The Best songs: Angie by The Rolling Stones

One of the band’s softest and most tenderhearted ballads (and their only ballad to go Number One), “Angie” was written by Richards while he was being treated for heroin addiction at a clinic in Switzerland. “Once I came out of the usual trauma,” he recalled, “I didn’t feel like I had to shit the bed or climb the walls or feel manic anymore. I just went, ‘Angie, Angie.’ ” Completed during the Goats Head Soup sessions in Jamaica, it became a gently strummed benediction with a processional piano by Nicky Hopkins and strings arranged by Nicky Harrison.
– Rolling Stone Magazine

The Rolling Stones performing “Angie” at the Los Angeles Forum, California, USA on Sunday 13th July 1975, part of the legendary Tour of the Americas (TOTA). The track is from the album Goats Head Soup (1973). Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and produced by the Glimmer Twins, the song went straight to number one in the US charts when it was released.

La Forum 1975 version:

Wikipedia:
“Angie” is a song by rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1973 album Goats Head Soup.
Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and recorded in November and December 1972, “Angie” is an acoustic guitar driven ballad which tells of the end of a romance. Rolling Stones-recording regular Nicky Hopkins plays the song’s distinctive piano accompaniment. The strings on the piece (as well as “Winter”) were arranged by Nicky Harrison. One unusual feature of the original recording is that singer Mick Jagger’s vocal guide track (made before the final vocals were performed) is faintly audible throughout the song (an effect sometimes called a “ghost vocal”).

Released as a single in August 1973, “Angie” went straight to the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and reached number five on the UK singles chart. The song was also a #1 hit in both Canada and Australia for five weeks each and topped the charts in many countries throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Popular belief has it that the song was about David Bowie’s first wife Angela or even about actress Angie Dickinson. Another belief was that the song was about Richards’ daughter Dandelion Angela who had just been born. The song was written almost entirely both lyrically and musically by Keith Richards and in Richards’ own biography he claims that the name Angie is a pseudonym for heroin and his attempt to quit while detoxing in Switzerland. But…

“Angie” has inspired much speculation as to its inspiration. Despite writing it at the time of his daughter Angela’s birth, Richards claims the lyrics were just a placeholder that stuck: “I didn’t know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote ‘Angie,’ ” he said. “Sometimes you have a hook, a phrase or a word or a name or something, which maybe you don’t even intend to keep. . . . It was just a working title, like, who’s gonna call a song ‘Angie,’ how boring, another chick’s name, ya know.”
– Rolling Stone magazine

Official video 1st version:

Line-up on the song:
Drums: Charlie Watts
Bass: Bill Wyman
Acoustic guitars: Keith Richards & Mick Taylor
Vocals: Mick Jagger
Piano: Nicky Hopkins
Violins, cellos, violas: (unknown musicians)

Official video 2nd version:

The Rolling Stones have frequently performed the song in concert; it was included in set lists on their 1973, 1975 and 1976 tours, and on every tour since their 1982 European tour. Concert renditions have been released on the albums Stripped and Live Licks. Two music videos were shot to promote the song.

In the documentary Protagonist, the former German terrorist Hans-Joachim Klein explains that he adopted the moniker “Angie” during his militant activities in the 1970s in reference to the song. In 2005 the German party CDU used the song for its election campaign for Angela Merkel; the Rolling Stones had not given Merkel permission to use the song.

Another great video (Live in Rio 1995):

Lyrics, Angie:

Angie, Angie
When will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie
Where will it lead us from here?

With no loving in our souls
And no money in our coats
You can’t say we’re satisfied
But Angie, Angie
You can’t say we never tried

Angie, You’re beautiful
But ain’t it time we said goodbye
Angie, I still love you
Remember all those nights we cried?

All the dreams we held so close
Seemed to all go up in smoke
Let me whisper in your ear
Angie, Angie
Where will it lead us from here?

Angie, don’t you weep
All your kisses still taste sweet
I hate that sadness in your eyes
But Angie, Angie
Ain’t it time we said goodbye?

With no loving in our souls
And no money in our coats
You can’t say we’re satisfied

But 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
But Angie, Ain’t it…
Ain’t it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie
You can’t say we never tried

– Hallgeir