03.02.09
Song of the Week #10: Iron & Wine – Flightless Bird, American Mouth
Sam Beam of Iron & Wine (Photo by Raquel Rincon)
I remember people talking about Iron & Wine already years ago, but I’ve only started listening to them more recently. Or him, because Iron & Wine is really a stage name of Sam Beam. It started as his solo project, but later a touring band has emerged around him.
Flightless Bird, American Mouth is a song from Iron & Wine’s third studio album, The Shepherd’s Dog. The song was also used in the 2008 movie Twilight. Last night I saw the local band Hormonés for the second time this year. They played a fun show, consisting of some Iron & Wine songs, some of their own, and covers of KT Tunstall, John Mayer, Foo Fighters, and others. For a fun song performed by them, you can check out their live recording of the Presidents of the USA song Back Porch on their MySpace page.
That show inspired me to pick the song of the week from Iron & Wine. This is Sam Beam’s solo performance of the beautiful and simple Flightless Bird, American Mouth.
mimyy said,
October 7, 2009 at 11:17 pm
i reALLY want to know the meaning of this song…flightless bird…iwant to know what the song is talkin about like if it has its own meaning…or what kind ofsongis it…like a love song or what?…i meancause i saw it on the TWILIGHT SCENE when bella and edward where dancing at the homecoming…”the love scene”…So please can anyone answerme that….BY THE WAY…..LOVE THE SONG….!!!
Matt said,
October 13, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Yeah, it’s a great song! I think I heard that Sam Beam (the writer of the song) is just pretty much throwing words together that sound and feel good, but if you want to read more discussion of the lyrics, check out songmeanings.net:
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858648974/