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."
http://www.ironandwine.com/
The Devil Never Sleeps
Iron & Wine Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Big black cloud was low and rolling our way
Dog at the barbed wire barkin' at my buzz-cut friends
Friend with a switch blade shinin' in the summer rain
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Dreamin' again of a city full of fathers and their white clothes
All of us lost at the crosswalk waitin' for the other to go
Didn't find the field but boy you're really waterlogged
Someone bet a dollar that their daddy wasn't comin' home
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Dreamin' again that it's freezin' and my mother's in a flower bed
Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds
Changin' her face like a shadow on the ground
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
The lyrics to Iron & Wine's song "The Devil Never Sleeps" paint a picture of various dream sequences, each with its own haunting imagery. The first verse describes a train track that abruptly ends at the edge of the sea, with a foreboding black cloud on the horizon. The scene is populated with a dog barking at the singer's buzz-cut friends, and a friend with a switchblade in the rain. The second verse takes place in a city full of fathers in white clothes, with boys chattering and a chicken on a chopping block. The dreamer is lost at a crosswalk, waiting for the other to go, and encounters someone who bet a dollar that their father won't come home. The final verse is the most surreal, with frozen weather and the singer's mother in a flower bed surrounded by rows of daffodils and marigolds. Her face changes like a shadow on the ground, suggesting a deeper message about the transience of life and the inevitability of change.
Overall, the song seems to be grappling with themes of mortality and the precariousness of existence. The imagery is dreamlike and surreal, but carries a weighty emotional resonance. The repeated refrain of "everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio" suggests a deeper dissatisfaction with life and a longing for meaning and connection.
Line by Line Meaning
Dreamin' again of a train track ending at the edge of the sea
The singer is dreaming of a train track that terminates at the edge of the sea, an eerie and surreal setting.
Big black cloud was low and rolling our way
A dark cloud is approaching, indicating an ominous or foreboding presence nearby.
Dog at the barbed wire barkin' at my buzz-cut friends
The dog is barking at the singer's friends with buzzed hair, hinting at a potential conflict or danger.
Friend with a switch blade shinin' in the summer rain
The singer's friend has a switchblade shining in the rain, alluding to a possible violent act or confrontation.
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
No one had any change to use the phone, implying a feeling of isolation or desperation.
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Everyone is constantly complaining about the lack of good or interesting content on the radio, emphasizing a sense of boredom or dissatisfaction.
Dreamin' again of a city full of fathers and their white clothes
The singer is dreaming of a city with countless fathers in white clothes, a symbol of wholesomeness or purity.
Chatterin' boys and a chicken at the choppin' block
The lyrics describe a setting where boys are talking alongside a chicken on a chopping block, suggesting violence or death.
All of us lost at the crosswalk waitin' for the other to go
The singer and others are lost at a crosswalk waiting for someone else to make the first move, reflecting hesitation or indecisiveness.
Didn't find the field but boy you're really waterlogged
The singer didn't find the field they were looking for, but the boy is very wet, perhaps from drowning or being lost in the rain.
Someone bet a dollar that their daddy wasn't comin' home
Someone is betting that their father won't return home, highlighting the fragility of life and the uncertainties of the future.
Dreamin' again that it's freezin' and my mother's in a flower bed
The singer is dreaming that their mother is lying in a flower bed while freezing, evoking a sense of death or afterlife.
Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds
The rows of daffodils and marigolds are long dead, hinting at the passing of time and the decaying state of things.
Changin' her face like a shadow on the ground
The singer's mother is changing her face like a shadow on the ground, alluding to the ephemeral nature of life and the way it constantly changes.
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
The lyrics suggest that no one can live forever and that the devil is always present, emphasizing the inevitability of death and the presence of evil in the world.
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
The repetition of this line reinforces the idea that boredom and dissatisfaction are prevalent, with nothing on the radio to alleviate the humdrum of daily life.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: SAMUEL ERVIN BEAM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
kettle cliff
I feel like this would make great music for the beginning of movie, like while the title credits are playing and the camera following the main character as they walk to through the city, an then as the song comes to an end and the first bit of audible conversation begins someone clicks of the radio
kettle cliff
@Sean Britcher that sounds super cool i'll have to look it up!
Sean Britcher
@kettle cliff i'm kinda thinking of this as opening music to a campaign of Blackstone Highway (ttrpg game on itch.io). "Blackstone Highway is a weird-midwestern road trip. It's a point crawl adventure meant to be ran with any osr or dnd-adjacent system (and is statted for such). It's a mix of modern aesthetics, sci-fi, and the weird fantasy genre."
kettle cliff
@Barbeque Jack thank you!
Barbeque Jack
Thats not a bad idea man
kettle cliff
Or same situation but it's someone getting in an old truck and driving down a long dirt road, waving at the wacky neighbours as they pass by, and we see a broad landscape around them and maybe a birds eye view follows the truck
Taran Fiddes
This song makes me nostalgic for a time that i wasn't alive
the baker of banana bread
I really need to find other songs that have this level of energy for my road-trip mix. Any suggestions?
Jonak Chakrabarti
One of mu favourite songs ever.
dominic nelson
really thought this band was bigger not gonna lie