The Great God Bird

I love this song.

In the delta sun,
down in Arkanasas,
it’s the Great God Bird with its altar-call

and the sewing machine
the industrial god
on the great bayou where they saw it fall
it’s the Great God Bird down in Arkansas

And the hunters beware,
or the fishers fall
and Paradise might close, from its safe flight flawed,
it’s the Great God Bird through it all

And the waters beware
lest they see it fall
and Paradise might laugh when at last it falls

and the sewing machine
the industrial god
it’s the Great God Bird with its altar-call
yes, it’s the Great God Bird with its altar-call
Yes, it’s the Great God Bird through it all…

It’s by Sufjan Stevens, who became very big at my alma mater, Calvin College, but long, long after my time there. This particular song was written for NPR, and accompanied a story about the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, which may or may not be extinct, but which is supposed to be so large and striking that it provokes an exclamation of “Great God!”

The mp3 is available from npr.org.

I haven’t actually heard any of Stevens’ other work, and I’m kind of reluctant to, because I love this song so much I am pretty sure I’d find anything else he did disappointing in comparison.

There’s nothing new here, I just happened to listen to the song.