The Evening's Anthem: Iron & Wine - The Trapeze Swinger

Today's 'Song of the Day' is written by Sam Beam - or to use his performing and recording name, Iron and Wine. The song features on an album of IAW rarities and B-sides called 'Around the Well', and was also on the 'In Good Company' soundtrack (though i'm not sure anyone has ever seen that film).

The Trapeze Swinger is about as lyrically beautiful a song as you are likely to find. Rich in personal references from Beam, but with an over-arching lyrical theme wide enough not to alienate its listener. The song describes, from the narrators point of view, looking back at a failed relationship, and one in which you are ultimately to blame for its end. You are looking back and hoping that when she remembers your relationship, she remembers the good as well as the bad. Each verse starts with the phrase 'Please, remember me', and then continue to describe nostalgic memories. There are also multiple references suggesting that the narrator has just died, or is about to die and his worry that he won't see her in heaven because of the terrible things he did over the course of their relationship. The song ends with these fantastically crafted lines:

'So please, remember me finally,
And all my uphill clawing.
My dear, but if I make the pearly gates
I'll do my best to make a drawing,
Of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl,
An angel kissing on a sinner.
A monkey and a man, a marching band,
All around a frightened trapeze swinger'

Although this song is consistently superb, I really do believe it is one of the few occasions where it sounds better on live recordings then it does on the album. See it's fantastic performance at ACL below:

'But please, remember me, my misery
And how it lost me all I wanted'