Part 5 of Sufjan's Live KCRW Performance. Other Parts Coming Soon These KCRW videos all went out of sync after I uploaded them and I don't know what to do about it so, I apologize about that.
Regarding writing this song, Mr. Stevens said: *"I made a concerted effort to scrupulously evoke the series of events which led to his crime, and, considering the circumstances, that was not a pleasant task. In all the crime novels I’d skimmed and in all the news clippings I read, there was a deliberate obsession with finding the source of his depravity. What went wrong, everyone asked. What made him this way? Was it his abusive father? Was it a head injury? A doting mother?"* Stephens continues: *"I’m less interested in cause and effect, in terms of human iniquity. I believe we all have the capacity for murder. We are ruthless creatures. I felt insurmountable empathy not with his behavior, but with his nature, and there was nothing I could do to get around confessing that, however horrifying it sounds."* I feel the song itself-musically beautiful yet haunting, lyrically subtle yet grotesque and horrifying-embodies the spectrum that Stephens believes is in all people, and was certainly present in Gacy. And that is *pure genius.*
Kurt Juergens You're welcome! I don't remember the exact website, but it was a copy of an interview from a magazine, I believe. I found other things by using this search: www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww#hl=en&q=sufjan+stevens+interview Good luck!
So proud to be from where he grew up. I met the girl who went to prom with him. Actually knew her sister even better. He is an absolute provocation of all things emotional, raw and real and I'm so grateful Chicago bloomed as it did for me to pay tribute to someone so talented from my hometown? I know it means not much, but your wanderlust and absolute need to awaken emotion in other beings is the fruit of so many before' s labour. Sufjan, you will be carried in my pocket, always. Thank you for changing how people see grief and joy and all of the above. You still move me, and the rest, to this day. You're fantastic. 💜
So haunting, So sad, its great to hear a musician tell a story about something like this without it being exploited like a metal band would do, Sufjan is incredible, everyone seems to be quite confused by the last line "And in my best behavior I am really just like him Look beneath the floorboards For the secrets I have hid" To me it is simple, we all have the potential in us to do terrible things, we all have secrets hidden under the "floorboards"
As a resident of rural Illinois, I feel very connected to every single song on this album. It feels like this often overlooked part of the country is being acknowledged by someone who does it complete justice. Thank you, Sufjan.
I think that he is telling a terrible story about a true killer however I think that the last line of the song essentially is an acknowledgement that we all have something horrible in us. Sometimes we are not so unlike those whom outwardly express what some of us try hard "on our best behavior" to repress.
I have a love/hate relationship with this song. I love so much about it, the way he sounds so emotional when he sings it, the intrumentals, Sufjan's voice (which is always beautiful)... But just the person that this song is about makes me a tad bit upset when I listen to it. And when he says that line at the end everyone seems to be talking about; I read in an interveiw that Sufjan meant that Gacy was a human as we are and that anyone is capable of being a monster in some form of the word...
Lyrics: His father was a drinker and his mother cried in bed Folding John Wayne's t-shirts when the swing set 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 Ooh, 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 slight 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 For the secrets I have hid
A great memorial to all the innocent ones who have been killed by serial killers. The Wayne Williams, John Wayne Gacy, Jr. and Jeffery Dahmer types, may you be rightfully JUDGED!!!
One of the greatest storytellers in music Harry Chapin wrote the song Sniper, which isn't an "accurate account" of the Texas A&M shooter, but it's not far from it either. Literal, abstract, whatever, it's all about the poetry and wordsmithing that makes a song lasting and endearing.
NORWAY land of the fjords!, sorry dude, doubt u live in Norway, unless u get a flight ticket, i doubt u'll be able to see him. WOOOHOOO SUFJAN can't wait!
@jordanmyers487 So... the point of the song is not simply the retelling of the story, but the artist's connection to the story. Did you listen to the last two lines? Abstract doesn't equal good.
@MrFerezu Yeah, probably. Just like most true creeps went unnoticed for years because they behaved properly in public. It's what we do when no-one is watching that makes us who we are.
Well, turns out the past tense of broadcast is broadcasted. For some reason my built-in spell checker underlines broadcasted as a misspelled word. Not that this has anything to do with Sufjan, but oh well.
"and on my best behaviour I am really just like him,, Maybe sufjan means he is just like John Wayne on his best behaviour when hes on his?, thats my intepretation atleast
@jordanmyers987 your the one not looking at the song abstractly. Song to me is about the singers own demons. Listen to the last verse. Abstract enough for you?
@jordanmyers487 haha, i dunno maybe not surfjans best lyricd, i can agree to that, but at his best he can compete with metallica lyrically. he doesn't even touch them musically, though.
@curlybluequeen i think you're reading into that line of lyric waaaay too much. i think its simply that he's no better than john wayne gacy jr even when he's doing his best to be good.
"and on my best behaviour I am really just like him. Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid". Eerie to compare himself to such a horrific murderer.
I think what’s he’s trying to imply is that we all have the capacity to be like Wanye Gacy Jr. We all have some things we hide even from ourselves. People like Gacy didn’t.
because he's from michigan, who wouldn't start from their homestate?, i know i wouldn't mind even if it is a dick move. btw. if he did a alphabetical order washington could just forget their turn.
some people can really say absolute nothing while trying to say something... what are you babbling about? do you have a fetisj for order? why is not moving alphabetically a dick move? what does it matter? look it's fine with me... I just really don't understand your comment...
