Comments on: Angel From Montgomery

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:20:23 +0000

Hi Erik,
Better late to the party than to not show up at all…

I’ve always loved this tune. The unfinished edges make it all the more haunting.

BTW, Tedeschi was just doing a medley of “Angel..” by Prine and “Sugaree” by Grateful Dead.

“When they come to take you down When they bring that wagon ’round
When they come to call on you and drag your poor body down

Just one thing I ask of you, just one thing for me
Please forget you knew my name, my darling Sugaree
Shake it, shake it sugaree, just don’t tell them that you know me
Shake it, shake it sugaree, just don’t tell them that you know me.”

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:31:15 +0000

The youtube video of John Prine has been removed due to terms of use violation. I wanted to show my girlfriend the video of the young Prine telling the story of the song, but couldn’t find it on youtube anymore. Spend quite a while looking for it. I was therefore thrilled when I saw the link here on your site with the right picture and all, but trying to play it, it just shows that it has been removed. Does anyone have this video locally?

Think its a shame that the lyrics were changed – I noticed it right away when I saw the movie “Into the Wild” were they play it at this concert. The original lyrics make more sense to me.

Thanks for a good post Erik.

Cheers

By: Erik R.

Erik R. — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:11:10 +0000

Excellent comment, Scootmandubious! I, too, had noticed that difference. I prefer the original version, but for a slightly different reason.

We naturally associate the nouns lightning and thunder with the adjectives bright and loud respectively. Desire could be either bright or loud, but it doesn’t make sense to me for dreams to be loud. The only adjective that fits with dreams, in my mind, is bright.

And because of the order they are usually experienced, as you mentioned, it just makes better poetry if they appear in that order in the sentence.

Thanks again for your thought dump.

By: Scootmandubious

Scootmandubious — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:05:28 +0000

I have been trying to find out why only John Prine’s original version says “if dreams were lightning, thunder was desire”….and all the covers go “if dreams were thunder, lightning was desire.”

I think Bonnie Raitt made the original error, but figure that because it was so much more popular than the original it stuck.

It does change the meaning slightly. In Prine’s version, since thunder is the after-effect of lightning, Dreams give way to desire. In the Raitt version desire gives way to dreams.

Anyway, these are the thoughts that I chose to dump on the internet this evening. I haven;t seen it addressed.

By: jane

jane — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:45:14 +0000

I adore this song, and John Prine, as well. Thanks for this.

By: Pistol Pete

Pistol Pete — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:15:45 +0000

Prine is an amazing singer/songwriter. I’ve reflected on his music in 13 posts on my blog (just today doing a “retrospective”). I’ve seen him in concert 6 times. He’s coming to Carnegie Hall (just a 1 hour train ride away) this coming Jan. 5, but I just can’t make it. Anyway, thanks for drawing attention to our generation’s top folk theologian.