Iron and Wine - The Trapeze Swinger

"Commercials are the new dodo."
,dan' (advertisers anonymous)

"I named a fig tree George Washington and yanked it from the soil and threw it in the trash for a famous cherry tree chopped down and it's so called meaninglessness finding it's way to modern day to waste a little of my precious time and insulting my easily offended intelligence."
,dan'
(spite for sprites, fuck the fickle)

"Divide up everything emotional and give us all a glob."
,dan'

"What would Jesus do?
What wouldn't Jesus do?"
,dan'

"I was caged with the lion.
I felt a knowing I was doomed.
A king sent me here to die.
I survived it.
I was later again caged with another tessellated pride.
I felt an "oh no not again"
A king had sent me here to survive.
I didn't die."
,dan' (metaphorically, personally these lions were trauma and addiction)

"Satan is a butthole, was a butthole, he's not a butthole anymore."
,dan'

"You can always get what you want if you're not asking for too much. Sometimes what you need is impossibile."
,dan' (impossabilities)

I lost someone very dear to me about 2 years ago. Every time I hear this song, it's like hearing him saying to me "please remember me" Always.

I’ve been trying to get this strumming style down for months.

How can anyone genuinely not like this song? 🥺

I was standing there wondering somebody died. Who died? Then realized it was me. Then this song played like a golden flute. I heard so much on why for every why that could ever be y. It was amazing like angels singing from heaven. I felt like I was wrapped in golden song. It was like this song but in phi

Tapestry

Miss you, Mom. ❤

I am obsessed

this song makes me miss high school. unaware of what life was truly like, 11 years later and this song still cuts deeper than anything.

“I heard from someone you're still pretty
And then they 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”

There is an extremely clever patchwork of wordplay, metaphor, and interpretation we can derive from these three quotes the speaker cites.

Firstly, the oxymoron in “eloquent graffiti” gives us an ironic image, the entrance to Heaven being defaced with markings left behind by those waiting before arbitration. These contradictory elements ground kingdom come to a more chaotic, human perspective.

“We’ll meet again” and “Tell my mother not to worry” are both universal, simple, powerful statements – we can glean no race, gender, age, or status from these two – but we can ascribe the traits of wishing best for one’s mother and the desire to see loved ones and friends left behind to essentially all people.

“Fuck the man” is of course doubly humorous when applied to the divine hierarchy and bureaucracy as compared to the usual human equivalent of overbearing corporate and capitalist power – which once again paints this paradoxical picture of an almost DMV-line system of Heaven, and a crowd of grumbling, dissenting angels-to-be; some of them resentful of dying, some of them resentful of God, some of them resentful by nature, etc

bro is that a recorder at 9m

Angels with their great handshakes but always done in such a hurry.

I used to wish this song would play on my wedding day...but its looking like it will only be played at my funeral instead. ❤ beautiful

Y uno recuerda todo lo vivido hasta su final

❤

Gregory Alan Isakov's cover led me here

is there anyone that thinks gregory alan isokov covered this song better? I mean all props to iron and wine for writing these beautiful lyrics but GAI did something else with the instrumentals.

this man has a way with songwriting that cuts directly to the point ... it's so emotionally confrontational in such a beautiful gentle and accessable way... it makes me feel like i'm not crazy or alone.. Sam Beam gets 11/10 every time. So underrated. Timeless songwriter.

My dad recently passed away and he wanted this song performed at the funeral. I will always cry whenever I hear this song.

And on the 8th day god said fuck 'em and walked away

One, two
One, two, three, four
Please remember me, happily
By the rosebush laughing
With bruises on my chin, the time when
We counted every car passing
Your house beneath the hill and up until
Someone caught us in the kitchen
With maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank
A vision too removed to mention
But, please remember me
Please remember me
Fondly, I heard from someone you're still pretty
And then they went on to say that the Pearly Gates
Had some eloquent graffiti
Like "we will meet again"
And "tell my mother not to worry"
"The angels with their great handshakes
Will always done in such a hurry" (hurry)
Please remember me, at Halloween
Making fools of all the neighbors
Our faces painted white, by midnight
We forgotten one another
And when the morning came, I was ashamed
Only now it seems so silly
The season left the world and then returned
And now you're lit up by the city
So please remember me (remember me)
Please remember me as in a dream
We had as ruged as babies
Among the fallen trees and fast asleep
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 saviour (my saviour)
Please remember me, finally
And all my uphill crawling
My dear, but if I make the Pearly Gates
Do my best to make a drawing
Of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl
An angel kissin' on a sinner
A monkey and a man, a marching band
All around the frightened trapeze
All around the frightened trapeze swinger (trapeze swinger

My Patrick learned this song and played on my birthday; he passed nearly two years ago. This song is lyrical poetry. And will forever remind me of my gorgeous human.

One of the best vinyls I have ever bought. The soundtrack to so many small but important moments in my life. Thank you.

nobody has any idea how much this song means to me. fantastic song fantastic story fantastic album fantastic poet. Thank you mr Beam

Yes, I'm 74, but this song brings me back to age 5, and I wipe my nose on my sleeve.....

The music is so therapeutic😌

This song is for you, Pete. My twin brother, my friend. I remember you - don't you worry. I'm sure you have some eloquent graffiti waiting at the gates for me. We'll laugh at that. Until then, tears are all I can manage.

the hardest line for me
is realizing "tell my mother not to worry"
is what's written on the outside of the gates, from the one that didn't make it into Heaven.
Mother's inside: hopefully someone delivers that message to her

Wow. What a song.

🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾

☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾☔️🫶🏾

A poetry of pictures with a melody so haunting, complete with a hypnotic groove that freezes time. Beautiful, well done Samuel. One of my favorites.

This song is like a long night of not sleeping but in a good way..............

Why am i crying in the club rn

please remember me mistakenly.

“The Trapeze Swinger” is about a man standing in line at the gates of the afterlife, taking inventory of his memories and telling the people involved in them how he hopes to be remembered. He alternates between this and describing the setting around him, presumably Heaven. The stream of disconnected memories culminates in the last stanza, when the narrator declares that if he ever makes it to the gate, he’ll sketch the people that he’s been thinking of on the wall. They’ll be marching in a circus around himself, the overwhelmed trapeze swinger.

Beam’s idyllic lyricism and subtle instrumentation combine to make a powerful metaphor about the impermanence of a life and a person’s desire to be remembered in spite of it.

I want a recording of me singing this played at my funeral

I was introduced to this song as the song accompanying an amazing modern dance performance by a classmate (Angie Muzzy, if you ever read this, thank you for my favorite song)

Favorite song ever. Without question.

Hail the Holy Cpirite, Creator Of Uc All. Duh. Watup.

The Road Ic Never mt. Thankc Gleaming, Beaming Cam! ! !

This song is like glue, memories keep sticking to it. This is super cheesy but this song is so ridiculously loaded with stories for me.

fractured memories

I didn't find this song, it found me!