All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!

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In Michigan’s second track, Sufjan expands the instrumentation from the bare piano and… Read More

Jul. 1, 20031 viewer11K views

All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! Lyrics

[Verse 1]
All good thoughts in spite of righteousness
Is not the kind of thoughts in spite of greatness
Often not the State is advocation
If we form a power of recognition

[Verse 2]
Forget loss and perfect advocation
If it drops or stays in convocation
All we praise is all we want in commerce
All we praise is parties, foreign commerce
Entertain ideas of great communion
Shelter not materials in union
(All we praise is not the kind of commerce
That's the right solution!)

[Verse 3]
All good thoughts is not the act of doing
What we want but what we should. Improving
Properties, ideas, a woman's pleasure
Is empowered by love, a perfect measure!
(All we praise is not the kind of commerce
That's the right solution!)

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About

Genius Annotation

In Michigan’s second track, Sufjan expands the instrumentation from the bare piano and horn of Flint to the baroque chamber ensemble that could be called his signature sound. The track is carried by a 5/4 piano and drum figure (both performed by Sufjan). The backup vocalists are sisters Megan and Elin Smith of Danielson Famile and the myriad of other instruments are multi-tracked by Sufjan.

Sufjan employs a free-form style of lyricism that he uses often in Michigan and other albums. It takes the form of a jumble of thoughts and words loosely related by theme, ignoring sentence structure, grammar, and narrative. In All Good Naysayers, the central theme appears to be the struggles of the democratic process, or of governing a people in general.