The Trapeze Swinger

Like most great artists, Samuel Beam has many talents. He has degrees in fine art and film, and taught cinematography and film at a college level. He took the name "Iron & Wine" from a dietary supplement, "Beef Iron & Wine," which he found at a store while on a film shoot, and it should be noted that he has directed most of his own music videos. His first album was released on Sub Pop in 2002, the result of a borrowed four track and the right ears hearing the material. If you've heard Iron & Wine then you know the next thing I have to say is inherent. If you've not heard Iron & Wine before you will discover an amazing and magical intimacy. No matter the volume, every Iron & Wine song sounds like it is whispered into your ear. It's like you can feel his breath on the side of your face. There are no casual Iron & Wine fans, and the people who are not fans yet simply haven't heard the song that Beam wrote for them.

"The Trapeze Swinger" by Iron & Wine from  Around The Well


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnGXduu293c

Note: This song is available most readily on Iron & Wine's 2009 B-Side and Rarity collection Around The Well, but was recorded for the motion picture and is featured on the soundtrack for In Good Company.

From a musical standpoint "The Trapeze Swinger" is incredibly simple, being four chords with a slight variation being repeated for the entire song. It is a stylistic quality of Iron & Wine that he is able to take a sparse musical landscape and make sound thick and vast.

From a lyrical standpoint this is a story song sung from a person who has passed on to someone he has left behind. The story is told in a nonlinear path, leaving lots to be filled in by the listener. Besides his timbre, this is a way for Beam to make this song more intimate. It feels more personal because the details need to be filled in by the memories and imaginations of the listener. Each verse of "The Trapeze Swinger" starts out with "Please Remember Me ...," an adverb, and then a memory or a story.

The first verse rolls out "Please, remember me, Happily, with bruises on my chin; The time when we counted every black car passing your house beneath the hill and up until someone caught us in the kitchen with maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank ..." It takes us back to the protagonist's childhood, adventuring with the other character from the song, person this song is directed at, the subject of the song. We instantly know that this is dealing with a long and deep friendship. The singer is not only asking to be remembered as a happy child, but reminding the listener of a happy time in their lives, and telling the listener that he himself was happy during the time they both shared.

The next verse goes on, "Please, remember me, Fondly, I heard from someone you're still pretty," Our protagonist is asking newcomers about the people in his past. Specifically his concerns lie with the subject of the song. This person is maybe more important to the protagonist than we had originally thought. "and he went on to say that the pearly gates had some eloquent graffiti like 'We'll meet again,' and 'Fuck the man,' and 'Tell my mother not to worry,' and angels with their gray handshakes were always done in such a hurry.' What beautiful imagery that the pearly gates are covered in the graffiti of wayward souls giving messages to passers by, that heaven is a gated community in the rough part of town, that to angels the souls of men don't really matter. This certainly also raises the question where is our protagonist that the pearly gates and the behavior of angels are foreign to him? Is he in hell? Is he in limbo? What situation is he in that he has met others that have seen the gates, but they also are not in heaven? What does it take to reach those gates?

"and please, remember me At Halloween making fools of all the neighbors, our faces painted white." Another childhood memory, a little older here. The two are growing up with each other, partners in crime. "By midnight we'd forgotten one another and when morning came I was ashamed..." Growing, up, out, forward, apart is hard. It requires the development of all sorts of feelings that didn't exist before. Friendships take on all sorts of new dynamics. Trust starts to mean something different than that your parents will love you no matter what you do. Slight mistakes and big decisions feel the same and opposite from moment to moment. "Only now it seems so silly that the season left the world and then returned," He's not talking about autumn. He might be talking about the fall. "And now you're lit up by the city."

"So please, remember me, Mistakenly, in the window of the tallest tower. Call, then pass us by..." Don't block out those memory triggers. Let something insignificant remind you of me just for a moment, and then continue on, "but much to high to see the empty road at happy hour gleam and resonate, just like the gates around the holy kingdom with words like 'Lost and found,' and 'Don't look down,' and 'Someone save temptation.'"

"and please, remember me, as in the dream we had as rug burned babies among the fallen trees and fast asleep." Remember our plans, you and I, one day we'll run away to the circus, leave everything but each other for a life of fun and adventure. "Aside the lions and the ladies that called you what you like and even might give a gift for your behavior, a fleeting chance to see a trapeze swing as high as any savior"

"but please, remember me, my misery, and how it lost me all I wanted." Our protagonist realizes that anything he wanted he sabotaged. How easy that is to do, and how impossible it is to change. What a horrible existence some of us love to lead. "Those dogs that love the rain and chasing trains," content with unhappiness, chasing the inevitable lose. "The colored birds above there running in circles around the well, and where it spells on the wall behind St. Peter's so bright with cinder gray and spray paint 'Who the hell can see forever?'" So much anger and regret. Who the hell can see forever!? Nothing turns out the way we planned.

"and please, remember me, seldomly in the car behind the carnival..." Here at the apex we find that they made it to the carnival. "My hand between your knees. You turned from me and said 'The trapeze act was wonderful but never meant to last." No one wants this inevitable moment to happen, the moment your paths diverge. Please remember it, because it is important, but don't hold on it. It was wonderful, but it was never meant to last so remember me the way you want to remember me. Remember what you meant to me. Remember that once I meant something to you. "The clowns that passed saw me just come up with anger. When it filled with circus dogs, the parking lot had an element of danger."

"So please, remember me, finally," as a closing thought, "and all my uphill clawing my dear." I just wanted you to know that "... if i make the pearly gates I'll do my best to make a drawing of God and Lucifer, a boy and a girl, an angel kissin' on a sinner, a monkey and a man, a marching band all around the frightened trapeze swingers." I don't belong in heaven. Hell, I haven't seen the gates with my own two eyes. I just know what others have told me, but I'm going to do my damnedest to get there, and it will be an uphill battle. It will take everything I've got, but know that if I make those gates I'm not there for myself. Like I said, I don't belong there. No, if I make it to heaven I will do my best to draw a picture letting everyone that crosses those gates knows how important you are.

"The Trapeze Swinger" is the first song that I've found since I've started Suicide Watch Songs that came out of nowhere. Every other song I've done was somewhat on my radar. Coming up to this post I was trying to decide which song to write about and I started to look into Iron & Wine. I've been a fan for a while but as I started looking through my collection two things kept me from picking a song. One deals with an informal rule I've imposed on myself that I will only write about any particular songwriter or group once a year. I do this so that I don't repeat myself or stick within my musical comfort zone. The goal is to branch out as much as possible. This makes me also think that I need to take in as much of that artists catalog as possible so that I can be assured that I am making the correct choice to write about. I would hate to write a review only to discover the song I should have written about a month later. Doing this with Iron & Wine was not easy as he has a lot of rare tracks. Luckily, this song has become a fan favorite and thus shows up a lot when searching his songs. The other thing that was giving me trouble is that for as intimate as somber sounding as Sam Beam is at times, for the most part his music is quite hopeful and has wondering curiosity of life and creation all about it. That is why this song just slapped me upside the head and turned my world around. At the beginning of this review I mentioned that Iron & Wine has written a song for everyone. "The Trapeze Swinger" is mine. I hope it is some of your's as well.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read. If you have anything to say or wish to suggest songs please feel free to do so here or email me at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net