Gregory Alan Isakov - The Trapeze Swinger

Please remember me, happily
By the rosebush laughing
With bruises on my chin, the time when
We counted every black car passing


Your house beneath the hill and up until
Someone caught us in the kitchen
With maps, a mountain range, a piggy bank
A vision too removed to mention


But please remember me, fondly
I heard from someone you're still pretty
And then they went on to say that the Pearly Gates
Had some eloquent graffiti


Like 'We'll meet again' and 'Fuck the man'
And 'Tell my mother not to worry'
And angels with their great handshakes
But always done in such a hurry


And please remember me, at Halloween
Making fools of all the neighbors
Our faces painted white, by midnight
We'd forgotten one another


And when the morning came I was ashamed
Only now it seems so silly
That season left the world and then returned
And now you're lit up by the city


So please remember me, mistakenly
In the window of the tallest tower
Call, then pass us by but much too high
To see the empty road at happy hour


Gleam and resonate just like the gates
Around the Holy Kingdom
With words like, 'Lost and found' and 'Don't look down'
And 'Someone save temptation'


And please remember me as in the dream
We had as rug burned babies
Among the fallen trees and fast asleep
Beside the lions and the ladies


That called you what you like and even might
Give a gift for your behavior
A fleeting chance to see a trapeze
Swinger high as any savior


But please remember me, my misery
And how it lost me all I wanted
Those dogs that love the rain and chasing trains
The colored birds above there running


In circles round the well and where it spells
On the wall behind St. Peter
So bright on cinder gray in spray paint
'Who the hell can see forever?'


And please remember me, seldomly
In the car behind the carnival
My hand between your knees, you turn from me
And said the trapeze act was wonderful


But never meant to last, the clowns that passed
Saw me just come up with anger
When it filled with circus dogs, the parking lot
Had an element of danger


So please remember me, finally
And all my uphill clawing
My dear, but if I make the Pearly Gates
I'll do my best to make a drawing


Of God and Lucifer, a boy and girl
An angel kissin' on a sinner
A monkey and a man, a marching band
All around the frightened trapeze swinger

It's all right here!

Who the hell can see forever…

We do know this is an Iron and Wine song, right? Albeit, a beautiful cover...

i wonder what came in to "Iron and wine" when he wrote this

I hate myself

Read the description. It’s brutal. Get some tissues (yes you!).

Absolutely beautiful cover by Isakov of Iron & Wine's (Sam Ervin Beam's) exceptional song.

I miss you Paris.

too much description for something only needed to be felt

I'll never understand how people can see this song as him just singing about "one person"..

This song is about an entire life.
I think it would be a sad life if it all was summed up as only one person..
We all had friends, crushes, mentors, etc who helped shape our lives..

thinking of my recently departed…

When I close my eyes my past is on the horizon, it is not getting any closer although the rising sun shines on it favourably, makes things seem more significant than they are. I am 11 years old sitting beside my uncle on a high stool the smell of porter igniting new experiences in my nostrils. the cousins and my brothers are out the back playing pool but I want to listen to men talk of the days trade and tomorrows hurling. It is a pleasant full memory, the kind we rarely hold onto and it reminds me I have grown up quicker than the weeds in a widows garden. There is no soundtrack for those times. This song helps.

I have heard this amazing version of this song countless times... yet it still rips me to pieces every time no matter what mood I am in. It's beautiful, it's haunting, it's melancholy, it's hopeful, it's solemn, it's angry, it's gentle ... it's simply incredible. Thank your Mr. Isakov.

What a wonderfully refreshing song, different from most all others of the same genre. No repetition here! So much great music is out there, but sadly playing the same verse over and over.This guy sure doesn’t have that problem.

My favorite artist AND my favorite Iron & Wine song? It's my lucky day.😄

This is so beautiful - “That season left the world and then returned, and now you’re lit up by the city”
I’m a painter and often listen to a single song on repeat throughout the whole time I paint it, then name it that song. I have a beautiful painting named “The Trapeze Swinger” ❤

This is the upper eschelan of this instrument! If something better, please I 2a

why does it feel like I'm always on the run

Oh my heart. Reminds me of my son who passed oh so many years ago.⚘

Sam Beam wrote this song, guys. This is an Iron & Wine song.

Isaac’s cover is gorgeous, no doubt, but a lot of you are crediting his genius songwriting, and I think that’s a bit unfair to Sam. Just sayin’….

Wow

I think this is may be the most beautiful song ever written. 💔❤‍🩹

possibly the best song ever written. credit to sam but this is such a perfect cover

Love His Music His Songs are like small fortunes we all have shared in one way or another,spoken words from an experience this man shares into the universe to sooth our beings in relation to everyone of his words in song./|\£∆¥€\|/ all whom finds these words from a root to those whom combine together creating the infamous TREEOFLIFE

who did this first, Iron and Wine or Gregory?

Great underrated artists

จะดูจนแน่ใจว่าเขาบอกให้ชัดทำงานก็จะทำ

beautiful

Why is there literally no emotion in his voice. Sounds like he doesn't even want to be singing lol.

not laconic, but it's an epitaph. john keats just said. "here lies one whose name was writ in water." if there was going to be a stone for me, I'd ask them to write these lyrics on it with an indelible marker. but since there won't be an engraved stone, lord may i be satisfied with just the stone.

This song just came on randomly and I instantly though, “Shit, I am not ready for these emotions today.” Most brutal song I will ever love…to dread. It’s like that nasty medicine you had to take as a kid, “so you will feel better”.

Required listening for anyone thinking about dating again. I passed. Now I know what love was always supposed to be. So much better.

-Some old union plumber in the Mid-West USA.

HANG IN THERE, IT DOES GET BETTER.

Spotify?

wtf this is an iron and wine song. pos

Chords anyone?? 🙏🏾

Hello! The song belongs to Iron&Wine. Gregory Alan Isakov covered the song for Fuel/Friends Music Blog - Chapel Session in Colorado Springs, CO.

who wrote the 'read more' description? life is so much more than a segment of a line. these bountiful mysteries spread out like colourful tail plumage against the gold light of the morning sun.

Amazing lyrics. Impressive

Brings back the past in elated tone. . Like I’m sipping scotch. But have no scotch

Lost my daughter a few months ago. This song helps to soften the sharp, jagged shards of broken glass that was once my heart. 💔

I lost my youngest son to suicide November 2020
This song resonates some of his life when he was a youngster and early adolescence he fell in love early on and was denied all the Love he felt for his Love by her parents . His first born son was riled from his life . He continued on to become amazing g ER nurse . He found a new life in CA continuing his Nursing and fell in Love again. and had a beautiful daughter and a promise of life good bad in sickness or health, and that was once again denied to him. He absolutely loved his children. So this song resonates so much of his life for me . I will never get over loosing him to taking his life . The unending questions I feel him everyday with all I have . He rests I. Gods hands now never forgotten. ❤

Beautiful tears

This song is so beautiful

it tells me a different story every time I hear this song. I hope my existence may touch the lives of everyone that I have loved in this lifetime.

nothings better than listening to this song with a glass of straight gin

This song takes me some place good an rebuild s my mind with great calming just so brilliant and humbling thank you 😊

This is the song that made me realize I don't want to live in a world without the love of my life, to get off my Trapeze and ask her to marry me. The thought of living in a state of "what if" is horrifying, And looking back for eternity on what could have been is so beautifully heartbreaking. Thank you Iron and Wine and Gregory Alan Isakov. I owe you one.

💜!

Who the hell can see forever!!