Angie

Probable line-up:

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

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, yes
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?

Whoa 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? Yeah

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, Angie
Ain't it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie
They can't say we never tried

TrackTalk

I remember Angie I wrote in Switzerland, in a Swiss restroom.

- Keith Richards, 2020

I had the whole chord sequence down maybe a year ago with just the title Angie. It could have been Randy or Mangy or anything, you know, but Mick just picked up on the title and wrote a song around it. He added the strings - all the strings on the album are his idea. I don't know who chose it as a single. I think somebody said that it would make a change and that it would get a heavy reaction on AM stations. I'm really not interested in picking singles.

- Keith Richards, 1973

The basic melody and the title were mine. I don't think you can write really interesting rock and roll songs if you can't get into ballads and slower stuff. Quite often when you write a ballad it ends up as something else. Once we've got a song we tussle around with it, roll in the dirt with it. I'd recently had my daughter born, who's name was Angela, and the name was starting to ring around the house. But I'm into writing about my babies. Angie just fitted. I mean, you couldn't sing 'Maureen'...

- Keith Richards, 1993

(I wrote that) out of sheer boredom. My daughter Angie had just been born recently. The weird thing is, at the time, we didn’t call her Angie, because that was actually a name given to her by Roman Catholic nuns, because she was born in a Catholic hospital. You have to have one (from) this list of names. Anita was calling her things like Dandelion, you know, it was that time. But weirdly enough, the Angie thing always stuck in my mind. And that was actually the name later on she chose to go by.

- Keith Richards, 2020

I think Keith wrote the first line, I think it was his daughter (Angela). It was about love coming to a full stop. The actual name, I'm not sure where it came from, it's not about Angela Bowie. I think it's Keith's daughter's name.

- Mick Jagger, February 2002

I've said about a hundred million times that it wasn't (about Angela Bowie)... I don't think I had even met Angela Bowie when I wrote the rest of the lyrics.

- Mick Jagger, 2002

I don't know. That was one of Keith's songs (laughs). I just filled in the gaps.

- Mick Jagger, 2005, as to whether there was a real Angie

While I was in the (Vevey drug) clinic (in March-April 1972), Anita was down the road hving our daughter, Angela. Once I came out of the usual trauma, I had a guitar with me and I wrote Angie in an afternoon, sitting in bed, because I could finally move my fingers and put them in the right place again, and I didn't feel like I had to shit the bed or climb the walls or feel manic anymore. I just went, Angie, Angie. It was not about any particular person; it was a name, like ohhh, Diana. I didn't know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote Angie. In those days you didn't know what sex the thing was going to be until it popped out.

- Keith Richards, Life (2010)

Angie and Dancing with Mr. D were recorded in the middle of the sessions...

- Mick Taylor, 1973

Like Angie, which is our single, is not the best track on the album, I don't think. But it doesn't matter.

- Charlie Watts, 1973

I thought it sounded like a hit record to me at the time. I mean, you never know, but you get this feeling: Well, if there’s gonna be a hit on this album, that’s going to be the one. And it was very successful, and it’s still in our stage repertoire.

- Mick Jagger, 2020

I don’t quite remember how the decision was made (to release) Angie (as a single). I was very happy with it, because it took the Stones on that singles market in that era. It gave us another flavor, another place. In a way, it reminded me of when we put out Little Red Rooster, which was a surprise at the time. As I say, through the mist of time, I can’t remember how Angie actually became a single.

- Keith Richards, 2020

It's quite a straight schmaltzy pop tune, with the piano and string arrangement so prominent, which is probably why it was so popular in Latin countries at the time. It was definitely a change of pace for us, almost like a reaction to the harder sounds of Exile.

- Mick Jagger, 1993

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