Beam was raised outside Columbia, South Carolina, United States where his father worked in land management and his mother was a schoolteacher. He graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor's degree and the Florida State University Film School with an MFA degree. Until the first Iron & Wine album, Beam's main source of income was as a professor of film and cinematography at the University of Miami and Miami International University of Art & Design. He had been writing songs for over seven years before a friend lent him a four-track recorder. His friends handed out copies of demos that he had made, and the owner of Sub Pop Records personally contacted Beam and proposed a deal.
Beam released his first album, The Creek Drank the Cradle, on the Sub Pop label in 2002; Beam wrote, performed, recorded, and produced every track on the album by himself at a studio in his home. The album features acoustic guitars, banjo, and slide guitar; its music has been compared, variously, to that of Nick Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young, Elliott Smith, and Ralph Stanley.
In 2003 The Sea & The Rhythm was released, an EP collecting other home-recorded tracks along the same lines as those on the debut. Beam's second album, Our Endless Numbered Days (2004), was recorded in a professional studio with a significant increase in fidelity. The focus still lies on acoustic material, but the inclusion of other band members gives rise to a very different sound.
Beam released an EP titled Woman King in February 2005, and the EP In the Reins, a collaboration with Calexico was released in September 2005. This joint work mostly features new full-band versions of previously recorded Iron and Wine rarities.
One of his most famous songs is a cover, which was featured on a commercial for M&M’s candies and in the 2004 film “Garden State” (and on its popular soundtrack), of "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service.
"Kiss Each Other Clean" is the fourth studio album by Iron & Wine, released January 25, 2011. The album's title is taken from the lyrics of track 10, "Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me". The album marks a further change in style – in an interview with SPIN magazine, Beam said “It’s more of a focused pop record. It sounds like the music people heard in their parent’s car growing up… that early-to-mid-’70s FM, radio-friendly music."
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He Lays in the Reins
Iron & Wine Lyrics
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Where he lays in the reins
For all of the speed and the strength he gave
One more kiss tonight from some tall stable girl
She's like grace from the earth
When you're all tuckered out and tame
When your want from the day
Makes you to curse in your sleep at night
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
The first verse of "He Lays In The Reins" by Iron & Wine and Calexico describes a scene of a man tending to his gray stallion at the end of the day. As the horse rests with his reins still on, the man contemplates the speed and strength the animal had demonstrated throughout the day. In the second verse, the imagery shifts to a stable girl who plants a kiss on the man's lips. She is described as graceful, like a gift from nature, and her embrace is a comforting reward for the man's hard work taming the stallion. The third verse brings in the image of the rising moon, a tired thing that is gray and aging. The man feels the weight of his day and curses in his sleep. The final verse suggests that the man may end up like his horse, immobilized and trapped by the reins that he wears, unable to fight against the forces that have him tangled up. It's a poignant, evocative song about the fleeting nature of beauty, strength, and freedom.
Line by Line Meaning
One more drink tonight as your gray stallion rests
Having one more drink while your horse rests, tired and weary
Where he lays in the reins
Lying still with the reins still wound around him
For all of the speed and the strength he gave
For all the effort he has put in, tirelessly and with great power
One more kiss tonight from some tall stable girl
Getting one last peck from a tall girl who works at the stables
She's like grace from the earth
She resembles gracefulness, a divine quality that comes from earth
When you're all tuckered out and tame
When you are tired and have lost your wild spirit
One more tired thing the gray moon on the rise
The moon rising in a weary, exhausted way for one more night
When your want from the day
When the desire for the day is unfulfilled
Makes you to curse in your sleep at night
Causing you to curse in your sleep, unable to express your disappointment
One more gift to bring we may well find you laid
One more present to give, finding you lying still
Like your steed in his reins
Just like your horse, stuck and unable to move forward
Tangled too tight and too long to fight
Frustratingly tangled, with no way to escape or resist
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: SAMUEL ERVIN BEAM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind