Lyrics

I'd swim across lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room

To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your goals

To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me you went up on the tree

I'll never know the man who loved me

Sufjan Stevens' lyrics tend to float between spiritual and secular. Christians will argue that the lyrics refer to Christ, and yet, you can also read this in a more secular way.

Bob Dylan also had a song called To Be Alone With You, though his lyrics are decidedly of the flesh.

To be alone with you
Just you and me
Now won't you tell me true
Ain't that the way it oughta be?
To hold each other tight
The whole night through
Ev'rything is always right
When I'm alone with you.

To be alone with you
At the close of the day
With only you in view
While evening slips away
It only goes to show
That while life's pleasures be few
The only one I know
Is when I'm alone with you.

They say that nighttime is the right time
To be with the one you love
Too many thoughts get in the way in the day
But you're always what I'm thinkin' of
I wish the night were here
Bringin' me all of your charms
When only you are near
To hold me in your arms.

I'll always thank the Lord
When my working day's through
I get my sweet reward
To be alone with you.

Indeed, Dylan explicitly refers to the Lord, and yet in the offhanded way people refer to the Lord. I suppose Dylan could be referring to Christ too, but somehow you don't really get that feeling.

The other interpretation for Sufjan's song is a man whose discovered he's gay. Consider the lyrics "You gave up a wife and family. You gave your goals." This theory doesn't quite hold up as well with "You gave your body to the lonely.
They took your clothes."

Indeed, the religious interpretation fits the best to the lyrics, suggesting that the person singing would give all he had to be with Jesus, who sacrificed himself. The person says he doesn't know why Jesus loved him.

But being explicit with references to Christ tends to be death knell for songs that want to have broad appeal, so by leaving it more ambiguous, it also leaves the song to broader interpretation.

This is a general issue with lyrics. They tend to be far more cryptic than, say, books. Sometimes you wonder if the lyrics have any real meaning at all, or that the sound of the words just sound good together, regardless of the meaning.