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
From the Mouth of Gabriel
Sufjan Stevens Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
From the mouth of Gabriel
Who died in his sleep when the world was a very big mess
A very big mess
He saw too much
From now on I will look away from every accident
That may or may not come my way
Masquerading as a loom
Both of us saw things
No one else would see as well
From the mouth of Gabriel
No one else would hear as well
From the mouth of Gabriel
Don't be so sure of what you feel (it might as well be trouble)
From now on just let the universe be your shelter from the enemy
Your face has changed
I hardly know who you are this time
And what a mess I've made of you
You probably would but I won't let you run away
You probably should but I won't let you run away this time
Don't be afraid of loneliness some refugee beside itself
Instead of what you've got
You probably would but I won't let you go away
You probably should but I won't let you go away this time
Your face has changed
I hardly know who you are this time
And when I came into your room
You tried to jump
Now I know this is strange to hear from the mouth of God
It was something like a scene from mars
In a struggle between loves and lies
The angel kept his face covered for to keep his word
And while I spoke something left from my life
Forget about the past
Be at rest I'll make things right
And while I held you at best you nearly died
Forget about the past
And I'll try to make things right
"From the Mouth of Gabriel" is a song by Sufjan Stevens that contemplates the fragility of human life in light of the world's natural disasters and tragedies. The song's theme is the acceptance of the events that occur beyond our control, and the importance of living in the present in order to avoid the anxieties and fears that come with trying to predict the future. Stevens sings from the perspective of the "mouth of Gabriel," a biblical reference to the angel Gabriel who delivered messages from God to humans. The song addresses the idea that even angels saw things that nobody else could understand or comprehend, but in the end, death claimed them just the same.
The song begins by referencing the idea that desperate measures lead to death, meaning that those who are willing to do anything to survive or achieve their goals often end up dying as a result. Gabriel, who died in his sleep during a time when the world was in chaos, had seen too much and was not immune to the same fate. As a result, Stevens decides that it's best to look away from accidents that may or may not happen in the future. The song then delves into a conversation between two people who have both witnessed things that nobody else can see or hear. In an effort to comfort his friend, Stevens tells her not to be so sure of what she feels and to let the universe be her shelter from the enemy.
The song's lyrics are open to interpretation, but it seems to be about accepting the inevitability of death and the unpredictability of life. It urges the listener to live in the present and not to worry too much about the future or the past. The chorus of the song repeats the phrase, "Your face has changed, I hardly know who you are this time," which may refer to the idea that life is constantly changing and evolving. The song's final lines offer a message of hope, telling the listener to forget about the past and to trust that things will eventually be made right.
Line by Line Meaning
Desperate measures lead to death
Taking extreme actions can result in fatal consequences
From the mouth of Gabriel
These words are being spoken by an angelic figure
Who died in his sleep when the world was a very big mess
Gabriel passed away during a tumultuous time in history
A very big mess
The world was in a state of chaos and confusion
He saw too much
Gabriel witnessed events that were too much for him to handle
From now on I will look away from every accident
The singer decides to avoid exposing themselves to danger
That may or may not come my way
The singer acknowledges that trouble can come unexpectedly
Saw you were talking up above the Aleph room
The artist recognizes that someone is speaking in a mysterious location
Masquerading as a loom
The speech sounds like a weaving machine, pretending to be something else
Both of us saw things
The artist and another person share a unique perspective
No one else would see as well
Others don't have the same clarity of insight as the two speakers
From the mouth of Gabriel
Their shared perspective is inspired by the deceased angel
No one else would hear as well
Others are not as receptive to what the two speakers are sensing
Don't be so sure of what you feel (it might as well be trouble)
The singer warns against being overly confident in one's emotions
From now on just let the universe be your shelter from the enemy
The singer recommends relying on the cosmos for protection against danger
Your face has changed
The person addressed has undergone a transformation
I hardly know who you are this time
The artist struggles to recognize the changed individual
And what a mess I've made of you
The singer regrets having contributed to the other's distress
You probably would but I won't let you run away
The singer acknowledges that the other person may want to leave, but tries to prevent them from doing so
You probably should but I won't let you run away this time
The artist recognizes that the other person would benefit from leaving, but still wants to keep them close
Don't be afraid of loneliness some refugee beside itself
The artist suggests that solitude can be therapeutic
Instead of what you've got
Rather than clinging to one's current situation
You probably would but I won't let you go away
The singer expects that the other person may want to leave, but wants to keep them nearby
You probably should but I won't let you go away this time
The artist acknowledges that the other person should leave, but still wants to keep them close
And when I came into your room
The singer entered a space where the other person was located
You tried to jump
The other person reacted with fear or surprise
Now I know this is strange to hear from the mouth of God
The singer acknowledges that their words may seem unlikely or surprising
It was something like a scene from mars
The situation was surreal or otherworldly
In a struggle between loves and lies
The scene involved a conflict between dishonesty and affection
The angel kept his face covered for to keep his word
A celestial being remained hidden in order to honor a promise
And while I spoke something left from my life
The singer feels that they experienced a loss or sacrifice during this event
Forget about the past
The artist urges the listener to move on from previous problems or mistakes
Be at rest I'll make things right
The artist promises to resolve the situation
And while I held you at best you nearly died
The artist recalls a moment when the other person was in grave danger
And I'll try to make things right
The singer wants to make amends for their role in the other's suffering
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: SUFJAN STEVENS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind