Lyrics for To Be Alone with You as interpreted by vwkeychain

To Be Alone with You Lyrics
I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

I've never known a man who loved me

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iobieofshianna
04-23-2007

Rated 0 
I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but maybe the song is sung from the point of view of Mary Magdelene?

When I heard the song, it seemed like there was a romantic undertone in the words beyond the general love of Christ that many have, and that line, "I've never met a man who loved me," kind of fits with Magdelene's story.

The first verse of this song also alludes less to religion than the second verse to me. Maybe I just don't know the Bible well enough, but it seems more intimate. Admittedly, I can see traces of the Last Supper, but I can't really accept that there isn't a trace of more sexual and romantic love in this song.

Oh, and by the by, whoever started the rant on Christian music?
It is a song that alludes to an important aspect of Christianity. That's just a fact.
If you like the song, accept it and please don't flame other people for talking about what they believe in.

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angiemartin08
04-30-2007

Rated 0 
ok everyone, this song means a lot to me so i'll tell you all what i believe this beautiful song is about...

even before i realized it was about Christ, i just knew there was something extremly profound and extrodinary about it.

When Sufjan is talking about how he would "sell my shoes" and "give my body to be back again" "to be alone with you", i think he is talking about how as a Christian, there are times in your life when you are so intimatly alone and fufilled by Christ, and you would do anything in order to get back to that place with God, like going back to that intense spiritual place where God is so close you can almost touch him, and hes there for YOU alone. its amazing.

Also it might be like this. Pretend like someone told you, What would you do in order to be alone with your God? Would you sell your shoes? To what extent would you go to to meet Jesus today? Sufjan is talking about what he would do in order to be alone with Christ.

"You gave your body to the lonely" i believe is a symbol for the fact that Christ literally gave his entire body for every lonely and lost soul on earth. The line "you gave up a wife and a family" i think is about the fact that Jesus just didnt have the time within his ministry to have a wife and a family, so he gave that up.

Giving his ghost refers to when Christ gave his Holy Spirit to the world. Also, I just realized this. When you think about what Sufjan would do in the first stanza in order to be alone with Jesus, the things he's doing are not that big of a deal compared to what Christ would do just to be alone with Sufjan. Sufjan would give his shoes, but Christ was completly naked. Sufjan would swim across lake michigian, but Christ would completly DIE just to be alone with Sufjan, just to love him.

I think what Sufjan is talking about is the unfathonable love of Christ, so very few people would give their entire life just to be alone in a room with God, whereas Christ did just that for us. For me the last line hits really hard, its so deep and profound.

Christ was fully human, yet fully divine. So when he was a man, (whereas now hes not, he has become one with God and the Holy Spirit) he didnt personally KNOW me. That was thousands of years ago, so as a man he never really met me. But yet he loved ME. So a man i've never known truly loved me, died for me. and he never even met me. wow. what is more powerful or meaningful than that?

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livv3409
05-08-2007

Rated 0 
ok first of all sufjan stevens IS a christian folk singer. its the genre he is in and he has proclaimed it himself. so anyone who has a problem with that just face the facts.
second of all, im not a religious person at all, but gummi you have no right to disrespect anyones religion the way you did. that is incredibly immature and disrespectful.

third of all, this song can mean to you whateve ryou want it to mean. i do believe that sufjan wrote this song about jesus, but if thats now how you interpret it, for each his own.

thats all i have to say

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upthera44
05-22-2007

Rated 0 
it's a shame that S.S. lyric boards are all so cluttered up with self-important religious or anti-religious rhetoric and therefore it is rather difficult to navigate for any real analysis of the lyrics.

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overwhlemed
05-22-2007

Rated 0 
I can't find much meaning in this song. think i'm gay, think i'm christian, think all the worst things about me. To each his own.

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mrguy753
05-31-2007

Rated 0 
I don't care if he wrote it about Jesus. To ME, most likely because I am gay, it is about first time gay love.
But the Jesus thing makes sense too.

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tillyislove
06-29-2007

Rated 0 
This song is trully about christ. If you do not believe this then I would advise you to watch the movie Danielson: a family movie. It is a documentry on danielson family, brother danielson, but sufjan was a big part of the movie. He worked with daniel smith in the band and with daniels record label. They are all christian bands, so obviously so is sufjan or at least at this point. I am not religious but this movie is worth checking out.

I think this song tells how he would give everything he had just to have christ in his life and be a part of him. It then goes to tell the sacrafises jesus has given up, and him being on the cross and sufjan wanting to meet him. I think it is quite nice and the song is beautiful.

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sufstevens
06-29-2007

Rated 0 
God bless you all!

Suf.

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cosmia11
07-20-2007

Rated 0 
I think that this song is pretty obviously about Jesus, but it is just beautiful any way you understand it. Sufjan has an amazing gift for making all sorts of points of view completely accessible to everyone. As a Christina, every line in this song makes sense when applied to Christ. But honestly, I can see how it can be about anything. When I was first getting into Sufjan, I didn't know anything about his faith, and was pretty sure it was an amazingly beautiful love song between two men. The tree part didn't really fit, but whatever. After a little while, I realized how it was about Christ, and it made the song much more personal for me. It is just amazing whatever your take on it.

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8394147
07-25-2007

Rated 0 
I liked this song a lot better when I thought it was about a gay guy rather than Jesus. Ew.

