This song is absolutely heartbreaking. The section from Martha & the Vandellis is easy; a song about being faithful. How sweet. Then the band turn the whole thing around with the phrase, "If she wants to go". She's leaving despite all this talk of faithfulness.
The 'birds of a feather' portion is the finale and can interpreted a handful of ways; 1) the girl is singing to her new man, 2) the man left behind is singing of the girl so either a) she's leaving him the way she found him or b) he wasn't faithful either. The fact that there is a decrescendo before repeating 'birds of a feather' leads me think its either 1 or 2b.
However, I think it strange to interact with an entirely new character at the very end of a piece. This could be just reinforcing the idea that this is the last thing you see of this girl, her with her new guy. Or as in 2b, the guy was never faithful either, making you reconsider why this girl had decided to leave in the first place. Maybe she was faithful, she meant what she said. Then she found out about him cheating and went to find someone to treat her better. In that case all three endings work, actually.
This song is absolutely heartbreaking. The section from Martha & the Vandellis is easy; a song about being faithful. How sweet. Then the band turn the whole thing around with the phrase, "If she wants to go". She's leaving despite all this talk of faithfulness. The 'birds of a feather' portion is the finale and can interpreted a handful of ways; 1) the girl is singing to her new man, 2) the man left behind is singing of the girl so either a) she's leaving him the way she found him or b) he wasn't faithful either. The fact that there is a decrescendo before repeating 'birds of a feather' leads me think its either 1 or 2b. However, I think it strange to interact with an entirely new character at the very end of a piece. This could be just reinforcing the idea that this is the last thing you see of this girl, her with her new guy. Or as in 2b, the guy was never faithful either, making you reconsider why this girl had decided to leave in the first place. Maybe she was faithful, she meant what she said. Then she found out about him cheating and went to find someone to treat her better. In that case all three endings work, actually.