"I remember in Elementary School when my friend Opie was killed, and it was the first time I really experienced a death of a friend. And the grievance counselor came to school and said: ‘This was Opie’s desk, he no longer occupies the desk. Now he occupies heaven.’ And it was really strange because there was this palpable physical and emotional vacancy where he was. There was this space, this energy beforehand but now it no longer is there which was really difficult for me to kind of manage that. And then as I get older, dealing with other deaths - friends and family, grandparents and my mother - and I started to realize that there’s all these vacancies that are created and yet I still feel this sort of weight - this heaviness from it. So it seems bullshit that there is a vacancy there, there is actually a palpable, physical weight in which we carry around, at least I carry around, and I started to think its because even though they no longer occupy the physical space - they now occupy my space." Sufjan Stevens, Chicago Theater 4/24/2015
Thank you, as toev said, for sharing this! I love this song so much, as I have grieved for friends lost when we were young. Thank you Sufjan for writing such a beautiful song.
I would just like you to know that I have been watching this video on a semi-regular basis for two years. You have taken your previously useless footage and turned it into something that truly means something to me. I grew up in Southern Ontario, on Lake Erie. Somehow this video is home to me. I live in London England now, and lived in Ottawa before that, but whenever I needed reassurance, whenever I needed calm, I sought out this video. It may seem strange, but this video means a lot to me.
ive lived in london my whole life but i stayed in canada for a while with people i consider to be my closest friends, we regularly had dock nights where we would sit on the dock and i would play this on the guitar and play either john denver or sufjan and look at the canoes on the lake its my favourite memory. This was in Ontario too. Have a good one mate wherever you are since its been 9 years.
This video/song perfectly encapsulates the small midwest college experience. So much nostalgia----I cry every time I watch this, and I've been watching it for a decade.
I move a lot. Born in Utah, raised beside pine trees and watermelon in Missouri, but spend my teen years in Indiana right behind a corn field. Many folk around the Midwest can be harsh and oft' times it feels alienating, but at the same time, I'd never wish to actually be anywhere else. You find the best of gems in people here.
Sufjan has the best lyrics. The best Ive ever heard. He can make the simplest sentences sound so deep and complex. I easily feel what he feels when I hear him sing.
This is my favorite video on youtube. Just something about it so relaxing and familiar. Anyone who lives in the U.S where it snows will surely feel as if they've been these places before...
I watch and listen to this all the time. Over 6 years after uploading and it still can tug special strings, you can call this a beautiful success. Congrats. Mr. Stevens would love this.
This video feels like home; the begining of winter, the sunsets over leafless trees and cold nights when you walk and think about how lights inside homes look soo beautiful. Thank you for the nice video!
Wow. THIS comment above is exactly why artists - musicians, film-makers, etc. - do what they do. Because, just maybe, someone may garner some meaning, some purpose, have a moment of meaning and passion with a piece of their art. Probably because they, too, had those moments, and want to share the same. I wish more people expressed in such a genuine way their moment. Lovely. That is what life's about. A series of meaningful moments.
Wow, the melancholy music goes so well with this video of what reminds me of growing up in Michigan during the winter when you can go 2 months without seeing the sun, nothing but gray skies. Uhgg... SO depressing. But this music is absolutely beautiful. Can you imagine Eliot Smith and Sufjan playing together and singing a duet? Gorgeous..
It really does remind me of Michigan winters, the sort of mundane beauty of it. I don't mean to self promote or anything but I feel like you might like some music on my channel inspired by Elliott and Sufjan, they are both a few of my favorites and the songs are in the same sort of world. I'd appreciate the listen!
Maybe the saddest song he's written, although most of his songs are sad. This one got me in the feels tonight. That friend really made an impact on him. Sufjan was clearly a really sensitive kid.
you make it beautiful, friend you make it worth it to the end you put a hole in my head just like you put a fire in the tree ever since dawn and ever since when you put the note in my pocket again and you said you wanted to meet me at three i was invited for once yes, i was invited for once you make it difficult, friend you make it worth it to the end you put a hole in our heads just like you put a fire in the tree and ever since dawn and ever since three we made the plans at your party to be and we tied the ribbon beside your back tree yes, we tied it upside down yes, we tied it upside down
Low production value video that captures the easy-to-miss nuances of life that are really quite beautiful. Really great stuff; thank you for creating/sharing
I have to comment that this is the best homemade video i have ever seen of any song. you captured the mood of sufjan stevens on video perfect...which is the simplicity of normal everyday life. i loved the car ride part with the farms..i always think of these things when i listen to his music
WHAAAT WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD THIS ONE!?!?!? oh my freakin freak what is going on??? haha but no seriously this video goes very well with this song. i really dont think this is just a bunch of random footage thrown together. its like things we see at a distance, or for only a few moments which goes really well with it, and i feel like thats what this song about.
I shrugged my shoulders and resigned myself to the same silly foreign name, a sequence of odd letters stitched together like a crazy quilt, easily misspelled, misread, mispronounced, teased and squeezed and tickled and jabbed at during recess, along with Nataki the black girl (my first kiss), Opie the foster kid (who died in a car crash), and Kiki the Japanese boy (who didnt even speak English but we played marbles during recess and communicated with our own form of sign language).
have been drawn back to this one time and again, not just for the haunting ss tune, but also because it is very visually pleasing. thanks for such a beautiful post!
When I was like 15 and I moved to a new place with my family and I didn't have any friends yet, "I was invited for once" hit me so so so hard. Because I was friendless and I just wanted to be invited for once.. Then at some point I was.
What a beautifully yearning, achingly melancholy video. Your choice of Sufjan was inspired-- i've come back to this video time and again to feel it's impact.... and i'm not the indulgent type. Kudos.
I love this kind of video. Just filming some things what you judged beautiful to shot. Really nice video anyway. (sorry for my english, hope that's correct)
Nick Serido there's a monologue he did on stage about it, it's about a kid he used to go to school with who everyone hated cause he was kind of a jerk i guess, but the kid got depressed and jumped off a bridge and i guess he wrote this song cause everyone hated him but nobody wanted him to kill himself and i guess he felt guilty about not liking opie. there's a video of him talking about it. i can find it if you can't.
@stripeyninga Ah, I found it -- thanks! The more I find out about Sufjan and his past, the more I'm drawn to him as an artist. If he ever wrote a book, I'd be the first in line to buy it, that's for sure.
@ZeenyTehZurjian uh try looking through the 'sidebar' on his record label's website - i'm pretty sure it's called "what's in a name", the tale of his parents offering him to change his name while he was a child - and in the end his realisation that he is sufjan and no one else, he can't change it!
hey this is lovely - compliments the lyrics and overall melancholy of the song...but i absolutely cannot find this song anywhere is it on a collaboartive cd? its not on rhapsody and i couldnt get it off limewire... : /
