This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
In the delta sun, down in Arkansas
It’s the great god bird with its altar call
And the sewing machine, the industrial god
On the great bayou where they saw it fall
It’s the great god bird down in Arkansas
And the hunters beware, or the fishers fall
And paradise might close from its safe flight flawed
It’s the great god bird through it all
And the watchers beware, lest they see it fall
And paradise might laugh when at last it falls
And the sewing machine, the industrial god
And it’s the great god bird with its altar call
Yes, it’s the great god bird with its altar call
Yes, it’s the great god bird through it all
It’s the great god bird with its altar call
And the sewing machine, the industrial god
On the great bayou where they saw it fall
It’s the great god bird down in Arkansas
And the hunters beware, or the fishers fall
And paradise might close from its safe flight flawed
It’s the great god bird through it all
And the watchers beware, lest they see it fall
And paradise might laugh when at last it falls
And the sewing machine, the industrial god
And it’s the great god bird with its altar call
Yes, it’s the great god bird with its altar call
Yes, it’s the great god bird through it all
Lyrics submitted by NotCoolZeus, edited by meaning600
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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why are so many people so reluctant to admit that a lot of sufjan songs have religious material in them? are all you hipsters afraid that your boy sufjan is a devout christian (which he is), which would make him totally uncool and against the hipster code? get over it. this song obviously has a religious undertone to it. sufjan stevens isn't going to write a song about the ivory-billed woodpecker. he's going to use it to portray something else, something deeper. if you look at the song, it only makes sense that at least part of it is inspired by his faith. the other interpretations make sense too, but i think there is definitely a religious element to this song, just like a whole lot of other sufjan songs.
I love this song so much. I love how peacefull it is.
i wonder why sufjan never says "lord god bird," like the title. so beautiful.
I love this song as well. You can get it from the NPR website for free at:
npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc88/index.html
Does anyone know what this song means?
i also love this song but was stuck for meaning.... this link shojuld explain it mostly..it speaks of an extinct bird known as the lord god bird... cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/13/60minutes/main940587.shtml
ivorybill.org has some more information on the Lord God bird. Perhaps an analogy... great god bird: God :: sewing machine : the industrial god (man). Is the lyric "alter call" right? Should it be "altar" call?
"Altar Calls" are usually testimonies given. The bird's still alive, testifiying that it's made it despite technological advancements. Arkansas is truly still the Natural state: a good thing!
From the Christian point of view, this song is quite easy to interpret.
The "Lord God Bird" is God. We, as humans, are the sewing machines "industrial gods" "And the hunters beware, or the fishers fall And paradise might close from its safe flight flawed" I take this to mean that for the people who hunt and fish for other beliefs other than that of God, "paradise" or heaven, is closed to them because of this flaw.
"Yes it's the great God bird through it all"
What's are you all's thoughts on this interpretation?
The Christian thing may be a bit of a stretch. Why would "sewing machines" be humans? I always took it to mostly be just a song inspired by the story of the bird; on a deeper level, it seems to be about the fall of nature in the rise of modernity.
The Christian thing may be a bit of a stretch. Why would "sewing machines" be humans? I always took it to mostly be just a song inspired by the story of the bird; on a deeper level, it seems to be about the fall of nature in the rise of modernity.