Who is "Angie" by The Rolling Stones about?

there are so many great songs named after girls in rock and roll from rod stewart's maggie may to beth by kiss to boston's amanda and so many more some about actual girls some completely made up and some with mysterious origins leaving us listeners to wonder who is this song about angie by the rolling stones falls into this category a song that has caused speculation about who the song is about since it was first released in august of 1973 on the goat's head soup album for over 50 years angie has intrigued us a song that sounds like the ending of a relationship but was there ever an angie if you liked this episode give it a like at the end and don't forget to hit that subscribe button there are plenty of stories about the subject of the song angie one of the most famous was concocted by an actual angie angie bowie david bowie's wife from 1970 to 1980 who claimed that the song was written for her as a kind of payment of debt to her from mick jagger this was all based on her claim that she caught bowie and jagger in bed together in the same year that the goat's head soup album was released and that after that incident jagger wrote the lyrics of the song for her she doubled down on this claim when she went on the joan rivers show years later in the 90s and again made the claim publicly mick jagger and co-writer keith richards have repeatedly denied that the song had anything to do with angie bowie at all and it should be noted that while jagger and david bowie did spend a lot of time together in the 70s and of course worked together in the 80s the rumors of any bedroom affairs involving the two have often also included women ava cherry who was bowie's lover and backup singer and model and rock star groupie bb buell to name just a few so while it may have gotten wild back in the 70s for the two rock stars the song angie was not written for angie bowie as a way for mick jagger to say that he was sorry for anything in fact the song was written almost entirely by keith richards it holds the distinction of being one of the rare acoustic songs in the rolling stones catalog with jagger's contribution to the lyrics added during the recording of the song tracing back through stone's history it would be easy then to think that the song was written for the late anita pallenberg the woman who was in fact amused for the rolling stones a 60s it girl model and actress who first was paired with stone's founder brian jones and then partnered with richards from the late 60s to 1980. she was hugely influential on the band and on keith richards with whom she also shared an appetite for drugs she was the mother to three of richard's children including dandelion angela who was born in 1972 during the recording of goat's head soup and we're on to something there when it comes to the subject of angie but first let's dispel another rumor or two about who the song was written for it was speculated that the song was written about the singer marianne faithful who was paired with mick jagger during the late 60s and with whom pallenberg was a close friend in fact there are many stone songs inspired by faithful including she's a rainbow and you can't always get what you want among others but given that the song was written mostly by keith richards and because again richards and jagger have debunked this theory we can walk away from that idea rumors also ran wild that the song was written for the actress angie dickinson who was extremely popular during the 70s and acted in tons of movies and tv shows of course but again jagger and richards have denied that this song has anything to do with her and plus dickinson was super busy with her acting career and she was married to composer bert bakarak at the time so that rumor likely came about as a result of her name and popularity alone in truth the song is the result of keith richards coming to a form of clarity after having gone through a really tough time with his addiction after the stones recorded their 1972 exile on main street album in france he couldn't go back to england because of tax issues so he went to montrose switzerland with pallenberg and spent his time partying and generally being a rock and roll bad boy driving around the mountainside in ferraris and learning to ski due to his several arrests and his status as a tax exile his legal troubles were so bad at this point that there were fewer and fewer places in the world where he could live and work without fear of the authorities coming after him so it was in 1972 that he moved his family to jamaica the rest of the stones joined him there to begin work on goat's head soup and richard's drug use continued but he had started writing an acoustic song having the melody down and then the name angie came to him simply because it fit the melody he said he has said that once you lock in a musical phrase like that it sticks and so the title was already in place when anita pallenberg gave birth to his daughter dandelion angela in april of 1972. richards has said that the only reason angela was included on the birth certificate was that she was born in a catholic hospital he's also said in his book life that the bulk of the song was written while he was in rehab he said he wrote it in an afternoon after having gained some stability not wanting to in his words climb the walls anymore he played it for jagger who put his touches on it in the studio and the lyrics to angie go like this angie when will those clouds all disappear where will it lead us from here with no lovin in our souls and no money in our coats you can't say we're satisfied angie you can't say we never tried angie you're beautiful but ain't it time we said goodbye and there's something about those lyrics if you think about richard's coming up with this song on the heels of a bender that landed him in rehab angie has often been thought to be a song about the drugs that put him through so much trouble and there's merit to that in these lines it goes on angie i still love you remember all those nights we cried all the dreams we held so close seem to all go up in smoke let me whisper in your ear angie where will it lead us from here angie don't you weep your kisses still taste sweet i hate that sadness in your eyes but angie ain't at time we said goodbye the thought of leaving always hard during this time between 1972 and 1973 jagger and richards were also growing apart with jagger now married to the fabulous actress and socialite bianca jet setting with the jet set while richards was still doing what he'd always done with the untameable anita pallenberg and the song goes on with no lovin in our souls and no money in our coats you can't say we're satisfied angie i still love you baby everywhere i look i see your eyes there ain't a woman that comes close to you come on baby dry your eyes angie ain't it good to be alive angie they can't say we never tried and that closer is something too when you think about keith richards coming to terms with his addiction and his own mortality and mick jagger's ongoing concern for richards especially in the 70s while angie may not have been written about one person it translated to fans as one of the most perfect songs about the end of a relationship and it went to number one on the charts in the us it is the rolling stones only ballad to ever go to number one and that's what's so great about rock and roll the songs that grab our attention are often the ones that leave little question marks in our minds leaving us to fill in the blanks or insert our own experience into their meaning while we sing along like we've done since 1973 to the rolling stones and angie i'm janda and this has been behind the song special thanks as always to christian lane for the music you hear on these podcast episodes if you like it give it a thumbs up leave a five star review and hit subscribe you can also watch videos on the behind the song podcast tick tock channel and on the way much more classic rock and roll

Channel: Behind The Song

Views: 88,931

Keywords: rolling stones, the rolling stones, angie, angie lyris, rolling stones lyrics, behind the song, behind the song podcast, lyrics podcast, mick jagger, keith richards, janda lane, classic rock, music history

Id: HpMNxBLRHrc

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 17 2022