Iron & Wine is singer/songwriter Sam Beam and whichever musicians and singers he decides to combine with. To me he’s one of the most interesting songwriters and record-makers around.

I liked ‘Boy With A Coin’, the Iron & Wine song under discussion here, as soon as I heard it; just the sound of it, before I knew the lyrics. This is how I typically respond to songs – if I like the sound of them, then I go from there.

After a while I got to the lyrics. Beam’s lyrics are interesting for a number of reasons. The songs of his that I’m most familiar with are often based on trance-like grooves that sometimes have only one repeated vocal section (as in this song), so the sound of the words is even more critical than usual. This is one of the areas where he excels. It feels like the way the words sound coming out of his mouth is deeply important to him – a quality I greatly admire in a songwriter.

But his storytelling is interesting too. It’s often oblique (and in this case symbolic), but full of realistic and evocative visual detail. He leaves the listener some ‘connecting the dots’ to do, but he also gives you a lot to work with in doing so.

(You can listen to the song with the lyrics on the screen in the video below.)

The song starts with this:

A boy with a coin he found in the weeds
With bullets and pages of trade magazines
Close to a car that flipped on the turn
When God left the ground to circle the world

Look how the song expands almost cinematically – from a boy with the coin he found… to the ’bullets and trade magazines’ scattered around him in the weeds (along with the coin)… that (probably) come from a car that flipped over (great verb here – flipped)…

That’s a lot going on in three lines, and a great example of starting a story in an indirect but still dramatic way. The fourth line ends the verse in a way we don’t yet understand (it’s echoed later)… except – God left when the car crashed… which opens up a whole other dimension to the story of the boy.

A girl with a bird she found in the snow
Then flew up her gown and that’s how she knows
That God made her eyes for crying at birth
Then left the ground to circle the Earth

It seems to refer to a girl who’s been sexually abused or violated… and where was God?

The girl, the (pure white) snow, the bird flies up her gown… that’s how she knows about crying… Wow – that’s good.

And, to go back to the sound of the words, check out the first lines or each verse – boy/coin; girl/bird. And how he uses the ‘ir‘ sound at the end of the 3rd and 4th line of every verse.

Third verse:

A boy with a coin he crammed in his jeans
Then making a wish he tossed in the sea
Walked to a town that all of us burn
When God left the ground to circle the world

Honestly, I can’t explain literally what’s going on here; not yet, anyway. Maybe some kind of redemption or letting go (the boy makes a wish and throws the coin into the sea)? But then he walks into a burning town… that all of us burn when God left…

It does sound and feel good though.

Sam Beam’s unique combination of groove, sound, and indirect storytelling make for great listening. His approach is worth thinking about. It might influence your writing in some unexpected ways.

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