Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

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His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's t-shirts
When the swingset 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

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 sleight 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

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Lyrics submitted by attractivecousin

Track duration: 03:19


John Wayne Gacy, Jr. song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:One thing about Sufjan is that he really doesn't seem to care what you might think about what he is saying. That is a kind of courageous thing as long as he gets it right.
    Flag maclavianon April 18, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I don't think the line "in my best behavior I am really just like him" should be interpreted separately from the last line "look beneath the floor boards for the secrets I have hid." He's not saying that he's a murderer or capable of murder like John Wayne Gacy. He's saying he hides secrets underneath the surface like Gacy (who hid his victims in a crawl space "under the floorboards" in his home).
    Flag alferdjefferson March 05, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:A lot of you are saying that "And in my best behavior/I am really just like him/Look beneath the floor boards/For the secrets I have hid" means that he is a serial killer too. He is actually stating that we are capable to creating such horrible atrocities as Gacy because he was just as human as us. We all have our own secrets that we hid from the rest of the world. This is also an allusion to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" which is a story about a murder in which the murderer tares up the boards of the floor to put the heart of the victim in. The full story is here xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/…
    Flag noquesoon October 24, 2012   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:i think this song grapples with the fact that it all appeared "normal"- no one suspected anything and none of the boys expected something bad to happen to him...no one could have known, but then afterwards everyone thinks "are you one of them?"...it could've happened in any town, usa. and the victims (of the killer) could have been any one of us.
    Flagged reginaldcranmeron July 31, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Excellent song. I remember the week when the bodies were discovered...it was at a time when serial killing and homosexuality were still relatively unknowns (compared to today). I think the singer is saying we all have our dark sides (to different degrees, of course) and we each have bodies (sins and secrets) buried. I like the saying, "But for the grace of God go I." The singer is, in essense, saying I could have been the one with the messed up childhood; molested; emotionally victimized; and then became the tormentor.
    Flag ILUVUon May 27, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song makes a ot of sense to me. I've heard that Sufjan Stevens is religious, and in the Bible it teaches that all sins are equal, even ones like killing thirty-odd young boys. And I'm not trying to 'claim' Sufjan. That's just what the lyrics mean to me.
    Flag easterbasketpillowon November 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:And yeah i get that his childhood ws messed up and all didn`t mean he had to go and murder people...
    Flag bellarealityon October 29, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:the music is nice and all, but the whole gacy thing is kinda creepy....
    Flag bellarealityon October 29, 2011   Link
  • +2
    My Interpretation:I think that the last verse, which people seem to think means that Sufjan is a murderer, could relate to the lines "The neighbors they adored him. For his humor and his conversation." As a youngster Gacy was charming and people don't understand how such a nice boy could kill 33 people. Then the line at the end "and in my best behaviour I am really just like him," what's important are the words "best behaviour" - Sufjan isn't saying he's a bad person, he's saying that he, like all other men (and women) have the capacity to kill. He already has his secrets. Who's to say he doesn't have the ability to hide his own bodies?
    Flag rosiepeverellon September 10, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Just to clarify - Yes, John Wayne Gacy killed a total of 33 people, but only 27 were buried in his house. 26 in the crawl space, 1 under the dining room floor. He buried 1 more under a grill in his yard, and dumped 5 in a river when the crawl space got too crowded.

    Since the song only references bodies "underneath the house," 27 is the correct number.
    Flag masiefaceon September 09, 2011   Link

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