Talk:Sufjan Stevens

message: The comparison to Guaraldi I removed relied on this sentence from Amazon.com: "Illinois sounds like The Sea and Cake collaborating with the high-school band from a Wes Anderson film on banjo-driven, pulsing meditations on Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts." PuerExMachina 06:39, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That's fine, add it back in and footnote it if you wish.   I wouldn't have made the Guaraldi/Stevens comparison but it's published by a semi-reliable source.  (I think Amazon's reviews come from somewhere else though.)   If you have problems footnoting it just put the URL in single brackets  and someone will help.  Regards, PhilipR 23:27, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed it because I don't think that quote actually compares Sufjan's music to Guaraldi's music. The quote has to be taken as a whole to make any sense; even then, I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense, at least not enough to warrant inclusion in the article. PuerExMachina 08:45, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed, keep it out. Faithlessthewonderboy 02:44, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comparisons 

message: The song title "Maple River" almost certainly refers to the Maple River (which has several branches) in Emmet County, Michigan, where Sufjan grew up. There are four other Maple Rivers listed in Wikipedia, but this one makes the most sense.69.145.37.174 05:35, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Maple River 

message: I removed the sentence 'There have been other times Stevens has said he does not really plan to make an album for every state, specifically listing Texas as a state he will "probably never do."!Do not put references on discussion page!' due to the fact that the quote seems to be lifted from this article, in which Sufjan actually says that he is "definitely not going to do a record about Texas birds or Florida birds." Techpeace 19:52, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  the German Wikipedia [] states in Article and Discussion pages that Sufjan stated in several interviews, that the "50 States" project was meant as a joke (no sources cited though).--83.77.183.229 (talk) 18:47, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fifty States Project 

message: I don't know how to properly write (in IPA technical terms) the pronunciation of Sufjan Stevens' first name but I do know its 'soof-yahn'. (See this article for proof.) Basically, I don't think the Wikipedia article has it right. 'Suf-jan' is not how you pronounce his name. So can someone who knows the IPA style correctly write the pronunciation of his name? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 199.212.8.44 (talk) 08:21, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, we know it's soof-yahn, and the IPA symbols are correct. The "j" in IPA is a "y" sound, as it is in the majority of European languages. Thanks for asking, though! -- Dhartung | Talk 09:08, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've corrected the IPA. It said [soof yahn] and that cannot be correct. I've looked at the "transcription" of the pronunciation at the website above. I haven't heard his name pronounced myself, but the present transcription seems more correct than the previous. Please correct if it is wrong. NisseSthlm 23:09, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronunciation of His First Name 

message: Why does the article say that Illinois' celebration of Casimir Pulaski Day is confusing?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.85.81.39 (talk) 14:23, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Casimir Pulaski Day

message: Quoting the Article (emphasis mine):
"Casimir Pulaski Day" speaks of "All the glory that the Lord has made" in the midst of personal pain and loss, while also noting the limitations of personal faith, singing, "Tuesday night at the Bible study, we lift our hands and pray over your body but nothing ever happens."
That's some odd wording. Deciding what he is noting (that his faith is "limited") is speculation into this quote; who is to say that it isn't a statement of one time his "personal faith" failed him? 
Or that it's denouncing christianity altogether? Or that he's not making a theological statement on whether or not healing is possible?
Or that it's sarcasm? Or any other number of ridiculous things?
I vote we drop the (again) speculation.Lackinglatin 07:21, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed that all such inferences should be removed unless reliable sources are provided. –Pomte 07:29, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Removing, as there has been no opposition against the proposed action. Lackinglatin 17:43, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Speculation? 

message: Starts off well but then tries to cram it all in . I propose to split in tw2 ... just before "His music has been likened to ..." . Will do now ... if you don't like it, well, come up with something better203.211.102.217 08:24, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  1st paragraph 

message: "Two Faced John McCartney created "Zombies Walk!!", a mashup of "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhhh!" and Kanye West's "Jesus Walks"."  - This quote is found under Allusions - is this correct or vandalism?  Dh42 02:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah, but it's not very notable. CAN 03:12, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

text: You can hear it on this MySpace page, but I also suggest that unless Two Faced John McCartney rates a Wikipedia page the mash-up doesn't need to be included in the article. -MrFizyx 18:48, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Two Faced? 

message: that little section is ridiculous (is unsourcable, non-academic, and the entire premise of it is opinion) , so i'm getting rid of it. aeymxq 13:49, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  'it's not so cold in texas' section. 

