Let’s Decipher Iron & Wine’s “Flightless Bird, American Mouth”

I have been listening over and over again to the song “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” by Iron & Wine. I first fell in love with it in the ‘Twilight’ movie. And now I have had it on repeat since I started listening to the soundtrack. It’s a great soundtrack, almost as good as the Garden State soundtrack.

So, I was trying to find out the meaning of the song on the internet, to no avail. So I thought I would throw my hat in the ring. Now, most people have written on sites and blogs that they find the song to have a political message. I see where that comes from if you choose to look at the song in that way. Now, songs can have several meanings, let’s not be like my 10th grade English teacher, who said every poem has one and only one meaning, HERS. Although I don’t think she ever asked the poets, you know since they are all DEAD!

Okay, that rant is over. I’m going to tell you why I think “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” can be a love song, and therefore, could be just absolutely perfect for the prom theme in ‘Twilight’. First off, it’s a beautiful song, no matter what it’s true meaning.

K first thing, here are the lyrics:

I was a quick wet boy, diving too deep for coins
All of your street light eyes wide on my plastic toys
Then when the cops closed the fair, I cut my long baby hair
Stole me a dog-eared map and called for you everywhere

Have I found you
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping or lost you, american mouth
Big pill looming

Now I’m a fat house cat
Nursing my sore blunt tongue
Watching the warm poison rats curl through the wide fence cracks
Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold
And clean blood of Christ mountain stream

Have I found you
Flightless bird, grounded, bleeding or lost you, american mouth
Big pill stuck going down

I believe the song represents a relationship in it’s entirety, from start to finish for one person, let’s just say the guy.

The first part of the song, from wet boy to baby hair represents childhood and the loss of innocence. And feeling like you have no voice in the world.

To me, stealing a dog-eared map and called for you everywhere, trying to find the one you love, the one who could possibly be your other half.  A dog-eared map is an old one. You can look everywhere, but these are the places everyone has already been so you won’t be able to find somebody who you think is special. Those places have already been looked in, and they’re not for you.

And after searching, in all the places you thought, you find your flightless bird. I find the flightless bird to mean that it’s a special person, a flightless bird, someone who has evolved from their current state (a bird) to become an exceptional, special person. That flightless bird, the special one, is jealous and weeping because they can’t find anyone to accept them for who they are, not normal.

I think American Mouth, means the ability to communicate, how the two lovers understand and talk to each other. Big pill looming I think means the future, what can happen to this love.

The second part of the song is phase 2 of the relationship, past the honeymoon stage. I think the house cat part is an analogy to becoming lazy in love, and not appreciating the person as the one who is your true love anymore. Pissing, ruining the relationship because you got too comfortable.

The fishing lures have gone cold, since you are not trying to catch each other anymore.  I think the next line is where the lover realizes that the relationship has changed. I see the clean blood of Christ to means I’ve judged and I want some atonement, to reconcile what we have become.

Finally, the last part,

Have I found you
Flightless bird, grounded, bleeding or lost you, american mouth
Big pill stuck going down

Since in theory a flightless bird is already grounded, in general terms, the love made them feel like they could fly (at least the flightless bird) And since being made feel like they could fly, it’s lost now. But, American mouth, we can still communicate, this does not have to end, the big pill (the future) is stuck, but we can stop it from going down.

Okay, that’s it from me.  Are you not so jealous I spent time doing this today at work? Sorry this is the total former creative writing major in me. Now, the song could not mean anything like what I think. It could be a political message about a broken American dream. But it’s me projecting and this is what I see. Decipher it for yourself, what do you think?