The J's: "John Wayne Gacy Jr.," Sufjan Stevens

From the album Illinois

Sufjan Stevens:   Web site   MySpace

DJ comments: I remember listening to this song with my wife during a car ride some time ago. It got to the "he took off all their clothes for them" line, and she turned to me and said, "What the *%$!#$*& are we listening to?" to which I said, "You shouldn't end your sentences with a preposition."

Actually, I said, "It's a song called 'John Wayne Gacy Jr.,'" as if that made it all better. I'm not sure why I like this song; I think it's more that I respect the emotion Sufjan is able to extract from the listener. Even the melodramatic touches like the deep breaths at the end, that shit works for me.

But as a father, the song does disturb the shit out of me. You don't realize how f'd up things are until you consider the various things that could prey on your children. And that concludes my free birth control message. — cwc