Lyrics for They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighb... as interpreted by Nimbus the Kitten

They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighb... Lyrics
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Ring the bell and call or write us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Can you call the Captain Clitus?
Logan, Grant, and Ronald Reagan
In the grave with Xylophagan
Do you know the ghost community?
Sound the horn, address the city

(Who will save it? Dedicate it?
Who will praise it? Commemorate it for you?)

We are awakened with the axe
Night of the Living Dead at last
They have begun to shake the dirt
Wiping their shoulders from the earth
I know, I know the nations past
I know, I know they rust at last
They tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot

I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Ring the bell and call or write us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Can you call the Captain Clitus?
B-U-D-A! Caledonia!
S-E-C-O-R! Magnolia!
B-I-R-D-S! And Kankakee!
Evansville and Parker City

Speaking their names, they shake the flag
Waking the earth, it lifts and lags
We see a thousand rooms to rest
Helping us taste the bite of death
I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot

I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Ring the bell and call or write us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Can you call the Captain Clitus?
Comer and Potato Peelers!
G-R-E-E-N Ridge! Reeders
M-C-V-E-Y! And Horace!
E-N-O-S! Start the chorus

Corn and farms and tombs in Lemmon
Sailor Springs and all things feminine
Centerville and Old Metropolis
Shawneetown, you trade and topple us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Hold your tongue and don't divide us
I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S!
Land of God, you hold and guide us

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MixedUpConfusion
07-09-2005

Rated 0 
One of the best songs on the album in my opinion. Absolutely amazing.

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flybillisfly
07-12-2005

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just the name makes me smile.

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blackemma
08-17-2005

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My own interpretation is that this song is about the general ressurection. If anyone's unfamiliar, the general resurrection is a belief that is common to classical Judaism as well as orthodox Christianity, which is basically that at some point in the future the god of Israel would resurrect the dead, with the righteous being welcomed into the messianic kingdom. (The whole obsession with the afterlife is a later mistake.)

A lot of the imagery, as well as the terminology, in this song is taken from classical Judaism. The nations, in Jewish thought, was basically a word for the non-Jewish world. In the messianic age, Israel would be vindicated. This is where the lines 'I know, I know the nations past/I know they rust at last' fit in. The language about the axe is reminiscent of John the Baptist, who announced with very vivid imagery, including that of an axe being laid to the root of a tree, that Israel's god was issuing judgment upon his people.

A lot of the imagery can be made sense of if I'm right, including the sounding of the horns, which was apocalyptic imagery for the arrival of the kingdom. It's kind of funny then that people focus so much on Sufjan's Christianity, which of course informs a lot of his music, when an equal amount of his imagery is derived, consciously or not, from the Jewish tradition.

... Of course, I could be entirely wrong and this song is actually about zombies coming to eat people. I dunno.

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afoolintherain
08-24-2005

Rated 0 
That was really interesting and could be right blackemma. I dont know alot about religion so that didnt occur to me at all, but your explanation doesnt explain some parts to me. For example, when hes naming towns and says "you trade and topple us" and earlier in the song when he says "They tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot". I think he is talking about the old and the dead not being on the minds of the young enough. i think hes saying the past is important and everyone should study history and know history (clearly sufjan is interested in it being a folk artist and by undertaking the 50 states project and talking about the histories of each state for the album).
These lyrics also make me believe that this song is about needing to remember the past, " I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot"
and these a little earlier
"(Who will save it? Dedicate it?
Who will praise it? Commemorate it for you?)"
I think the last two selections are supposed to tell the young of today another reason we should remember the past is because we want to be remembered someday.

- donald

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afoolintherain
08-24-2005

Rated 0 
That was really interesting and could be right blackemma. I dont know alot about religion so that didnt occur to me at all, but your explanation doesnt explain some parts to me. For example, when hes naming towns and says "you trade and topple us" and earlier in the song when he says "They tremble with the nervous thought Of having been, at last, forgot". I think he is talking about the old and the dead not being on the minds of the young enough. i think hes saying the past is important and everyone should study history and know history (clearly sufjan is interested in it being a folk artist and by undertaking the 50 states project and talking about the histories of each state for the album).
These lyrics also make me believe that this song is about needing to remember the past, " I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot"
and these a little earlier
"(Who will save it? Dedicate it?
Who will praise it? Commemorate it for you?)"
I think the last two selections are supposed to tell the young of today another reason we should remember the past is because we want to be remembered someday.

- donald

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AIRPORT
08-29-2005

Rated 0 
For me this song is, in essence, about the impermanence of all things.

Just look at the third and fourth lines
"Logan, Grant, and Ronald Reagan
In the grave with Xylophagan"

Shows how great men like these are now laid low (xylophagan being a species of beetle.)

He then turns much of his attention to even larger matters -how cities and civilisations can die.
"Do you know the ghost community?"

"I know, I know the nations past
I know, I know they rust at last" -speaking here about how great civilisations can be laid just as low as the figures he talks about in the first verse.

"They tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot"
- I love these lines. He's talking again about how things which seemed so huge and permanent to people at the time eventualy were wiped up and forgotten. It's sort of like that Jospeh Stalin quote: "the death of one is a tragedy, the death of millions is just a statistic."

In the third verse his thoughts of death peak when he things about his own death:
"We see a thousand rooms to rest
Helping us taste the bite of death"
- here he talks about how we should be prepared for death having seen it so often, yet we never are.

The places which are named in the choruses are places in Illinoise which are ghost towns. (Shawneetown being one of the more famous.) He's obviously done his research.

I love how the theme of zombies ties the whole thing together. Night of the Living Dead was shot in Pennsylvania though so I'm not too sure of the reason...