message: yeah that doesnt sound biased at all.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.182.76.37 (talk) 02:20, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "lyrically focused and instrumentally rich" 

message: according to itunes, the Illinois record is actually called Illinoise. But can someone change it? I dunno how  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.211.192.79 (talk) 19:07, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Illinois 

message: Anyone interested about more images could see http://www.flickr.com/photos/tammylo/ right now. gren グレン 04:38, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Images 

message: I think its worth providing a non-IPA pronunciation of Sufjan's name for the people who don't know how to read IPA. 128.255.134.97 (talk) 14:09, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation). faithless (speak) 23:03, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronunciation of name 

message: What do people think? I know that single looks very lonely but i'm sure he'll do another one soon! Sillyfolkboy (talk) 01:19, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: This is cool. I hadn't realised he'd only released one single from all those albums!  -- Naerii 01:47, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  New template 

message: Why are all the Sufjan pages again infested with references to an album called "Illinoise"? SIGH! I've corrected all (I think) of the ones on the main page, but if anyone spots any others could they change it? Thanks x User:Guntrip 26 May '08
:Check out the changes that User:E-Kartoffel made from 13:06, 23 May 2008 to 13:35, 23 May 2008 (about 40 changes). Or you can do a content search on Illinoise. I vote for a complete rollback of all of these changes. --EPadmirateur (talk) 15:52, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Just checking again: is it the consensus of editors here that the album is Illinois and that track 3 has the title "Come on Feel the Illinoise"? If so, it won't take long to revert the earlier edits. --EPadmirateur (talk) 03:55, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I assumed there was consensus on Illinois but now someone's changed it i agree with the change. If you see the front cover it has a very large Illinoise across it (that being the shortened form of it's full name Come On Feel The Illinoise). Bear in mind it is not like Michigan which has the state's unaltered name blazoned on the album. Personally i've never spoken with anyone about it as "Illinois". However asthmatic kitty  lists it as Illinois and pitchfork's review is of "Illinois". I lean towards Illinoise personally but more authoritative sources seem to favour Illinois Sillyfolkboy (talk) 10:01, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  While I'll agree the front cover causes confusion (and with merit), as you've said the Asmatic Kitty website refers to it as Illinois, as does the spine of the record. Besides, if the front cover is to be taken as a correct source, the title should be Sufjan Stevens invites you to: Come On Feel The Illinoise!, so just Illinoise isn't even a correct wrong answer! ;) x User:Guntrip 30 May '08  —Preceding comment was added at 13:56, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Illinoise 

message: I consolidated the disorganized discography, fixed the hierarchy of the biography, removed the "notes" from the discography, which belong on each albums pages, and removed a source without that isn't referenced.  Not much to discuss.  Cosprings (talk) 12:29, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Recent edits

message: The new album will be called "the age of adz"
https://www.scdistribution.com/sufjan/index.php?cat=AKR77cd&format=CD
sounds a lot like a "kid a" version of sufjan 8P --Idonthavetimeforthiscarp (talk) 13:44, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  New album 

message: Discography The discography should be split into Sufjan Stevens discography. I can simply copy-and-paste, of course, but if anyone wants to go about finding citations and formatting it, that would be nice, too. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:59, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Split 

message: Stevens revealed in an interview with Eclaim! that he had been battling a "confusing and mysterious" illness which forced him to take a break from recording.  I would edit this myself, but I don't trust my HTML skills.  Here's the link: http://exclaim.ca/News/sufjan_stevens_discusses_his_serious_issues  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.153.226.68 (talk) 21:27, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think that there's enough information on this to put it up just yet. I would wait for more information from a more reliable and reputable source. Klsmn22 (talk) 22:02, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: This looks like an excellent source for anyone wanting to add in this topic. http://stereogum.com/553642/sufjan-reveals-health-issues-has-career-best-sales-week/news/ Klsmn22 (talk) 05:16, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: My apologies for the numerous edits to the talk page. It appears that the information included in the Stereogum article is all original to the Exclaim (not Eclaim) article mentioned at the top of this topic. I merely overlooked some of the direct quotes in the Exclaim article from Stevens. It would appear that this information is legitimate. It should probably be added somewhere in the Age of Adz section. Klsmn22 (talk) 05:22, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

text: I've added a short paragraph in the Age of Adz section based on the refs above.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:17, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Illness? 

message: Under the "Themes" section of the article shouldn't there be reference to the homosexual themes that are found in many of Stevens' songs? I'm pretty sure there have been a few reputable sources that have discussed this. A Laughton (talk) 21:43, 7 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Homosexual Themes 

message: There is a strong speculation that Sufjan is releasing yet another Christmas album. 
http://pitchfork.com/news/47853-is-sufjan-stevens-making-a-new-christmas-record/
Pohetri (talk) 07:26, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Christmas album 

message: The last two paragraphs of the 'Early life' section have nothing to do with Stevens' early life (apart from the little 'while in school...' bit); where should I move them to? MatthewLaw1 (talk) 22:26, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Irrelevant information in 'Early life' 

message: Sufjan is becoming a very prominent, influential, and critically acclaimed artist. More of his songs should have their own page.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.23.143.198 (talk) 02:08, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Articles for Songs 

message: Anyone else think this singer was Cat Stevens at first? Given his folky sound, popularity in the Indie scene, and similar name (considering Cat Stevens is now called Yusuf Islam, given some research concerning what I should have already known) I instantly took to thinking this was Cat Stevens recording new(er) music. Stupid mistake, or does this happen with any sort of frequency? --IronMaidenRocks (talk) 10:40, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Confused with Cat Stevens?

