There’s no question that John Prine was one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and one of the qualities that set him apart was his remarkable ability to write from the perspective of different characters that were, seemingly, nothing like him. One standout example, of course, is “Angel From Montgomery,” sung from the perspective of a middle-aged woman (though Prine himself was just a young man when he wrote the song).
Originally released on Prine’s self-titled 1971 album, “Angel From Montgomery” went on to inspire a staggering number of covers, with Bonnie Raitt‘s 1974 version becoming the most famous of all (though it was Prine’s rendition that went on to be ranked among Rolling Stone‘s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” at #351).
As the late Prine explained in an interview with BLUERAILROAD, the idea for “Angel From Montgomery” came from a suggestion made by his friend, Eddie Holstein.
“Eddie said, ‘Why don’t we write a song together?'” Prine recalled. “And I said, ‘Jeez, I’ve never written with anybody. But I guess we could try.'”
“So we went over to his apartment, and I said, ‘What do you want to write about?'” Prince continued. “And he said, ‘I really like that song you wrote about old people [‘Hello in There’], let’s write another song about old people.'”
At first, Prine was reluctant, as he felt he “said everything he wanted to say” in “Hello in There.”
“So I thought for awhile and said, ‘How ’bout a song about a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is.’ And Eddie goes, ‘Naw.'”
Prine went on to say that the idea “stuck” with him, and he started writing “Angel From Montgomery” that night, with the words “I am an old woman named after my mother.”
“I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands, and just walking away from it all,” Prine explained. “So I just kept that whole idea image in mind when I was writing the song and I just let it pour out of that character’s heart.”
“I didn’t realize all this at the time, but if you come up with a strong enough character, you can get a really vivid insight into the character that you’ve invented,” he continued.
“You let the character write the song. You just dictate from then on. You stick to it, and whatever the character is saying, you have to figure out how to keep that in the song. You know? That’s how I do it. I almost go into a trance. Once I’ve got an outline, a sketch in my mind, of who the person was, then I figure I’d better let them speak for themselves. Rather than me saying, ‘Hey, so here’s a middle-aged woman. She feels she’s much older.’ It wouldn’t have been nearly as effective.”
Raitt wasn’t the first (or only) musician to cover “Angel From Montgomery.” (John Denver and Carly Simon are just two other examples.) But Raitt’s cover of the song, recorded when she was 25 years old and released on her 1974 album Streetlights, became the definitive version.
“I think that ‘Angel From Montgomery’ probably has meant more to my fans and my body of work than any other song, and it will historically be considered one of the most important ones I’ve ever recorded,” Raitt said in a 2000 interview with Performing Songwriter magazine.
“It’s just such a tender way of expressing that sentiment of longing — like ‘Hello in There’ — without being maudlin or obvious,” Raitt added. “It has all the different shadings of love and regret and longing. It’s a perfect expression from another wonderful genius.”
Related: 1960 No. 1 Hit, Written by 17-Year-Old Carole King, Ranked Among ‘Greatest Songs of All Time’
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