"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
In the iron-bound section near Avenue L
Where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
The clouds so low the morning so slow
As the wires cut through the sky
The beams and bridges cut the light on the ground
Into little triangles and the rails run round
Through the rust and the heat
The light and sweet coffee color of her skin
Bound up in wire and fate
Watching her walk him up to the gate
In front of the iron-bound school yard.
Kids will grow like weeds on a fence
She says they look for the light they try to make sense.
They come up through the cracks
Like grass on the tracks
She touches him goodbye.
Steps off the curb and into the street
The blood and feathers near her feet
Into the iron-bound market
In the iron-bound section near Avenue L
Where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
The clouds so low the morning so slow
As the wires cut through the sky
She stops at the stall
Fingers the ring
Opens her purse
Feels a longing
Away from the iron-bound border
"Fancy poultry parts sold here.
Breasts and thighs and hearts.
Backs are cheap and wings are nearly free.
Nearly free"
Where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
The clouds so low the morning so slow
As the wires cut through the sky
The beams and bridges cut the light on the ground
Into little triangles and the rails run round
Through the rust and the heat
The light and sweet coffee color of her skin
Bound up in wire and fate
Watching her walk him up to the gate
In front of the iron-bound school yard.
Kids will grow like weeds on a fence
She says they look for the light they try to make sense.
They come up through the cracks
Like grass on the tracks
She touches him goodbye.
Steps off the curb and into the street
The blood and feathers near her feet
Into the iron-bound market
In the iron-bound section near Avenue L
Where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
The clouds so low the morning so slow
As the wires cut through the sky
She stops at the stall
Fingers the ring
Opens her purse
Feels a longing
Away from the iron-bound border
"Fancy poultry parts sold here.
Breasts and thighs and hearts.
Backs are cheap and wings are nearly free.
Nearly free"
Lyrics submitted by Novartza, edited by DCCJeephunk
Ironbound/Fancy Poultry Lyrics as written by Suzanne Vega Anton Sanko
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
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.