Wed 26 Mar 2008
When Words Don’t Work–Dance.
Posted by tom cottar under music
I’ve just seen this video and am pretty speechless. It’s funny how great art can move you deeply even though you’re pretty sure you don’t get it all just yet. From the under-acclaimed Iron and Wine, you HAVE to experience Boy With A Coin. It was something I completely didn’t see coming…
Boy With a Coin
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
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
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
So now I have a host of questions about the images of God that Beam uses in his song/video. What was the bird? The image that ‘God made her eyes for crying at birth…then left the ground…’. What town do ‘all of us burn’? Does he interpret tragedy as God’s uninvolvement in the world? Or is it merely society’s indictment of God’s seeming uninvolvement and Beam’s expression of God’s complete involvement and leadership despite the failures and futility of organized religion?
This may take a while. I could ramble on about it, but I’d rather get your impressions and thoughts.
And if you’re not already familiar with Iron and Wine, go here.
4 Responses to “ When Words Don’t Work–Dance. ”
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March 26th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Did you notice the floor under the last woman dancing. There was writing and graphics as she danced. I must be jaded dude. Or you are more in tough now days.
I love the music though
The feathers that came out of her dree was amazing as well. The digital has been completely integrated in this video.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I don’t know Iron and Wine, but it struck me that we’ve removed God from the material sphere and sent him out somewhere circling the world. And by so doing, we’ve created the experience of the boy and girl and the world they inhabit. For a world without a God who is everywhere present and filling all things is a world which crushes the soul.
The problem is not that our prayers stop at the ceiling, but that we believe they even need to go that far. Lord have mercy.
But then I’ve often danced when I’ve had no words … another reason I’m a lousy Baptist.
March 27th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Scott, I have tried to dance. Remember Elaine from Seinfeld? I dance worse than her so I stopped trying. The world is a tragic place and my dancing makes it so much more tragic.
March 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Perhaps the woman is God.
The class is expressing the injustices sung in the song. Wars, bombs, genocide (’the city we burn’). Rape (’the bird that flew up her gown’). Tragedy in general (’God made her eyes for crying from birth’) when an all-powerful God leaves the earth and removes his involvement here.
The beauty comes when God (the woman) shows Himself/Herself to be more involved than we know. He/She is the Teacher. We are following her lead, not really knowing it. She’s the one keeping time and rhythm. She’s the one who led us to this space to begin with. She ultimately is the one who shows us how to really dance. Life and beauty flows flutters from her dress (the ‘leaves’ that float up and the graphics on the floor). Her every move has an effect on the surrounding atmosphere she touches.
God is not as uninvolved as the lyrics imply. When tragedy happens, God is there in the midst of it. He doesn’t remove us from suffering, but suffers with us. And our dancing looks pretty acceptable until He begins his dance.
All of us ‘make a wish and toss the coin’, hoping for the divine. The good news of the gospel is that Emmanuel is here with us… not circling the earth ‘from a distance’.
*I’m sure there are many more layers to it…but that’s my initial impression.