Like or Dislike: Street Angel

[skcin]

I never, ever got into this song initially (I think I had Enchanted before I had Street Angel, so I probably heard it first in 98.) Maybe because it's so dark, and in 98 with Enchanted & Storytellers & all that happiness & energy, it didn't fit Stevie for me. For years, I payed it no attention.

Over the past 3 or 4 years, I began to appreciate this song. A lot. Now I like it because it's a bit dark. Haunting. It's very different, I think she really took a risk here. The harmonies with David Crosby? Chilling. The music is so...minimal? Sparse? I can't find the right word (man, I need a thesaurus.) It just sets the mood, hanging out in the background letting the lyrics tell the story & not overshadowing the vocals at all.

I know people say this is about the homeless, and I think Stevie has said as much in interviews, but I don't think that's the whole story. Not all of the lyrics fit with that explanation. Of course, when is a song of Stevie's only about 1 thing? ;)

Favorite lyrics:

No amount of crying...changes your mind
No amount of praying...brings you inside
I know that you love me...
and that you always will
You just stand outside and call to me...
My sweet street angel

A Charles Dickens character,
with your top hat and your scarf
When you pull me through the rainbow...
I thought you'd stop
But you didn't...you turned around...
You went back to the children...and your music...
And the people that you love

AND

So I ended it all...for the both of us
I fell down the stairs...a broken rag doll
But you never knew...you just thought I went away
With nothing more to hope for...
But you don't hear voices anymore
No...my sweet street angel

Love the vocal on this verse:

I can't help but wonder if...
Every once in a while...you remember the girl
When you were a homeless angel...
that drove you wild
Strange and elusive.

This could have been great if not for the last 2 wretched lines:

I've been walking under rainbows...too long to tell
You keep walking down mean streets...
my street angel
I try to bring you in...out of the cold
But street angels live on the street...
And they always will

[TheBlueLamp]

I totally love this song. The Enchanted version doesnt have the same zing (?) to it. I really like the punchy guitar bit at the start. The whole idea of a "street angel" is kinda stupid when you think about, but when you don't the song is really great. Haunting.

I love the way she sings the lines:

No amount of crying...changes your mind
No amount of praying...brings you inside

I'd say it was a top twenty song for me, but I think I've said that about every song so far in the "Like Or Dislike" threads :lol:

[michelle2677]

I like the song a lot. My fav verse is one that you've already mentioned, but

"i can't help but wonder if...every once in a while
you remember the girl-when you were a homeless angel
that drove you wild
strange and elusive" by far the best line

I'm a proud street angel fan.
btw..we are JUST talking about the song, right? ;)

[dissention]

btw..we are JUST talking about the song, right? ;)

I hope so or else I wouldn't have voted "I'm a proud Street Angel fan." :shocked:

[michelle2677]

I hope so or else I wouldn't have voted "I'm a proud Street Angel fan." :shocked:


that's what I'm screaming!

[strandinthewind]

I like the song. I think her use of imagery is great though it borders on adolescent metaphors (rag doll, etc. ) as she tends to do. But, I just relate to that song as I do almost all of her opening songs.

[WildInTheWind]

I don't like it at all. That's it. :)

[Nicksluvver]

S/A is OK with me!

[amber]

I hope so or else I wouldn't have voted "I'm a proud Street Angel fan." :shocked:
:shocked: :shocked:

I'm shocked at just that!

Strangely, I feel almost the same way Paula does about it, for the same reasons. It wasn't my favorite at first, but the music really turned it around for me. It is strange, spare, and haunting. Just gorgeous. I like that weird drum thing...that sounds more like hollow popping? (don't know what it is).

[ontheEdgeof17]

Best.Song.Ever.

Really, it is.

[LiquidBlue5000]

the most depressingly boring Stevie Nicks song ever... even God's Garden is more uplifting

[DavidMn]

Dont care for it myself. Not the worst for me, but near the bottom.

[Serrart]

I like it, not my favourite on Street Angel (that's Greta) but it's a very nice song.

Romy

[CreepingDeath]

I'm definitely a proud Street Angel. That song is ace.

[skcin]

the most depressingly boring Stevie Nicks song ever... even God's Garden is more uplifting


Brian, that's just crazy talk!

