented products like Cream of Wheat cereal
The Ferris Wheel
A reminder of the famous Ferris Wheel from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
Covenant with the imitation
Agreement to follow in the footsteps of others
Have you no conscience?
Questioning the moral fiber of those who do not follow their good intentions
Oh, God of Progress
An address to the concept of progress
Have you degraded or forgot us?
Questioning whether progress has left them behind
Where have your laws gone?
Questioning the lack of regulation in the face of progress
Ancient hieroglyphic or the South Pacific
Referencing ancient cultures
Typically terrific, busy and prolific
Busy lifestyles and high productivity
Classical devotion, architect promotion
Valuing classic art and promoting architecture
Lacking in emotion think about it now
Reflecting on the lack of passion in modern society
Chicago, the New Age, but what would Frank Lloyd Wright say?
Chicago is embracing modernity, but the artist wonders what a famous architect would think
Amusement or treasure, these optimistic pleasures
Enjoying the simple and optimistic things in life
Like the Ferris Wheel
Referencing the iconic ride once again
I cried myself to sleep last night
The artist was upset and emotional the night before
And the ghost of Carl, he approached my window
A metaphor or symbol for something concerning the artist
I was hypnotized, I was asked
The artist was entranced or captivated and prompted
To improvise on the attitude, the regret of a thousand centuries of death
To express their thoughts on the regrets and tragedies of the past
Even with the heart of terror and the superstitious wearer
Even in the face of fear and superstition
I am riding all alone, I am writing all alone
The singer feels isolated and is working on their own
Even in my best condition, counting all the superstition
Despite trying their best, they are still influenced by superstition
And we laughed at the beatitudes of a thousand lines
They found humor in others' attempts at explaining life's mysteries
We were asked at the attitudes they reminded us of death
The attitudes they encountered were somber and linked to mortality
Even with the rest belated, everything is antiquated
Even with others behind, everything seems outdated to the artist
Are you writing from the heart? Are you writing from the heart?
The singer questions the authenticity of their own creations
Even in his heart the Devil has to know the water level
The singer reflects on the knowledge and power within everyone's hearts
And I cried myself to sleep last night
Reiterating their emotional state
For the Earth, and materials, they may sound just right to me
The artist values the natural world and physical objects just as much as other things in life
Contributed by Joshua B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Randall Weaver
Hey Jon - People Get Read - wow, great call. I was unfamiliar with it until Stewart/Beck did it in the '80's (?) but then heard the original and...Desire was my first Dylan album and probably still my favorite. I've been mispronouncing "Sufjan" all these years - thanks for providing the correct pronunciation...I'd always wondered about it. Enjoyed the John Ford/DB Truckers part. Congratulations on the Small Faces record. Cool entry - good luck in the contest! ~ Randy
The Vinyl Douche
Really like Hurricane choice. I love Desire. I remember some friends of mine that were highly anticipating the Minnesota album. Even then I knew it was a pipe dream. I wonder if they are still on the edge of their seats. Good to see you stepping in to help educate young minds here. Mono in color? Definitely cool Small Faces LP. Keep trucking.
Eric Weinbender
I need to get on this. As a combat sports enthusiast an obvious choice I was gonna go with "Hurricane". Quality Mono there.
Jam on Vinyl
Wow brother. Love that mono!!!!! Great call on the hurricane. Such a killer song off a killer album! Loved all the connections you made here. The time is the key with small kids lol I film mine at the most random times of the day/night Hahahaha gotta love it . Great stuff buddy!!!!
Grandma's Handbag
Wooh!...I think you could make it work 👍wow, I did not know that about People Get Ready; I knew it was important, not in that kind of way. My friend picked up Desire the other day - a newspaper poster of Dylan and an article on Ruben Carter fell out :) I love albums like Stevens and Bird that reference history in passing, like a breadcrumb trail you can pick up and explore. Which is what that DBT reference is gonna do for me on John Ford - intriguing words from Hood on Ford and the American psyche. Can you hear/see that? Love seeing that mono small faces - was able to share a time in my late teens playing small faces on CD with my Dad. Great entry, loved the b&w and slide touches. There's probably eleven other Easter eggs I haven't even picked up! Good luck in this one man, keep these entries coming :)
The Vinylverse
Enjoyed this Jon! Nice touch with the old film overlay. Even Phil Collins covered People Get Ready. Small Faces, Nice! Good luck in the contest.
The Digital Gramophone
You know I’m not a Phil hater, but I don’t know if I want to hear that cover, Bill. 😂
Elliott Crews
I loved the black and white there Jon, great touch. If you had been in my class I'd have given you an A+ (but then I was always an easy project grader).
Steven Carlson
DBT really know how to weave a story into their music. I appreciate the history lesson. You look great in black n white.
The Digital Gramophone
Thanks for hanging out, Steve. Look forward to your entry for this one. Oh wait... that’s every Sunday morning! 🎓😄 Cheers! ✌🏻