The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
Sufjan Stevens * Track #15 On Illinois
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Album Illinois
- #1Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
Sufjan Stevens
- #2The Black Hawk War
Sufjan Stevens
- #3Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition – Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream)
Sufjan Stevens
- #4John Wayne Gacy Jr.
Sufjan Stevens
- #5Jacksonville
Sufjan Stevens
- #6A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, but for Very Good Reasons
Sufjan Stevens
- #7Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Stepmother!
Sufjan Stevens
- #8One Last “Whoo-Hoo!” for the Pullman
Sufjan Stevens
- #9
ChicagoSufjan Stevens
- #10Casimir Pulaski Day
Sufjan Stevens
- #11To the Workers of the Rock River Valley Region, I Have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament
Sufjan Stevens
- #12The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
Sufjan Stevens
- #13Prairie Fire That Wanders About
Sufjan Stevens
- #14A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
Sufjan Stevens
- #15The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
Sufjan Stevens
- #16They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!
Sufjan Stevens
- #17Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
Sufjan Stevens
- #18In This Temple as in the Hearts of Man for Whom He Saved the Earth
Sufjan Stevens
- #19The Seer’s Tower
Sufjan Stevens
- #20The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders (Part I: The Great Frontier — Part II: Come to Me Only with Playthings Now)
Sufjan Stevens
- #21Riffs and Variations on a Single Note
Sufjan Stevens
- #22Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run
Sufjan Stevens
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! by Sufjan Stevens
Release Date
Performed by
Sufjan StevensProduced by
Sufjan StevensWrited by
Sufjan StevensAbout
“Predatory Wasp” chronicles Sufjan’s romantic relationship with a male friend during a Methodist summer camp he attended in his youth.
In a 2017 interview with Salon, he described it as being “an awakening,” and explained that it happened when he was in high school, around the age of 16.
Stevens a...
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Lyrics
Thinking outrageously I write in cursive
I hide in my bed with the lights on the floor
Wearing three layers of coats and leg warmers
I see my own breath on the face of the door
Oh I am not quite sleeping
Oh I am fast in bed
There on the wall in the bedroom creeping
I see a wasp with her wings outstretched
North of Savanna we swim in the Palisades
I come out wearing my brother's red hat
There on his shoulder my best friend is bit seven times
He runs washing his face in his hands
Oh how I meant to tease him
Oh how I meant no harm
Touching his back with my hand I kiss him
I see the wasp on the length of my arm
Oh great sights upon this state! Hallelu-
Wonders bright, and rivers, lake. Hallelu-
We were in love. We were in love
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Trail of Tears and Horseshoe Lake. Hallelu-
We were in love. We were in love
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Trusting things beyond mistake. Hallelu-
[Horn breakdown]
We were in love. We were in love
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait
We were in love. We were in love
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Lamb of God, we sound the horn. Hallelu-
We were in love. We were in love
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Unto us your ghost is born. Hallelu-
I can't explain the state that I'm in
The state of my heart, he was my best friend
Into the car, from the back seat
Oh, admiration in falling asleep
All of my powers, day after day
I can tell you, we swaggered and swayed
Deep in the tower, the prairies below
I can tell you— the telling gets old
Terrible sting and terrible storm
I can tell you the day we were born
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Oh great sights upon this state! Hallelu-
My friend is gone, he ran away
I can tell you, I love him each day
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Wonders bright, and rivers, lake. Hallelu-
Though we have sparred, wrestled and raged
I can tell you I love him each day
[Backing - Simultaneous to above]
Trail of Tears and Horseshoe Lake. Hallelu-
Terrible sting, terrible storm
I can tell you...
[Backing - Simultaneous to final stanza]
We were in love. We were in love
Palisades! Palisades!
I can wait. I can wait
[Backing - Simultaneous to final stanza]
Trusting things beyond mistake. Hallelu-
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Q&A
Who wrote The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!'s ?
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! was written by Sufjan Stevens.
Who produced The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!'s ?
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! was produced by Sufjan Stevens.
When did Sufjan Stevens release The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!?
Sufjan Stevens released The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! on Mon Jul 04 2005.
Why doesn't it mention the wasp being predatory?
Gay people often struggle with feeling “predatory” around their straight friends—a phenomenon that can be traced to both the sexualization of gay experience in American culture, and the strict gender division in the rest of heterosexual society (The same division that expects coworkers of different...
What have the artists said about this song?
In the 2015 Pitchfork feature True Myth: A Conversation with Sufjan Stevens, Sufjan gave the following response when asked about Christianity:
I had this childhood fantasy of becoming a priest or a preacher, so I would read and study the bible and then make my family listen to me read a passage fro...