Album: All Delighted People EP
Year: 2010
. . .
Out of all of the who knows how many songs I’ll eventually end up writing about, my guess is that “Djohariah” is in the top 1% of the “you either fully love this song or utterly despise it” category. Because I can’t see any other reaction to a 17-minute song from a brother to his sister where the actual lyrics don’t really start until 11 minutes in.
Despite the fact that All Delighted People is billed as an EP, “Djohariah” is two minutes longer than The Clash’s Cost of Living EP and only slightly shorter than the Pretenders Extended Play EP. Though, that said, it is a minute or so shorter than Future Certain Song “Close to The Edge,” so there’s that.
It’s self-indulgent as all hell. Though not even the most self-indulgent thing Sufjan released in 2010. And I don’t think I would remove even a single second.
And so it starts of with a muted horn section, a chorus cooing “oooooh-ooooooooh” and a drum pattern that won’t quite stick to itself. And then the guitar comes in. And sticks around, getting crazier and crazier and crazier, until it’s eventually doing some kind of free-jazz skronk shredding.
There are no credits on All Delighted People, so I’m assuming that much of it is played by Sufjan, especially the utterly crazed guitar, which goes and goes and goes as the chorus switches up to chanting “Djohari Djohariah” over and over, eventually taking over the song about six minutes in while Sufjan hoses down his guitar for a bit.
But only for a bit, because his guitar ain’t done fucking around, and so it comes back in with the envelope follower sound that Pete Townshend used on “Going Mobile” while the choir has switched back to the “oohhhhhh-oohhhhhh” and it’s all getting more and more intense rising higher and higher and higher especially when they then go back to the “Djohari Djohariah” chant and now the drums are also going nuts and it and its all incredibly gorgeous and crazy intense until the guitar finally just explodes in Sufjan’s hands, leaving the choir to chant over horns and skittering drums, until about the 12th minute, when over just a couple of twinkling guitars Sufjan finally starts singing about his sister and her fucked-up life.
I know you won’t get very far
With the back seat driver in the carpetbagger
With the dagger heart grabber stuck in your carAnd the yard is grown to a hilt
And the money spent money spent where it went
Embarrassment, embarrassment to pay for the carAnd the man who left you for dead
He’s the heart grabber back stabber double cheater wife beater
You don’t need that man in your life
But then he tells her not to worry, not to cry, but to persevere, because in his words:
For the mother is, the mother is the glorious victorious
The mother of the heart of the world
Most of this part is sung at the top end of his vocal range, with maybe some high harmonies from somebody else — like I said, no credits — with occasional interjections of “Djohari Djohariah” until he finishes with:
Go on! Little sister! Go on!
For your world is yours, world is yours
All the wilderness of the world is yours to enjoy
It goes without saying that this second part is ridiculously lovely and totally counterpoints the crazed opening section, though it does end with a bunch of vocal overdubs all singing different things all anchored by handclaps (!), until it eventually finishes with one last piece of encouragement.
Go on! Little sister! Go on!
For you’re beautiful, beautiful
All the fullness of the world is yours
Needless to say “Djohariah” is quite a ride, a song that contains multitudes, both figuratively and literally.
“Djohariah”
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