John Prine stood out from many songwriters because of his ability to inject authenticity into his lyrics. While he could be as poetic as anybody, you always felt, upon listening to Prine’s songs, you were privy to his characters’ private conversations and unfiltered feelings.
Prine managed all this while often writing from the perspective of characters who, at least in terms of basic demographics, were nothing like himself. Case in point: the stunning character study that he pulls off in “Angel from Montgomery,” one of the many stone-cold classics that appeared on his 1971 self-titled debut album.
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Send Me An “Angel”
John Prine concocted many of the soon-to-be classic songs from his debut album while walking his mail route in Illinois. He harbored dreams of becoming a songwriter but couldn’t have possibly imagined he might do much more than play locally. Perhaps that’s why his songs came out sounding so unique from everything else on the scene. He wasn’t burdened by expectations or preconceived notions about what his songs were supposed to be.
In the case of “Angel from Montgomery,” Prine came up with the idea with a little indirect help. A friend of his with whom has was planning to write came up with the idea for a song about elderly folks. Prine already had a song like that (“Hello in There”) in his growing repertoire, so, to mix it up, he suggested a song about an old married woman.
His friend didn’t think much of the idea. But it stuck with Prine. And, as he told American Songwriter, he locked into an image that opened the whole song up for him:
“I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands, and just walking away from it all. So I just kept that whole idea image in mind when I was writing the song and I just let it pour out of that character’s heart.”
What is the Meaning Behind the Lyrics of “Angel from Montgomery”?
Although the John Prine album was critically hailed at the time of its release, it didn’t do a lot on the charts. It took covers by other artists to bring some of the songs wide exposure. As such, many people who heard “Angel from Montgomery” for the first time did so via the version by Bonnie Raitt.
But there’s nothing quite like hearing the craggy voice of Prine howling the first line: I am an old woman. You quickly lose that shock once Prine gets inside the character and starts telling the story: My old man is another child who’s grown old.
The narrator may be up there in years, but she’s not about to go quietly into any good night: If dreams were thunder and lightning was desire / This old house would’ve burned down a long time ago. We find out in the second verse the woman once had a far fierier lover than her current lump of a husband. But that memory now taunts her: Those years just flown by like a broken down dam.
In the last verse, the woman sets a dismal scene of a fly-infested kitchen. But that’s nowhere near as damaging as the torpor that envelops her marriage: How the hell can a person go to work in the morning / Come home in the evening and have nothing to say?
When the refrain comes around, she asks for the titular apparition to deliver her, because what else does she have? To believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go, she moans. “Angel from Montgomery” proved John Prine’s songwriting acumen was impeccable, no matter the avatar he used to deliver his empathetic message.
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