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ilikestuffandyou
12-13-2005

Rated 0 
hey now, Kankakee isint a ghost town. It might as well be, but theres a good 60, 70000 people in the k3 area. I think that line in the chorus names towns with three syllables in Illinois, so it sounds good

but yes. The song is amazing. and about the ressurection. With the obiligarty Illinois references thrown in.

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ilikestuffandyou
12-13-2005

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the ressurection being old Rust Belt towns, having been stricken with severe unemployment and degeneration after industry left, are rebuilding themselves

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apotheosize!
12-14-2005

Rated 0 
i think that kankakee is something like the second most impovirshed county in the nation (don't mean to offend anyone).
the line "i tremble with the thought of having been at last forgot" is so amazing.
my favorite thing about the song is how each of the instruments come in in the beginning. it's a beautiful combination of instruments.

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cman
12-24-2005

Rated 0 
I'd just like to add that Caledonia was an old latin term for Scotland and Buda was a term for part of Hungary. They're both archaic terms, so in that part he's talking about names of places that have been forgotten over time.

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ilikestuffandyou
12-26-2005

Rated 0 
caledonia is a near-deserted town in illinois. All these cities are. Cept kankakee. K3 pride yall.

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Solid Snake
01-15-2006

Rated 0 
Sufjan tries to go to the disco, but there are Zombie problems! Uh-oh. the chanted words can be kind of confusing but what's important to know is that "Captain Clitus" is the captain who Brutus asked to kill him in "Julius Caesar". In my opinion, This song is about the frustration of the undead, never knowing true rest.

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sensitivetofate
01-22-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about the downtrodden rising to claim their destiny, whatever that might be.

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Dante G
01-27-2006

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I think it's about zombies. The night of the living dead. Even the narrator is one of them:

I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot

That's what a zombie would say... If he could speak...

It could also be about ressurrection like you've said, but to me it sounds like zombies' story

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The_Variable
01-31-2006

Rated 0 
It's not just about a zombie though Dante....every song on the album deals with Illinoise in some way.

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sadponygorillagirl
02-07-2006

Rated 0 
Man I love this song.The musical arragments are amazing. Sufjan is a creat singer/songwriter and I will love his work until I die.

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Horatiowise
02-08-2006

Rated 0 
Yes. This song is incredible. Sufjan Stevens is an amazing composer. I too will love his work until I die and become a NIGHT ZOMBIE.

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nebulasinbloom
02-13-2006

Rated 0 
yay once again. ahh sufjan, who would ever forget you? but i really like the lines "who will save it? dedicate it? who will praise it? commemerate it for you?" the eternal paranoia of what people are going to say about you after your dead. maybe its not supposed to be but i think its pretty humerous actually. i get most of the other refrencesto stuff thats died, but why is he spelling birds in the middle of it? confusion.

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sufjan_godly
04-16-2006

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i really have to go with the idea of this referring to the ressurection. I have read/seen many interviews with sufjan and he has a pretty heavy religious background...also, whenever sufjan holds "forgot" and his voice goes up and down...sends shivers down my spine everytime

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zachharrisment
06-26-2006

Rated 0 
Although Sufjan Stevens brilliantly weaves religioun into each empty nook and crany in his songs, each song on his two "States albums" has a real world story which he is telling.

In this song he is talking about a large number of towns in Illinios which have changed their names over years in order to change. These towns were engulfed in poverty and such, so changing their names was changeing their identity. If they were no longer the name of a town in poverty, they were no longer in poverty, right?

This constant change of identity resulted in the people there being left rather displaced. They already had no job, no house, no lives, and now on top of that they did not have a city for more than a year. They lost their identities as the names changed.

This song is the uprising chant of all of those disposesed citizens who were forgotten as a result of all the poverty and public policy. They are back to claim the lives and the towns that were theirs. They say, "Look out all you who reaped benefits from our untimely demise!"

As the title states, they are neighbors. They are the people all around us whom we ignore, who we refuse to help. They are back from the dead and are here to judge us for what we have done or done none of.

There is the religous undertone: honor thy neighbor, for judgement day is near.

Sufjan Stevens talked a little about the history behind this song and others on a radio interview which is available as a podcast from "KPBS These Days."

I'm not sure what the website is but I'm sure google won't fail you if you are in search of it.

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CheckOutMyWheaties
08-22-2006

Rated 0 
I love the title too.

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AncientNova
09-30-2006

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I'm not sure, but I actually thought this song was about ths suburbs or something. I mostly got that idea from the lines:

"...Ring the bell and call or write us...
...We see a thousand rooms to rest
Helping us taste the bite of death
I know, I know my time has passed
I'm not so young, I'm not so fast
I tremble with the nervous thought
Of having been, at last, forgot"

Mostly since the suburbs are often seen as a place of stagnation, and sometimes where great minds and activists go to "die" or be forgotten, and comparing them to zombies (no offense, I actually live in a suburb myself :D ). But then again, I see the stuff about ghost towns, so I'm not sure.

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Colin B.
11-21-2006

Rated -1 
My god. Talk about pretentious song titles. Does Sufjan thrive on this?

Honestly, this song is shit. Much like many of Sufjan's. Flame me all you want but it is true. Pitchforkers praise Sufjan like he is some indie god. Truth be told, his lyrics are mediocre. The guy goes to a library and then recites his notes with a melody. It is hilarious.

Sometimes, I feel like he wants to be Elliott Smith. Well, that isn't going to happen. Elliott wrote how he felt, Sufjan just mimics the feelings. Better luck next time!



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auxocrome
01-14-2007

Rated 0 
Best. Song title. Evah.

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schnayel
02-17-2007

Rated 0 
my friend sent me this song when i was depressed to cheer me up.

the i.l.l.i.n.o.iiiiii.s. bit makes my day everytime i hear it.

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