Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Sufjan Stevens

John Wayne Gacy Jr. was executed in 1994 for the rape and murder of 33 boys and young men. Twenty seven of these he buried in a crawl space under the floor of his house. He dressed up as a clown and threw parties for his neighbors in Chicago. Sufjan Stevens' brilliant 2005 concept album Illinoise, has what has to be one of the best songs about a serial killer out there. I have yet to find an authorized Sufjan Stevens clip anywhere. The video below is something someone (Claire Carre) created using educational films from the 50s and some family footage. I think it's quite good.

Another great song off the same album is Casimir Pulaski Day in which the singer's adolescent love dies of cancer. This video of the song, simply made by someone driving around on a snow day, is strangely fitting with the song's melancholy mood.

2 comments:

SB said...

You know me, I like live music:
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/sufjan/video/x3imey_sufjan-stevens-john-wayne-gacy-jr-l_music

My favorite Sufjan song is The Mistress Witch from McClure which can be watched here (starting at about 6 minutes, 20 seconds into the video).
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x23g2t_50-the-take-away-shows-musicnow-fes_creation

banjo music rocks!
-bno

Jozie said...

"For The Widows In Paradise, For The Fatherless In Ypsilanti" is my favorite Sufjan song and at least there is a semi normal video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4tkiGvV_ek