You are the blood flowing through my fingers
All through the soil and up in those trees

You are electricity and you're light
You are sound itself and you are flight

You are the blood flowing through my fingers
All through the soil and up in those trees
You are electricity and you're light
You are sound itself and you are flight
You are the blood flowing through my fingers
All through the soil and up in those trees
You are the bood flowing through my fingers

You are the blood that I may see you
That I may see you
You are the blood in me

You are the earth on which I travel
On which I travel
You are the earth under my feet
That I may travel
That I may travel with you
You are the earth on which I write the circumstances
You say what you want from me
You are the solitude that goes against me
That goes against me
You are the quiet in which I dream
In which I sleep, in which I wander



Lyrics submitted by Sunset Rubdown


You Are the Blood (Castanets cover) song meanings
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10 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Possibly. But not *every* song Sufjan writes or records is about Jesus. (And, as Captain Obvious would say, this is a cover.)

    As WheresPoochie pointed out in their analysis, it's all in the arrangement.

    It's about love, death, fear, glory, all those things, I think. And a truly remarkable composition to boot, complete (and replete) with one of the most literally *awesome* codas in modern rock music.
    Flag Cynothoglyson December 08, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:it's about christ, life-giving and beautiful.
    Flag ohitsgloriouson August 30, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:If there is a meaning behind this non-sequitur epic it will probably lie within the arrangement. IMO, the songs different sections play as the linear mental stages an AIDS victim would go through (not that I know how an AIDS victim feels as this is a total presumption). It's start off scary, angry and intense and at some goes into a brief but effective moment of disjointed and somewhat electronic noises, to give off a feeling of torture or pain. After that, however, the song mellows with the speaker (or victim, if you will) excepting the blood in him ("You are the earth on which I travel") even if it's killing him because it has done him so much good throughout his life.

    The rest of the song is turbulent but with no words because the man has nothing else to say: he has excepted his fate and will fight to the very end.
    Flag WheresPoochieon August 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is amazing.
    Flag jjcxon July 15, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the almost discordant brass
    so wonderful
    Flag lujkon May 25, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is so unexpected from him and i'm really hoping to hear an new album from sufjan that goes more in this direction. this is one of my fav tracks. definitely agreed though, the entire compilation is really great.
    Flag carlinbon April 21, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:This is a great song and the original is great too. i personally prefer the first 6 minutes of sufjans version but after that it gets away from me. the whole 'dark was the night' album blows my mind though. 100% beauty on an album
    Flag jmb5346on March 05, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Love this, a ton.
    I've never gotten sick of Sufjan but I've been craving something new from him.
    I hope his next album sounds something a bit like this.
    It's so cool and addicting and I love the message within it even though it wasn't written by him.
    Flag LovePeaceRachelon February 24, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:also, im not sure if he actually says choir, its hard to tell what he says there. im pretty sure everything else is right though
    Flag Sunset Rubdownon January 30, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is a castanets cover. personally i prefer sufjans version. this song is on the AIDS benefit album, Dark Was The Night. it comes out February 16th
    Flag Sunset Rubdownon January 29, 2009   Link

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