John Hiatt: Angel
[purchase]
I was surprised to find that we haven't posted any John Hiatt songs here yet -- had I noticed, I would have rectified the problem long before now. As it is, I'm a bit too busy packing for my summer folkfest rounds to do this song justice, so perhaps it's enough to note that, though Angel is not one of John Hiatt's best known songs, it can be found on his highest charting album...and that this angry second-person tale of being on the receiving end of a break-up -- of losing one's wings to the snow, to be called Angel no more, to become earthbound alone -- is pure rock and roll, and good rock and roll can speak for itself.
Plus, the bridge of this song contains the most vivid couplet about breaking up that rock and roll has to offer, period:
He peeled the skin off of the world and you stopped breathin’
You drew a breath, he sighed, the air was freezin’