angels of the silences
"these angels hang above my head"

The original "Angels" was the first radio cut from Recovering the Satellites, and it was a shock to many Counting Crows lovers. The fans had come to love the band for their almost folksy rock sound that was so passionately displayed on August and Everything After. To hear the Crows blasting away with electric guitars and fierce drums was frightening; I found myself wondering if the Crows had become something I'd never love again. Nah. In the live version of "Angels" included on the Storytellers cd, the band and Adam show their versatility by rewriting the music and bringing "Angels" back to the acoustic calm that they play so well. Throw in an accordion played by Charley Gillingham and some soft backup vocals from the band and then insert Adam's voice and you've got a brilliant performance.

One collaboration that struck me simply for the way it sounded was when Adam sang "..break my nerve, offer me their arms.." and on the last phrase, the backup vocalists matched his voice so well. Absurdly I thought of John Denver for some reason; don't ask why. Trying to explain what Adam's lyrics mean is like a dog trying to make sense of the Bible. It's difficult and one can only attempt to make his own interpretation and hope it's close enough to the mark. But "Angels" is such a difficult song to explain that I'm not going to try. By listening to Adam's mood in the song, you can sense the sad resignation of it: when he sings "I'm gone, I'm gone" you find yourself feeling exactly how he must have felt writing the song, though you're not sure what it means so you don't know just why you feel this way. Suffice it to say that this is yet another brilliant performance by the band, culminating in what only makes us love them more: reluctant perfection.

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I always found it so amazing how the Crows can give "dual personalities" to their songs. AOS was a great songs as it was, very powerful. Now we have another version, the complete opposite, but both songs carry over the message of faith quite effectively. The original gives a strong sense of "blind faith" just believing in anything so stong provided you are given a chance, over looking all the possible obstacles in your way and just plain believing. But what if there's nothing in your life to believe in?

In his "introduction" to AOS, Duritz said that this was a song not only about believing in something, but also wanting something to believe in. Although the second aspect of this message isn't properly shown in the faster version, the stripped down version exposes the character for who he truly is, not some proud person standing tall for something, but a wounded, battered person looking, begging for something to stand up for, looking for a reason to go on. This just adds another dimension to the song I just loved to rock along with.

-chris