Jezebel by Iron & Wine

Album: Woman King (2005)

License This Song

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

Iron & Wine is the singer/songwriter Sam Beam. In this song he sings about being in love with a "bad girl." He knows she is bad for him and people do not like her, but he doesn't care.
In the Bible, Jezebel, a queen married to King Ahab, falsely accuses people of blasphemy and treason and has them stoned to death. She causes tons of problems for Israel (hence the lyric, "She was born to be the woman we could blame") and a revolt is formed to overthrow the house of King Ahab. Jezebel is thrown out the window by her bedmaids. A man named Jehu then rides down to Jezebel and stomps her into the pavement with a horse leaving nothing left but her skull, hands and feet. Jehu says a pack of dogs came and ate her fulfilling the prophet Elijah's claim that "the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."

Beam could be using Jezebel's story in reference to another misunderstood woman, or it could just be for misunderstood woman in general. Perhaps he doesn't buy into the biblical notion that she is as villainous as portrayed and that she is just misunderstood. The song is painting her as more of a hero than someone deserving of such actions. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Hunter - Greensburg, LA, for above 2

Comments: 2

Jarret from Greensburg, PaOMG only one one comment! NOOOO this is a wonderful song. I guess you'll have to ask the artist about the meaning. The first time i heard this song I instantly thought the lyrics pointed to a girl the speaker loved that committed suicide. This girl was misunderstood and chastised by the "dogs" Then she commits suicide and the dogs come running... "we'll love you more and wholly
Jezebel, it's we, we that you are for only" But it's too late for Jezebel because she's gone and whatever the dogs say matters not for they are the ones who killed her. "who's seen Jezebel? she was born to be the woman we could blame make me a beast half as brave I'd be the same" "Who's seen Jezebel? She was gone before i ever got to say, lay here my love your the only shape ill pray TOO" That 'too' is so important, it proves that she is in the afterlife because you wouldn't pray TOO someone who is alive. Then he waits for himself to pass on so he can see her again. So he holds this girl up as a saint even though she's a suicide. So he aches to see the day... the day when he could see her again. What irony! This reminded me of what happened to that girl at that high school who they found hanging from the staircase. though the incident was after the song was written the resemblance is striking, at least to me anyway.
Zach from Woodbury, Mnmy favorite song by iron & wine

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)Will Glahe

In 1939, a polka craze swept America thanks to "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)."

BloodstreamEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who is about a revolution, but it doesn't have a happy ending, since in the end the new regime becomes just like the old one. Pete Townshend thought that whoever was in power was destined to become corrupt.

Good TimesChic

The disco song "Good Tmes" by Chic was a huge influence on early rap, providing the bassline for "Rapper's Delight."

Dancing QueenABBA

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson conceived "Dancing Queen" as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo," drawing inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby." Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen."

Uptown FunkMark Ronson

The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").