the trapeze act was wonderful, but never meant to last
I remember a book from when I was about ten years old, something like A Wrinkle In Time or one of those fascinating imaginative visions of other worlds and things unseen.
My brain stretches hard to recall a passage about tapping into a current of singing that existed outside of normal time, these pulsing jetstreams of melody and poetry and all the human longing – timeless and universal. Always there. Not always heard.
When I listen to “The Trapeze Swinger” by Iron & Wine, that’s the closest I can come to expressing its perfection. Opening with the tinkle of a windchime, it sounds like waking from a dream on your front porch in the late afternoon in Springtime, or maybe not waking at all but being suspended. Somewhere where –for once– you can hear the currents.
“Please remember me, happily, by the rosebush laughing, with bruises on my chin….” the song begins, with golden beauty and purplish contusions from the first lines. The song weaves those two threads of our sweetest joys and our saddest failings over and under for the next ten minutes, with a feel of looking back from a distance. The things we carry with us, the strange variance of memory. Sam Beam crafts a stunning, endless, hypnotically rhythmic masterpiece that feels like it has always existed, and you just walked somewhere into the middle.
It’s about death and the pearly gates and how we might feel when we get there, and the eloquent graffiti that might greet us on the walls outside. “Lost and found.” “Don’t look down.” “Tell my mother not to worry.”
It’s about dreams among the fallen trees of our babies that may have never been born. It’s about uphill clawing, colored birds, and remembering the time in the car behind the carnival with your hand between my knees. “Please remember me, my misery, and how it lost me all I wanted.” It is, in a word, perfect.
Nothing compares to the original recording (from the In Good Company soundtrack), but this live version is humble and as unaffected as they come.
IRON & WINE
LIVE ON KCRW, MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC
November 29, 2007
Introduction
Peace Beneath The City
Sodom South Georgia
Boy With A Coin
Interview
Resurrection Fern
Woman King
The Trapeze Swinger
Talking
He Lays In The Reins (Calexico cover)
Outro
ZIP: SAM BEAM ON KCRW
[top image credit Anne Teliczan]
Name: Heather Browne
Beautiful song, beautiful post. Thank you.
Larry — April 1, 2009 @ 1:53 pm
What an exquisite song. Such a great meld of lyrics, melody, and stripped-bare delivery. Wow. I am unfamiliar with this artist/band, but I will sure be checking out more of their work. Thanks for the downloads.
Linda T — April 1, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
thanks so much Heather, I’ll be listening to this shortly.
Hanan — April 1, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
Have you heard the iTunes Original version? It’s finger-picked and softer, with his sister coming in towards the end. I go back and forth between which one I love more.
Thanks for this!
Ryan — April 1, 2009 @ 4:26 pm
I think He Lays in the Reins (probably one of my favorite songs) was actually a collaboration between Iron & Wine and Calexico, off the Woman King EP. Still, a great set.
J — April 1, 2009 @ 5:54 pm
A great post and just in time. I’ve been an Iron and Wine fan forever, but I somehow missed this song. I heard a cover version just this week and made a mental note to go back and check out the original.
Matt — April 1, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
I love,love,love this song and recently brought it out of the archives…then I had a case of “the blahs” for 4 days. Take the bad with the good, I guess!
Megan — April 1, 2009 @ 8:54 pm
“The Trapeze Swinger” is one of my favorite songs ever. As is “Fever Dream”. Masterful singer/songwriter. If you haven’t checked out any William Fitzsimmons I highly recommend it. There’s a lot of similarities there…and not just in the look. Thanks for the post, Heather!
- Lee
Lee — April 1, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
amazing post.
Rbt. B Rutherford — April 2, 2009 @ 5:45 am
The song is amazing and heartfelt, but the post itself was memorable.
Andre — April 2, 2009 @ 8:51 am
I listened to this when I woke up this morning. The song just popped up on my Bon Iver Pandora station. Some sort of strange, cosmic events are afoot.
JC — April 2, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
Yay Iron and Wine!
Radio1190 has entered the blogosphere.
Can we be blog friends?
http://www.radio1190.org/blog
radio1190 — April 2, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
[...] The National, Bat for Lashes, Annie, Franz Ferdinand, Harlem Shakes, Keri Hilson, Mini Viva, Iron and Wine, Say Hi, The Presets, Voxtrot, Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix, Galvatrons, Pilot Speed, Grand [...]
Flame in your heart « hello stranger. — April 7, 2009 @ 1:46 am
Sam Beam is perhaps the best songwriter since Dylan or Van Morrison. This song is perfectly beautiful. I was doing some research for an upcoming post on my music blog, http://www.pacingthecagemusic.blogspot. I dig what you’re doing here, keep it up.
pacing the cage — April 7, 2009 @ 11:01 am
Oh wow…”A Wrinkle in Time” was buried so very deep in my grade 5 psyche. I like what you said. And great song.
jacquieshambles — April 7, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
Love to read that. Trapeze Swinger is one of my all time favourite songs and means a lot to me.
Gerrit — April 8, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
that song is pretty perfect.
black dominoes — April 10, 2009 @ 2:15 pm
i just discovered this tune and was amazed to find another favorite, and perhaps in some ways my new most favorite, melodies that i, yes, just seemed to wander into the middle of and become suspended. perfect, rhythmic, pulsating, laughing, crying masterpiece.
yes.
kevin — June 15, 2009 @ 7:19 pm
I couldn’t have said it better myself. My all time favorite song. Every time I listen I unravel a new layer of insight. I love reading other peoples take on this. Thanks.
Stacey — October 16, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
Hey there Heather,
you never cease to amaze me with your exacting words and serious ear. I’ve been stumbling upon your blog over and over again for over two years, as well as columns you write. This article especially is dead on. And your mention of “A Wrinkle In Time” is bizarre because I was trying to remember that book yesterday.
Casey Weisdock — November 5, 2009 @ 9:27 pm
GREAT post! I’ve loved Iron & Wine for years and was really excited to come across it. Thanks for sharing.
Terrence — April 18, 2010 @ 4:37 am