The lyrics of John Prine that proved he could get into anyone's head

John Prine stood out among many songwriters for his ability to bring authenticity to his lyrics. Although he could be as poetic as anyone, listening to Prine's songs always made you feel like you were privy to his characters' private conversations and unfiltered feelings.

Prine accomplished all this despite often writing from the perspective of characters who were nothing like him, at least in terms of basic demographics. Case in point, the stunning character study he pulls off in “Angel from Montgomery,” one of the many stone-cold classics that appeared on his eponymous 1971 debut album.

Send me an “angel”

John Prine composed many of the songs on his debut album, which would soon become classics, while working his mail route in Illinois. He dreamed of being a songwriter, but never imagined he could do more than perform locally. Perhaps that's why his songs stand out so much from everything else on the scene. He wasn't burdened by expectations or preconceived notions of what his songs should be.

In the case of “Angel from Montgomery,” Prine came up with the idea with a little indirect help. A friend he was trying to co-write with had the idea for a song about older people. Prine already had such a song (“Hello in There”) in his growing repertoire, so he suggested a song about an old married woman for a change.

His friend didn't think much of the idea. But it stuck with Prine. And, as he told American songwriterhe understood an image that revealed the whole song to him:

“I had the Really vivid image 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 my head when I wrote the song and just let it flow from the heart of this character.”

What is the meaning behind the lyrics of “Angel from Montgomery”?

Although the John Prine Although the album received critical acclaim at the time of its release, it did not perform well in the charts. It was only through cover versions by other artists that some of the songs became known. Many people who heard “Angel from Montgomery” for the first time heard it through Bonnie Raitt's version.

But nothing is more beautiful than hearing Prine’s rough voice howling the first line: I am an old woman. The shock quickly disappears when Prine puts himself in the character's shoes and starts telling the story: My old man is another child who has grown old.

The narrator is already quite old, but she has no intention of going quietly into the night: If dreams were thunder and lightning desires, this old house would have burned down long ago.. In the second verse we learn that the woman once had a much more fiery lover than her current husband. But that memory now taunts her: These years flew by like a broken dam.

In the last verse, the woman describes the grim scene of a fly-infested kitchen. But this is nowhere near as damaging as the lethargy that surrounds her marriage: How the hell can someone go to work in the morning/come home in the evening and have nothing to say?

When the chorus sounds, she asks the eponymous apparition for salvation, because what else does she have left? Believing in this life is just a hard roadshe moans. “Angel from Montgomery” proved that John Prine's instinct as a songwriter was impeccable, no matter what form he took to deliver his sensitive message.