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Jesus Saves, I Spend Lyrics
While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my days
in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day I'm inside a still life with the other absentee While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days in the garden-grey pallor of lines across your face While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made I'm sitting and sculpting menageries of saints Oh, my man my absentee I'd do anything to please you Come my love the stage is waiting Be the one to save my saving grace While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my grace on rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made through storms of red roses we've exited the stage |
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10-26-2009
It seems to me that she writes about being stuck somehow, in the background, unable to participate in a salvation that so many other seem so freely and easily to embrace. Jesus saves, and I spend .. my days, my grace, all of it ending in grand spectacle that doesnt mean much of anything. You might call this a "pro-Christian" viewpoint, I suppose, but Jesus could also be a metaphor for something that is appealing in mainstream culture, that feels inaccessible to the artist.
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06-14-2009
Anyway, I thought the song talked about how while Jesus saves people constantly, she's spending her time performing for people.
The lines - While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made and While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made / through storms of red roses we've exited the stage - talk about how people praise her music and career when she acknowledges her success and talent are nothing to compare with Jesus.
Oh, my man my absentee / I'd do anything to please you..here I think she is also talking about Jesus.
06-21-2009
06-20-2009
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06-08-2009
08-30-2007
"to me, this song seems to be a criticism of sufjan stevens and his religious zealotry, and how awkward it feels to be a secular backup singer for an extremely pro-christ musician who's reached superstardom"
I have to disagree with you, BUT i do understand where your coming from. If Sufjan Stevens and St. Vincent, were to create some sort of play or script with eachother in it. I could see Sufjan Stevens playing Jesus, and St. Vincent or (Annie Clark) playing Satan. Remeber its just for pretend, its a play. But Seeing the relation both have to god, this would be a very entertaining play to see.
I made this assuption because of her many other songs, and myself being a fan of both her and sufjan's music. I also see Sufjan as using his real name or (True Self) in his band/music, and St Vincent uses her (False Self) a made up egotistical name.
06-10-2009
Come my love the stage is waiting, Be the one to save my saving grace."
Is her in another persons perspective and is also sarcastic. It's in the perspective of someone who is saving because the next stanza starts with, "While Jesus is saving I'm spending all my grace."
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05-08-2009
I have absolutely no idea what she is talking about in this song.
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05-07-2009
:D
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08-12-2008
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06-23-2008
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05-22-2008
i've read several interviews, and annie has expressed nothing but admiration for sufjan as a musician and a person. there's an interview with the onion av club which touches (briefly) on the religious imagery in her music.
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03-27-2008
I think it talks about christians making a big fuzz and a big show out of things ("While people are spinning like toys on Christmas day") while in reality, they're doing very little, or simply a big mess. I believe that she pokes fun at the christian sub-culture (in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints).
This song feeds my frustration and annoyance with the general Christian population. Being one myself, I struggle with the identity and sub-culture.
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11-06-2007
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11-02-2007
Also, the idea of being saved is supposed to be giving yourself up to God, or Jesus or whatever. I think she's saying why not spend the grace we have here, which she seems to be doing with whoever this man is.
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11-02-2007
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10-12-2007
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09-20-2007
Anyway, why would she tour with Sufjan if she didn't at least support him in his beliefs? Obviously the actual meaning behind the music is what draws musicians together.
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09-11-2007
06-28-2009
Anyways. The first thing I thought of when I considered "the other absentee" of Christmas was Satan, which... might be a little obvious, considering, you know, the title and all that jazz, but then she's also "scultpting saints" (which... how would people become saints without something to preach against or others to martyr them for it?).
You could argue that the garden (with the gray pallor) is a reference to Adam and Eve's fallen paradise. And along the lines of color symbolism, the first stanza doesn't mention any (although everything's portrayed as divinely good rather than bad), the next mentions gray (purgatory? And she's "sitting and scultping"-- she's not as inactive as in the first stanza where it's a still life, but she's still definitely not doing much, which is within the concept of purgatory, yes?), and the final stanza has lots and lots of red (Hell, if I needed to tell you. She's finally both involved and active here, too).
I can't say that I'm sure what I think this means, but... I grew up Catholic and have taken any number of lit courses; it's in my blood to point out religious references, alright? Haha. Anyways... it does seem to be tracing her from being in the background in something divine, to just being present in something neutral (I guess regular people could be said to create saints, too, with their wickenesses and potential to be saved and tendencies to persecution), to finally being front and center in something entirely removed from grace but adored (even though by now she's a bit disparaging of it-- it's not a grand finale but "a mess we've made"). Then they exit the stage. Which would be dying. All in a metaphor for life or showbiz, where as soon as you've "made it" you're disenchanted with the whole thing and just leave?
I dunno. It seems too obvious... but I definitely don't see how the Sufjan connection is anything but an association-based leap.
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08-30-2007
"I'm spending all my days
in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints"
perhaps the following lyrics suggest that sufjan is not as innocent and christ-like as he'd have the public believe:
"While people will cheer on the spectacle we've made"
"While people have cheered on the awful mess we've made"
this is, naturally and of course, speculation from the point of view of a morally bankrupt christ-hater.
06-08-2009
08-30-2007
"to me, this song seems to be a criticism of sufjan stevens and his religious zealotry, and how awkward it feels to be a secular backup singer for an extremely pro-christ musician who's reached superstardom"
I have to disagree with you, BUT i do understand where your coming from. If Sufjan Stevens and St. Vincent, were to create some sort of play or script with eachother in it. I could see Sufjan Stevens playing Jesus, and St. Vincent or (Annie Clark) playing Satan. Remeber its just for pretend, its a play. But Seeing the relation both have to god, this would be a very entertaining play to see.
I made this assuption because of her many other songs, and myself being a fan of both her and sufjan's music. I also see Sufjan as using his real name or (True Self) in his band/music, and St Vincent uses her (False Self) a made up egotistical name.
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08-26-2007
Summary of Song: A description of her journey and movement from background to foreground on the stage and what it took for her to get there.
1. [in backgrounds and landscapes with the languages of saints] Certain lyrics seem to describe this artists previous experience in the background. If I'm correct she did a lot of work in groups of people but didn't do much solo work.
2. [While Jesus is saving, I'm spending all my days/grace] Perhaps this is a reference to how much work she had to put into marketing herself for this adventure. I think the spending all my grace line is in reference to how much of a toll she may feel her friend s and family take on so that she can create an album and find her own sound.
3. [Come my love the stage is waiting/on rosy-red pallor of lights on center stage/etc.] Perhaps anticipation of getting to share her music and thoughts with other people? It sounds to me like she's looking forward to it and she hopes it goes well (which it is).
That would just be my take on it. I might be completely wrong.
I love this song and this entire album. I got to see her perform live as an opening act for Arcade Fire when they played Vancouver's Deer Lake Park in May! She rocks!
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