| Iron & Wine – Boy with a Coin Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Good analysis, manikay. | |
| Iron & Wine – Carousel Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Right on, Kareyn. There are definitely a number of oblique references to the war in the Middle East. So riffing off your interpretation.. Let's say this is about the Iraq war: (Persian rug being the most obvious one that focuses on this particular conflict.) The bible and the wedding band hidden by the TV stand is slyly pointing out that both religious aversions to war as well as the bonds of marriage that should keep men and women together have been subverted by a war promoted by the television. (IE, people have forgotten their true values thanks to the propaganda of the talking heads.) The girls by the pool would be protesting the crosses their wear (ie they would be out fooling around, not being celibate) but the men their age aren't around, so they aren't tempted. (Again, typically values like lust ("honey") have been subverted by the cause of war.) City fathers falling off a carousel is suggestive to me of the lack of leaders anymore. All those who pushed for war (C. Powell, Rummy, etc.) have fallen and are gone. But the events they set in motion ("cruel wind") continue to unfold (blow.) Trunk of Noah's Clothes is unusual. Not sure what to do with this one, but it's obviously important, or he'd have picked something that fit his meter better. We get a second dose of Noah as a crackhead building an ark a moment later... "Only honored bone ... Kinship of our kids and the riot squad" is suggestive to me of our collective national memory of Vietnam War protests. Here, Beam could be pointing out that while the memory of those anti-war protest days in the late sixties are writ large in our national consciousness, they are dead; a bone. (The girls aren't protesting, they're lounging around the pool, they're dying in their sleep.) At least, that's one way of reading this beautiful song... -tf |
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| Iron & Wine – White Tooth Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Wow. This is fascinating... I'm a little lost though, and would love to gain the benefit of someone else's thoughts on this track... We've got several verses dealing with dissapointment when something a person thought they wanted ended up not being what they expected. (cheated after closing the deal, finger never wanted a ring, mail, government bond, I love this town but it ain't the same, ripped ski mask, sick on cheap dinner, already spent money, loyalty run away)... The Caanan reference (especially coupled with gov't bond) reinforces this... It refers to the area near present day Gaza. A holy land which people hoped would be turned into a homeland, but instead has become a wartorn hellhole. What else is here? Thoughts? -tf |
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| Iron & Wine – Upward Over the Mountain Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Trivian, I think you are right on with your analysis of this beautiful song... | |
| Iron & Wine – Sixteen, Maybe Less Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Agree that this is a beautiful song; certainly my favorite on the Iron & Wine / Calexico album... Seems a fairly straightforward song about a remembered encounter, and the way memory colors things with a brighter pallete than life really does... From the opening line we get that this is about choices ("you asked me what I want"), both those taken and the ones we pass on... A specific question, which doesn't much impact the meaning of the song but: "...tells me we don't talk enough..." -- Do you guys think the son is telling his father that he and the son don't talk enough, or the man and his wife (the subject of the previous line) don't talk enough. Just curious. In some ways, it makes more sense that he and his wife don't talk enough, since the song is a remniscence of a past love, and, in a way, a daydream about the path he didn't take... Also, the use of alcohol in the track is interesting... "...neon at a liqour store" = the intoxicating promise of drink/love, contrast with "a party where I drank too much" = another subtle comment about the real deal (booze/love) being both good and bad mixed. Maybe reading too much into this, but somehow, with this songwriter, I don't think so... |
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