Iron & Wine and Calexico | In the Reins
It’s been over ten years since Sam Beam’s collaboration with the band Calexico was released. The In the Reins Ep was always an interesting listen and it still is. It starts off with “He Lays in the Reins” featuring Spanish Operatic vocals and contains great songs like the bluesy “Red Dust” and the western-ish “A History of Lovers” that stray from Iron & Wine’s sparce, acoustic folk sound. This album also contains perhaps my favorite of Beam’s songs “Burn that Broken Bed” featuring some haunting horn work from Calexico. From a musical stand point these seven tracks hold up pretty damn well.
But as someone who writes about music but often ignores lyrics, I thought this might be a nice simple test for me to go drunker and deeper. Often when people are singing it is extremely hard for me to distinguish what they are saying. I don’t know why but imagine trying to get customer support from someone with a thick Indian accent while your dog is barking and there is a a parade marching down your street. That’s EXACTLY what it’s like. Don’t question me, you have flaws too. Any hoot, I thought 7 songs was an easy enough tryout to see how these lyrical examinations will go so In the Reins is my guinea pig. I’m also going to try to guess the songs meaning and since I’ve never understood one bit of poety this should be a fucking disaster.
Track 1: “He Lays In the Reins”
Sample Lyric: One more gift to bring/ We may well find you laid/ Like your steed in his reins/ Tangled too tight and too long to fight
My Drunk Interpretation: There is certainly a lot of horse talk on this song. I should have been tipped off by the whole reins thing but it took me until the mentions of stable girls and stallions started piling up. This could definitely be a metaphor but I’m going to go ahead and say Sam Beam just likes horses. And he feels bad for this horse because man he seems pretty worn out.
Track 2: “Prison on Route 41”
Sample Lyric: There’s a prison on Route 41/ Home to my mother, stepbrother, and son/ And I’d tear down that jail by myself/ If not for Virginia who made me somebody else
And I owe all to her/ I’d rot in that prison for sure/If she’d tossed me aside/ And not shown me the way to abide
My Drunk Interpretation: This is an easy one. It’s a story of a an honest man confessing he comes from a line of criminals and he’s really not different than his outlaw klan but he found a woman who keeps him from risiking it all and ending up in prison too. This explains the southern twang on this song since we know that everyone from the south is a lousy crook that even most beautiful women can’t save.
Track 3: “History of Lovers:
Sample Lyric: Coddle some men, they’ll remember you fittingly/ Cut ’em, they’ll come back for more/ I asked my Louise would she leave and so cripple me/ Then came the knock at the door
My Drunk Interpretation: Louise gets a lot of men to fall in love with her, they leave angry, but still come back wanting more and when they do they’re already been replaced. And then they fight. One dies, the other goes to a prison on route 41. Louise, finds her next dumb southerner.
Track 4: “Red Dust”
Sample Lyric: Dust gets dead the sun gone down/ Danny’s boy lies in the ground/ Guitar on the dead boy’s chest/ Devil’s granting a last request/ Play on and on, on and on
My Drunk Interpretation: There are not too many words in this song and I guess that’s the point. You’re just supposed to listen to the music here. The devil’s music.
Track 5: “16, Maybe Less”
Sample Lyric: One grinning wink like the neon on a liquor store/ We were sixteen, maybe less, maybe a little more/ I walked home smiling, I finally had a story to tell
And though an autumn time lullaby/ Sang our newborn love to sleep/ My brother told me he saw you there/ In the woods one Christmas Eve, waiting
My Drunk Interpretation: This poor bastard. He is wistful as hell and it seems like he been for a while even as he married the wrong woman and had kids and all that. He’s now a miserable old prick who still dreams of his first love. But come on man, you’re not going to get married at 16. You’ve to hide your love away, love the one you’re with an all those other misguided musical pieces of advice. To be honest, you’ve chosen poorly and there’s nothing you can do. Except go back and kill Louise’s husband.
Track 6: “Burn That Broken Bed”
Sample Lyric: How do you bust the clouds?/ Head on the ground and feeling what you’ve seen/ I wanna scope you out/ I wanna be your eyes and show you me
When are you coming back?/When are you gonna burn that broken bed?/ When are you coming back?/ I wanna see you drifting overhead
My Drunk Interpretation: Ah Jesus Christ, I knew it was going to come to this. Favorite song on here, loved listening to it for 10 years, and the whole time… no idea what this is about. Judging by the other tracks so far it’s probably about lost love. Who cares? How about that trumpet?!
Track 7: “Dead Man’s Will”
Sample Lyric: Give this string to my mother/ It pulled the baby teeth/ She keeps inside the drawer
Give this ring to my lover/ I was scared and stupid not to ask/ For her hand long before
May my love reach you all/ I lost it in myself and buried too long/ Now that I come to fall/ Please say it’s not too late/ Now that I’m dead and gone
My Drunk Interpretation: If you love someone whether lover, friend, or family don’t wait too long to let them know. Because they’ll move on and you’ll either live in the past silently ignoring you current life or you’ll end up in prison. And either way you’ll be pretty sad.
Bake
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[…] of her songs and not understood a word of them this should be particularly fun. As with the first attempt at this exercise I will use that thing called the google to try to find out what the lyrics are […]