Story Behind the Song: Brandy Clark, ‘Pawn Shop’

One of the few third-person story songs on Brandy Clark's new album, Your Life is a Record, "Pawn Shop" examines all the meanings and themes behind pawn shops, consignment stores, and the idea that one person's trash is another's treasure.

While Clark says she has a personal connection to pawn shops through a family member who owned one, the real inspiration for this song came from a book that she was reading, and one of the characters in it. "Pawn Shop" is a sad song in an album full of sad songs, but as always, Clark applies her trademark storytelling approach and evocative descriptive power to the delivery of the song. 

Read on as Clark explains the story behind the song, which she co-wrote with Troy Verges.

Pawn shops have always really intrigued me. I have an uncle that owned one. They always feel sad and hopeful at the same time to me, because somebody's trash is somebody else's treasure.

I was reading a book one time, and there was a guy, the guy at the pawn shop [in the book] who said, "I have the job of telling people that something's not worth what they think it is." That really hit me as a song idea.

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