fourth of july - sufjan stevens // lyrics

Video Overview & Insights

I only created the video, not the music and lyrics.

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Site: https://music.sufjan.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sufjanstevens

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4MXUO7sVCaFgFjoTI5ox5c

This song is a conversation between Sufjan and his mother, Carrie, while she was dying in the hospital. Each stanza alternates between them.

Sufjan spoke of this time in an interview:

She had stomach cancer, and it was a quick demise. We flew to see her in the ICU before she died. She was in a lot of pain, and on a lot of drugs, but she was aware. It was so terrifying to encounter death and have to reconcile that, and express love, for someone so unfamiliar. Her death was so devastating to me.

Lyrics:

*The evil it spread like a fever ahead: This mirrors the language used to talk about a cancer spreading.

*Oh could I be the sky on the Fourth of July?: The Fourth of July is customarily celebrated in the United States with extravagant fireworks. Sufjan yearns to be the beautiful display in the sky, bringing light (life) back to the darkness (death).