Ironbound/Fancy Poultry Lyrics
I can't believe there is only one comment on this song so far. This is an incredible song and in my opinion it's vastly underrated. Suzanne has said a few things publicly about the song so I'll keep my remarks personal.
The picture that coalesces in my mind as the story unfolds is that of a single mom who cares for her child in part by selling herself. An analogy is drawn between the butchering and selling of poultry parts and the equally unfeeling way her body is treated like nothing more than parts.
Here are the lines that stand out or me. The "blood and feathers" are literal, from the butchered animals, but they foreshadow how cruelly people are treated also. When she "fingers the ring, opens her purse, feels a longing", she remembers past economic security and happier times, perhaps when a husband was still alive or around, but then feels keenly aware of her lack of economic security currently.
At the end of the song, her body is offered, metaphorically through the poultry seller's cry. "Breasts and thighs" represent the sexual part of herself which she surrenders. "Hearts" reveals that it breaks her heart to offer herself in this way, so in effect her "heart", the part of her that loves, is also for sale. The pause before the word "Hearts" is genius artistic timing, allowing the emotion to settle in the listener. "Backs" refers to plain old hard work. The kick drum hits on the word "backs" for the first time in a while, literally putting effort into the lyric. "Backs are cheap" means in some way that her labor doesn't fetch enough money for her to care for her child.
"Wings are nearly free" is more elusive to me. It either means that she still clings to her dreams, though she feels trapped for the foreseeable future, or it means, as the previous commenter said, that she almost feels free. "Wings" could also refer to her ability to leave the situation (perhaps to move from the city) and seek a better life. "Nearly free," then, could either mean that she can't quite make it happen, or more poetically that dreams and plans for a better life aren't worth much in the cruel economy of real life in the city.
I also just have to say the band is incredible on this track. Mike Visceglia has had a big influence on my bass playing.
@kyrasdad this is also how I interpret it. I also imagine that she is possibly caught up in drugs, hence "wings are nearly free" - she gets to escape for a bit, but they're not really free are they? This song speaks to womens' (mothers') powerlessness and vulnerability.
@kyrasdad this is also how I interpret it. I also imagine that she is possibly caught up in drugs, hence "wings are nearly free" - she gets to escape for a bit, but they're not really free are they? This song speaks to womens' (mothers') powerlessness and vulnerability.
@kyrasdad This is very close to my interpretation also.
@kyrasdad This is very close to my interpretation also.
I feel that the ending of the song, «wings are nearly free», is about the wings of imagination. She is dreaming of getting away. The music is more dreamy in this part too, like she is flying away and the music is fading out.
I feel that the ending of the song, «wings are nearly free», is about the wings of imagination. She is dreaming of getting away. The music is more dreamy in this part too, like she is flying away and the music is fading out.
Description at the beginning is really beautiful and the scene is really woven around the main figure of the song, giving the impression that she really is grafted to the city, unable to detach. The chant of the poulty seller has even become her own voice and "wings are nearlly free" is a reference to how little her soul seems to matter in the city -but somehow there is a note of hope o perhaps it is ironic -that she will be nearlly free.
I have just heard this song and immediately searched for meaning online. If we’re going on the idea that it is about this woman-To me, “ nearly free” has an interesting meaning. I hear it as ( almost free enough to leave the situation but not quite) and ( just like the pieces of meat, she is nearly worthless). The way “nearly free” is sung is almost like the wind carrying her away, or carrying our view of her away. We are swept to another world never to find out whether this person lived or died in their situation. Because of course she is just another woman selling her body. Invisible and beautiful. A really stunning song. I find myself trying to imagine this person’s entire life and if it is about the aforementioned narrative, I hope she was free.
The geographical place of the song is Ironbound in Newark NJ, The Ironbound was an industrial neighborhood in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Ironbound has experienced several waves of immigration. By the 1920s there was a large Portuguese population there.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ironbound
[Edit: Link to wikipedia didn't work]
Suzanne Vega in interview /themouthmagazine.com/2012/10/09/suzanne-vega/
«I loved the area of Ironbound, which is a part of Newark, New Jersey, with a lot of immigrants, a large Portugese community… I, myself, was avoiding getting married at the time of writing the song. I think I was afraid of feeling trapped. So I projected it outwards to a random woman from that area…»
@Areguru YES and YES! I was on a bus to NYC in 2005 or so and noticed the Iron Bound signs and many Portuguese themed environments while on the edge of New Jersey and figured Suzanne had been there, observed, and wrote my favorite SV song.
@Areguru YES and YES! I was on a bus to NYC in 2005 or so and noticed the Iron Bound signs and many Portuguese themed environments while on the edge of New Jersey and figured Suzanne had been there, observed, and wrote my favorite SV song.
This is one of her most haunting songs. It jumps into my head when I am feeling objectified as a woman. I feel like it is universal, not just about the woman in the song. To society, in magazines, media, the job world, and the dating world, so often I feel that we are all "fancy poultry". I wish that we could be seen for more than what is on the surface. Women go through so much of being treated as a commidity, worthy of being consumed or not, based on the parts we have. I am not bitter or hateful toward men, and I don't want readers to assume that. What I do want is for them to realize what it is like to be the opposite gender. Maybe men are sometimes objectified too? Their minds and their achievements seem to garner more points, however, in real time.
It's funny, cause I always felt a strong associations with military or prison i the lyrics. That her fiance is in prison or military, anyway, somehow absent. And that his body is a cheap cannon fodder. But now, when I read other comments, it seems like the mariage itself could give that prison, trap sensations. Still wondering