MUSIC & LYRICS

Sam Beam (Iron & Wine)

THE SEA AND THE RHYTHM:
This one is a pretty straight-up love song about the similarities between the movements in nature and human movements. There seem to be patterns in nature and people in love.

Tonight, we're the sea and the salty breeze the milk from your breast is on my lips and lovelier words from your mouth to me when salty my sweat and fingertips Our hands they seek the end of afternoon my hands believe and move over you Tonight, we're the sea and the rhythm there the waves and the wind and night is black tonight we're the scent of your long black hair spread out like your breath across my back Your hands they move like waves over me beneath the moon, tonight, we're the sea

SUNSET SOON FORGOTTEN:
I started out writing this one with nothing in mind except for sitting in the backyard and playing while the sun went down. There were kids playing in the streets around my house. It just evolved from there, really. There was no real path. Some of the most fun songs come about like poems. They just come out of nowhere and still remain mysterious. I think that’s kind of refreshing sometimes.

Be this sunset soon forgotten Your brothers left here shaved and crazy We’ve learned to hide our bottles in the well And what's worth keeping, sun still sinking Down and down Once again Down and down Gone again Be this sunset one for keeping This june bug street sings low and lovely Those band-aid children Chased your dog away She runs, returning, sun still sinking Down and down Once again Down and down Gone again.

PASSING AFTERNOON:
This came specifically from a friend of my wife’s. She’s at a point in her marriage that is very unhappy. She relies on religion to take herself out of her marital strife. This song is written in that image. I just personalized it and changed narrators and tenses. And like all songs, it sort of took on a life of its own and grew from there....

There are times that walk from you like some passing afternoon Summer warmed the open window of her honeymoon And she chose a yard to burn but the ground remembers her Wooden spoons, her children stir her Bougainvillea blooms There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days Autumn blew the quilt right off the perfect bed she made And she's chosen to believe in the hymns her mother sings Sunday pulls its children from the piles of fallen leaves There are sailing ships that pass all our bodies in the grass Springtime calls her children until she let's them go at last And she's chosen where to be, though she's lost her wedding ring Somewhere near her misplaced jar of Bougainvillea seeds There are things we can't recall, Blind as night that finds us all Winter tucks her children in, her fragile china dolls But my hands remember hers, rolling around the shaded ferns Naked arms, her secrets still like songs I'd never learned There are names across the sea, only now I do believe Sometimes, with the window closed, she'll sit and think of me But she'll mend his tattered clothes and they'll kiss as if they know A baby sleeps in all our bones, so scared to be alone

Leslie Feist

MUSHABOOM:
I wrote this song in ten minutes, sitting in my house with the lights out. It was about a week after I'd gotten back from the east coast of Canada where I'd driven around sniffing lilac buses and walking through abandoned and for-sale property, playing house in my head.

Helping the kids out of their coats
But wait the babies haven't been born
Unpacking the bags and setting up
And planting lilacs and buttercups

But in the meantime I've got it hard
Second floor living without a yard
It may be years until the day
My dreams will match up with my pay

Old dirt road
Knee deep snow
Watching the fire as we grow old

I got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house
And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done

How many acres how much light
Tucked in the woods and out of sight
Talk to the neighbors and tip my cap
On a little road barely on the map

Old dirt road
Knee deep snow
Watching the fire as we grow old
Old dirt road
Rambling rose
Watching the fire as we grow
Well I'm sold

LET IT DIE:
This is another winter walk song. I wrote this while walking from Kensington Market to my old apartment above Soundscapes in Toronto. I think this song came from listening to a lot of "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers. I was trying to think of something other than the cold. I told myself that if I still remembered the lyrics and melody by the time I made it home, then I'd 4-track it that afternoon. So I did, and then I did.

Let it die and get out of my mind
We don't see eye to eye
Or hear ear to ear
Don't you wish that we could forget that kiss
And see this for what it is
That we're not in love
The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start
It was hard to tell just how I felt
To not recognize myself
I started to fade away
And after all it won't take long to fall in love
Now I know what I don't want
I learned that with you
The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start
The tragedy starts from the very first spark
Losing your mind for the sake of your heart
The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start