Album: Illinois
Year: 2005
. . .
Road trip!
Another one of those songs that I love beyond all reasons, Sufjan Stevens grand and glorious travelogue “Chicago” is one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard about being a small-town young discovering the beauty and madness of the big city. And realizing that even if that experience somehow changes you, you’re still yourself, too. Just a different yourself.
With a keyboard introducing the swirling strings of The String Quartet and the offbeat drumbeats of James McAlister (unless it’s Sufjan, of course), “Chicago” starts big, but then drops down to just a keyboard underneath Sufjan as he talks about one of those road trips.
I fell in love again
All things go, all things go
Drove to Chicago
All things know, all things know
We sold our clothes to the state
I don’t mind, I don’t mind
I made a lot of mistakes
In my mind, in my mind
The brutal brilliance of the lyrics of “Chicago” are right there in that opening verse: he’s his own greek chorus commenting on the story — “all things, go,” “all things know” “I don’t mind” — gives us the perspective that he’s not telling the story as it is happening, but rather looking back at something that happened, and still trying figure out what exactly it was.
Helping out: The Illinoisemaker Choir, who help him sing a chorus that soars like Superman:
You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow
We had our mindset
All things know, all things know
You had to find it
All things go, all things go
I love “to recreate us,”as it gets to the double meaning of “recreation,” the simple one of just having fun and the more profound hidden meaning about these road trips changing him forever.
The second verse finds Sujfan driving to New York with his friend, where they were sleeping in parking lots in their van. I don’t recall doing that on our road trips, but if we didn’t drive back to Fresno after the concert — it was almost always because of live music — then we crammed eight people into a hotel room with two double beds and drank until we could fall asleep. And just like Sufjan, I made a lot of mistakes, at least in my mind, in my mind.
After the second chorus, there’s a long trumpet solo by Craig Montoro, which is just basically playing the melody of the song, and it probably exists mostly to give some space between that chorus and the utterly broken-down bridge, which is nearly Sufjan all by himself over some sad strings.
If I was crying
In the van, with my friend
It was for freedom
From myself and from the land
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
I made a lot of mistakes
“I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes.” Hoo-boy, honey, you don’t know the half of it! My entire twenties and the early part of my thirties was just one mistake after another. And even when I learned from my mistakes, I just made different mistakes. Turns out the amount of mistakes you can make is nearly infinite. Who knew? Oh, right, everybody.
Which is why when the Illnoisemaker Choir comes in for the final choir, it’s not over the soaring strings and drums, but rather over some keyboards, and when the drums do come back in full bore and they’re “all things go,” “all things grow” and “all things know” Sufjan is still on about his mistakes, because it’s hard sometimes not to let them overwhelm you.
Just like it’s hard sometimes not to let this song overwhelm you, as it’s both endlessly gorgeous and endlessly deep, in every different version that’s out there. All things go.
“Chicago”
“Chicago” Live on Austin City Limits, 2006
“Chicago” live in San Francisco
“Chicago (Demo)”
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