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Kt3mplar
07-29-2007

Rated 0 
I'd really prefer it if future posters prevented themselves (Christians) from being... overtly evangelical, and if others (non-Christians) could keep from being condescending. That's not what this site is about. Yes, the song is about Jesus, but that doesn't mean you have to come in here and start praising the man, nor criticizing him.

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Babajj
08-16-2007

Rated 0 
GUMMI

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Babajj
08-16-2007

Rated 0 
GUMMI

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angiemartin08
08-19-2007

Rated 0 
Kt3mplar, i think it's pretty ironic that you don't think people should "come in here and start praising the man" when that is excactly what Sufjan is doing in this song. He's praising Christ. How can you get around that? I dont understand why that is such an uncomfortable topic for people. People have been praising Christ for centuries. I am a Christian, but if I was reading or trying to interpret a song a Muslim or Jew had sung about their God, I wouldn't go about saying, "no don't talk about the way the writer has represented God in this song because i don't have the same beliefs as you do." thats ridiculous. If you leave Christ out of this song, not only does it not make sense, but it doesn't even have any real meaning, its just a pretty song and you might as well just forgot the lyrics. Thats just like being in denial.

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angiemartin08
08-19-2007

Rated 0 
Also by the way, who else do you know who has ever been up on a tree? Or given their ghost? i mean really, who else could this song logically be about, i feel like the lyrics are prrretty obvious....how could this be about first time gay lovee??! is that a jokeee?! i think its really sad that people are so let down and upset to find out that this song is about Jesus...imagine how that must make a Christian feel, to read that other people are upset that this song is about their God? Also, another point, is that in order to get into the nitty gritty of this song you have to talk about Jesus. Sometimes talking about Jesus involves praising Him, it sort of goes hand in hand....it goes along with explaining Christian principles and interpreting the meaning of the song, because that is what Sufjan is doing in this song, praising God. if people are praising Christ and relating Him to this song, its not because they want to convert you or that they are trying to offend you, its just that in order to understand the song you have to look at it from that perspective. the whole song is about how Jesus died for humankind, its sort of hard not to praise that or look at it negatively...if you make the death of Christ seem like no big deal or sort of brush it off or make fun of it, wishing the song was about something else, then i think THAT is really offensive.

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watch the sky x
09-29-2007

Rated 0 
A. I completely and totally agree with absolutely everything joeerickson said back on page two.
B. This song is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard in my life. It's so simple and calming and depicts my faith and my feelings toward God so much. I'm really not entirely sure what I would do without it. :(

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extragalactic
09-30-2007

Rated 0 
Ah, first, I'd like to point out that the line is 'You gave up your goals'. Not ghost. Of course, essentially, it doesn't change the meaning of the song too much, but nonetheless..

Second, I can see any view of this song as valid. Though, it's obvious, this is a spiritual Christian song just by Sufjan's genre, it doesn't negate the fact that he tends to write his songs with lyrics that remain ambiguous in true message. I think it's a nice aspect of him. Though his songs are, for the most part, Christian folk, he still writes them in a way that you don't have to be Christian or like Christian-music to enjoy his music.

This song, for me, just feels like a song of unconditional love. Whether you think it's about Jesus, spirituality, a love between a man and a woman or a man and a man, etc. There's just a feeling of a strong and loyal love and that everything inevitably is for that love. Romantic or no, depending on how you want to see this song, that love holds to be the most important thing. And being the softie I am, it just gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling when I hear this song.

That's just my little introspect on it.

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extragalactic
09-30-2007

Rated 0 
Eh, negate that 'up' in the lyric correction. I didn't notice I'd typed that.

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MJ503
10-08-2007

Rated 0 
Man. I've been listening to this song not paying attention to the lyrics for such a long time because its so beautiful sonically.

I came on here to check out the lyrics and see what people thought of the meaning, and I must say that finding out its an entire song about Jesus really dissapointed me. Its like when you first realize that Santa Claus isnt real, so every Christmas of your childhood after that is never the same.

(Yes there is irony in that analogy, but seriously nobody I know celebrates Christmas for religious reasons anymore.)

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solfa
10-13-2007

Rated 0 
to beulahrawk :
my take is that god is telling that ' I've never known a man who loved me ' to Jesus as the Second Verse is all about what god is telling to jesus . altough i dont believe in religion and .. , 5/5 in my winamp ratings .

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yo mamma!
11-05-2007

Rated 0 
thank you all for ruining this song for me. Jesus was a cool guy, but... goddamn it. I really dislike christianity in music. it just doesn't work. it makes me sick to my stomach.

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sweater_poorly_knit
11-11-2007

Rated 0 
trancer will you marry me?

you pretty much commented my thoughts word for word right now.


people on here should really try to stop freaking out on each other just becasue their opinion, its not cool man.

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theevilwriter
12-23-2007

Rated 0 
fursoftasfur is right. When he says "Gave up a wife and family" he doesn't mean that he put aside a real wife and family, or that he put aside some symbolic one, either. Gave up in this case means didn't have. He gave up the opportunity to have a wife and family. It's common enough to say a career woman gave up a husband and/or family to accomplish her work, and people don't mean she actually had kids or got married then, either.

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cows-fly
12-29-2007

Rated 0 
Hands down, Gummidemilo.

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yokadoka180
01-14-2008

Rated 0 
We are all God's children!

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