Sufjan Stevens - Detroit, Lift Up You Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!) + LYRICS + STORY

Sufjan Stevens - Michigan (2003)

Sufjan Stevens - Michigan :

"Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)" 3:43
"All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!" 4:33
"For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti" 3:57
"Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!" 2:45
"The Upper Peninsula" 3:23
"Tahquamenon Falls" 2:18
"Holland" 3:26
"Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!)" 8:20
"Romulus" 4:41
"Alanson, Crooked River" 1:18
"Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie" 2:52
"They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black (For the Homeless in Muskegon)" 6:21
"Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" 9:23
"Redford (For Yia-Yia & Pappou)" 2:02
"Vito's Ordination Song" 7:06

Bonus :

"Marching Band" -- 3:41
"Niagara Falls" -- 2:22
"Pickerel Lake" -- 3:11
"Presidents and Magistrates" -- 4:16
"Wolverine" -- 2:10
"Vito's Ordination Song (Demo)" -- 5:25

Once a great place, now a prison
All I can say, all I can do
People mover: bad decision
From suburban, now a prison
All I can say, all I can do

From the trembling walls, its a great idea!
Everything you want, its a great idea!

Once a great place, now a prison
All I can say, all I can do

Henry Ford, Henry Ford
Public trans, public trans
Pontiac, Pontiac
Feed the poor, feed the poor
City Hall, City Hall
Windsor Park, Windsor Park
Saginaw, Saginaw
After dark, after dark
Tigers game, Tigers game
Eighty-four, eighty-four
Industry, industry
Unemployed, unemployed
Gun control, gun control
Wolverine, wolverine
Iroquois, Iroquois
Industry, industry
Public trans, public trans
Auto cars, auto cars
Jefferson, Jefferson
Michigan, Michigan

From the trembling walls, its a great idea!
Everything you want, its a great idea!
From the Renaissance, its a great idea!
Everything you want, its a great idea!
Throw them all away, its a great idea!
From the Renaissance, its a great idea!
Everything you want
(Hesitate to burn the buildings)


Sufjan Stevens on Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!)
Oh Detroit, you complicated old man, nearly dead, with your shoulders arched over the river, polluted and grey, the threads of your shirt worn down with disease and car exhaust. You have grown fat and thin with industry, car factories, Motown music, riots, raids, transportation nightmares. You have eaten Coney dogs with relish and onion. You have built magnificent buildings only to burn them. Your children’s children have squandered their dowry. They piss on the streets. They throw trash in the trees and hang their laundry on ropes fit for hanging.
Oh Detroit, what have you done to the black man, his wife and kids, his cousins, his music, his hairstyles, his shoes with white tips, his pleated pants, his elbow slung out the car window, his basketball courts, his officers downtown, his nightclub, his shirtsleeves tucked over a pack of Pall Malls, his imagination, his industry, his sense of humor, his home?
Oh Detroit, what have you done to city hall, the public trains, the workers’ union, the Eastern Market, Boblo Island, the Ambassador Bridge? Where have you put your riches, where have you hid your treasure? Your concrete over-passes, your avenues as wide as rivers, your suburbs bloated with brick homes and strip malls and discount liquor stores and resale shops. Where have you hid our grandmother’s ukulele, the swimming pool out back, the lawn chairs, the car seats wrapped in plastic? Where are the rain shakers and the basketball nets? Where are the full court presses, the sneakers tied to phone lines, the windows broken in, the crazy old man on his porch yelling profanities, the old woman with the African statues in the stairwell, the kids with bikes with flat tires, the stray cats and guard dogs and prophylactics thrown in alleyways.
Oh Detroit, when you are dead and gone, who will care for your children’s children. They have run wild with the bastard boys around the streets, reckless car rides downtown, rigorous dancing, drug taking, knife-stabbing, pillow-stuffing, tail wagging restlessness. They have been drunk with this for years. They have been out of their minds. They have been left with nothing.

Category:

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[thepurplebottle6]

ha, I live in MI. I love Sufjan..even for making an album about this shitty state

[ProyectMooneJazzers]

If he were to finish his 50 state project , although i believe there are 52(i'm european) i wouldn't have to leave my house to have a tour of America.

[mayabelle1107]

inquisitive monkey wants to know... Why isn't this a more appreciated artist?

[leeeeuwtje]

@ProyectMooneJazzers True to that!

[thepurplebottle6]

@BartolBabich you would hate hard on the state youre from if you lived in the worst part of it, in the middle of bum fuck no where. at least youre in the city man.. d town is whatsup.

[BartolBabich]

@thepurplebottle6 If you were truly from Michigan, you wouldn't hate so hard on the state you're from. After telling people where I am from, they have a greater respect for me. Might be because I tell them I'm from Detroit, but whatever. They just don't want to be shanked.

[7FridayGirl109]

@ProyectMooneJazzers New York state.

[ProyectMooneJazzers]

@7FridayGirl109

Where are you from? I have read somewhere that there are 50 states, but if you consider the 7 commonwealth and territories you get 57 states...

[7FridayGirl109]

@ProyectMooneJazzers There are 50 states and a few territories.

[kindalyosha]

Awful static.