[KarmaContestant]

I never liked this song until recently. For many years, I found it dull. When we did Street Angel Survivor here on The Ledge, so many people gave it such great comments...I was inspired to take another listen to it, and found much to my surprise that I liked it alot more than I thought I did. So, I guess I am a proud street angel now. :o

[LiquidBlue5000]

Brian, that's just crazy talk!

:lol: ok, well maybe i took it too far... but i still don't like it ;)

[dissention]

the most depressingly boring Stevie Nicks song ever... even God's Garden is more uplifting

:shocked:

She sounds like a man with some serious low-hangers on "God's Garden."

"Street Angel" gets points automatically because it has Crosby on it, but also because it's probably the only truly passionate song on the album to my ears. The way she sings that chorus is devastating; almost monotonal and as if she doesn't have it in her to sing higher, it expresses the bleakness of the lyrics in a way that I didn't think she was capable of back then. It's so dark and genuinely disturbing, I can taste the grit in my mouth.

[LiquidBlue5000]

:shocked:

She sounds like a man with some serious low-hangers on "God's Garden."

"Street Angel" gets points automatically because it has Crosby on it, but also because it's probably the only truly passionate song on the album to my ears. The way she sings that chorus is devastating; almost monotonal and as if she doesn't have it in her to sing higher, it expresses the bleakness of the lyrics in a way that I didn't think she was capable of back then. It's so dark and genuinely disturbing, I can taste the grit in my mouth.

maybe i just don't get it, i dunno... i don't usually agree with the masses with their opinion on Stevie's music anyway.. but to me, it's just depressing.. i find God's Garden" to be much more relatable and emotional..

[SapphireSister]

"Street Angel" gets points automatically because it has Crosby on it, but also because it's probably the only truly passionate song on the album to my ears. The way she sings that chorus is devastating; almost monotonal and as if she doesn't have it in her to sing higher, it expresses the bleakness of the lyrics in a way that I didn't think she was capable of back then. It's so dark and genuinely disturbing, I can taste the grit in my mouth.

Perfectly stated! I could not agree more. Street Angel is the only gem off this album, IMO. It is the only song off the album I can say I absolutely love. All of the other songs are mediocre. It has so much passion at at time when most of her passion was hidden behind the dark clouds of klonopin. The music is haunting and chilling and I love that it tells a story. Really classic Stevie. Here is the story behind the song (one of my favorites and I think it's worth sharing):

"Street Angel was written in a hotel in LA, the Peninsula Hotel. I had to leave my house that I lived in because it was attacked by bees. It was a five story house, kinda like a New York house that went straight up, and I lived there, Liza lived there, and four or five other people lived there and we had to go 'cause the bees were so intense that they had to be moved, not killed, but moved. And I went to the hotel and there were two movies on TV about homelessness and a lot about it on CNN and I was really very, very, very touched at how sad the situation was, and I didn't have any solutions. This is not a political song. I was kinda looking out at Hollywood, all the sparkling lights, and people walking down the streets, and how wild it would be if I was out there and I didn't have a place to go, or sleep. This would be the most frightening thing for me, I mean... just as long as if you had enough money to pay your rent, you can almost accept anything, but as soon as someone threats to take your home away, that would scare me. So I just wrote a song about a girl who was brought up on the streets and this very much kinda street gypsy... she didn't have much, just her friends and family; she was a Street Angel. There then was this guy, this really, really rich guy fell in love with her, and tried to convince her to go with him and not be poor anymore, to marry him and leave her world, and in the end she really couldn't do that, she really couldn't change and be a rich man's lady, and so she, in order to make him let her go and go on with his life, she let it be known to him that she killed herself; she committed suicide. She fell down the steps... he didn't hear her voice anymore. She went away, she couldnt live that kinda life."

[golden braid]

I'm a Street Angel fan and proud of it. The lyrics are sad but I really like the harmonies with David Crosby. Definitely one of my favorites on the album.

[Dreammms]

I got the album Street Angel when it came out. I was so excited...a brand new album by Stevie Nicks. At that point I was obsessed with Wild Heart..okay I still am...and I when I listened to the song Street Angel I was NOT impressed at all. I always loved the title songs on her albums. This one was just BLAH. But now yearsssssss later I actually love and appreciate the song.

So I ended it all for the both of us...

[Neal]

I gave it an 'Ugh'. :distress: