The Rolling Stones

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The Rolling Stones - Angie

 This mournful ballad is one of the Rolling Stones' best-known and most-loved songs. Spending 13 weeks on the pop chart and hitting the number one spot in America, "Angie" was a worldwide smash, re-establishing the Stones at the top of the charts after their previous record -- the artistic high-watermark Exile on Main St. -- suffered a relatively poor commercial performance. Mick Jagger achingly sings about a doomed love: "They can't say we never tried/With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats/You can't say we're satisfied," is one of the song's most memorable lines. Jagger's soulful vocal performance rises over "whoop"s and shouts and his old "ghost" guide vocal track, the track that vocalists lay down to steer the musicians through the arrangement in recording. The bleed-through of the scratch vocal into open microphones adds a raw quality to the recording that would normally be cleaned up during big-budget recordings. The inspiration for the lyrics have speculatively been attributed to varied sources: Keith Richards' longtime love, Anita Pallenberg; David Bowie's ex-wife, Angela Bowie; and even David Bowie himself, who Angela claimed to have once found in bed with Jagger. But Keith Richards has noted that soon before he wrote the basic chords and melody for the song, his new daughter, Angela, had been born and the name "Angie" just fit well into the music. Many girls born in 1973-1975 were probably also named after the ballad. The minor-key strum of Keith Richard's guitar starts the song with a folky flavor. The acoustic of Mick Taylor also joins in soon after Richard's harmonic notes. Other notable instrumentation includes the gentle country-soul piano work of Nicky Hopkins and the nonintrusive string arrangements of Nicky Harrison. Charlie Watts adds his distinctive stops and starts on the drums, into which slips the soulful bass of Bill Wyman. The overall muscled approach of the band offsets the potential preciousness of the piece. With many bands, the string section on top of a piano/acoustic guitar ballad coupled with such pining lyrics would add up to syrup -- and some fans indeed thought the Stones veered well into that '70s soft rock territory here. However, as inconsistent as their records started to become with Goats Head Soup, the Stones were nevertheless becoming more adept at writing and recording ballads. Some of their greatest came from this era; think of "Winter" and "Coming Down Again" from Goats Head Soup (1973) and "Fool to Cry" and "Memory Motel" from Black and Blue (1976). Tori Amos gave "Angie" her typically melodramatic, pseudo-intense approach on the 1992 EP Crucify. Neo-traditionalist country singer Sammy Kershaw recorded a sincere but somnambulant version of the song for the 1997 tribute to the Stones by contemporary country artists, Stone Country. Oddly for such a huge hit ballad, cover versions are few and far between. (Allmusic.com)



Angie, Angie, when will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied
But Angie, Angie, you can't say we never tried
Angie, you're beautiful, but ain't it time we said good-bye?
Angie, I still love you, remember all those nights we cried?
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
Let me whisper in your ear:
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?

Oh, Angie, don't you weep, all your kisses still taste sweet
I hate that sadness in your eyes
But Angie, Angie, ain't it time we said good-bye?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can't say we're satisfied
But Angie, I still love you, baby
Ev'rywhere I look I see your eyes
There ain't a woman that comes close to you
Come on Baby, dry your eyes
But Angie, Angie, ain't it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie, they can't say we never tried