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Sufjan Stevens. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121005210131/http://asthmatickitty.com:80/new-sufjan-christmas-boxset to http://asthmatickitty.com/new-sufjan-christmas-boxset
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 18:38, 9 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Substituted at 07:14, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 7 external links on Sufjan Stevens. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101120114906/http://asthmatickitty.com/musicians.php?artistID=5 to http://www.asthmatickitty.com/musicians.php?artistID=5
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101120114906/http://asthmatickitty.com/musicians.php?artistID=5 to http://www.asthmatickitty.com/musicians.php?artistID=5
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060813130131/http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=1031 to http://www.junkmedia.org/index.php?i=1031
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061128105641/http://www.asthmatickitty.com/info.php to http://www.asthmatickitty.com/info.php
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061129005759/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/29535/Interview_Interview_Sufjan_Stevens to http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/29535/Interview_Interview_Sufjan_Stevens
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060418095448/http://www.denisonwitmer.com/news.php?rowstart=10 to http://www.denisonwitmer.com/news.php?rowstart=10
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061205230606/http://www.asthmatickitty.com/music.php?releaseID=63 to http://www.asthmatickitty.com/music.php?releaseID=63
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 17:22, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: "I Can't Believe It's Not Sufjan Stevens: Local musicians finish the 50 States project"
Since this music is not by nor apparently endorsed by the original artist, I'm not sure if it belongs in his article, but it seems notable. Mapsax (talk) 23:18, 27 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fifty States Project "finished" 

message: Can someone please delete the part about Sufjan’s name meaning “comes with the sword” in Armenian? It's not an Armenian name, and other, well known etymologies exist for others with this name, which comes from Islam (no widely used pan-Muslim names would come from Armenian, Armenians have been predominantly Christian since before Islam existed)
I saw this claim reproduced on Facebook which led me to check the Wiki, and both sources in the Wiki go back to the same article if you check.
I don’t know the process with updating articles and what is required to do it right. But this is so easy to research.
I’m not Armenian but I’ve been learning the language. I’ve seen several Armenians online (forums etc) express they think Sufjan was messing with the interviewer in the interview for the article that originates this claim. It’s clear that either Sufjan didn’t know at the time of the article that Armenia is a majority Christian country, or was testing the interviewer to see if they would notice this was part of his lie. 
The word for sword in Armenian, FYI, is սուր ‘sur’. 
The suffix -յան ‘-yan’ does not mean “comes with”
Keeping this claim in the article without at least changing the wording to something not only less credulous but that explicitly calls the statement into doubt reflects poorly both on Sufjan and on anyone who has put good time and energy into working on this.  (“Stevens once claimed his name means …. however, this is clearly untrue, given that …”)
One more thing. A month ago there was no mention here of any Muslim figure who originated the name. Now there’s a mention of Abu Sufyan, who is not Armenian and whose name is not Armenian. But this probably is the origin of Sufjan's name, since he is an early feature in Islam. The meaning and etymology of Sufjan should be the same as Abu Sufyan's name. 
There are a lot of people online that can be found with a search who will discuss this statement’s falseness. Just none from journalistic or scholarly sources, but in this case it shouldbe enough because the only original source for the claim is Sufjan’s interview.  All it would take is showing this quote to a single native Armenian speaking editor]
Sorry I didn’t provide sources. I just wanted to start the discussion but if this goes nowhere in a few days I’ll try to add some.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.252.92.224 (talk) 05:28, 17 June 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: There's not much to discuss without sources. WP:OR cannot be used to justify inclusion. Nemov (talk) 13:50, 17 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Meaning of Sufjan 

message: Hello from 2023, old 2010 OPs (if they're still on this page)
Recently, as in around an hour ago from me posting this, Sufjan on his tumblr revealed he has Guillain–Barré syndrome, GBS. :(. 
https://sufjan.com/post/728984189887807488/hi-friends-quick-update-on-my-life-im-very
Hoping he's doing better with his team!!  Ddelrio08 (talk) 13:32, 20 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Revisting: Illness? 

message: Would it be appropriate to add details of his relationship with Evan Richardson? With the release of Javelin and his recent Tumblr post, it feels timely. Lorcanopolo (talk) 21:42, 7 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sufjan's Partner 

message: The redirect Surfjam Steve has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at  until a consensus is reached.  Yilku1 (talk) 21:07, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  "[[:Surfjam Steve]]" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]]