She's An Angel
She's An Angel
Does it mean I have to throw this post off a building?
Linnell’s Lyrical Labyrinth
By all accounts, this is a true They Might Be Giants love song. She’s An Angel is a song with John Linnell singing one of his trademark beautiful melodies that runs up and down the scale effortlessly. This song has that Linnellody in it.
A young me would listen to John Linnell sing She’s An Angel while crushing hard in Junior High and feel very seen and understood. There I was, lying on my bed dealing with teenage feelings over a girl who I was certain was THE ONE. She’d talked to me on the phone and seemed like she really liked me. You know how you get that excited and nervous feeling when you have a crush and don’t know how to tell anyone, especially the person you’re crushing on?
Junior High Jukebox Jitters
Your entire self becomes dedicated to thinking and feeling the possibilities of sharing your affection with that one person. When you finally do and find out that this person feels the same way, oh buddy, this is a danger zone. You feel loved, you feel thought of and special, and you feel vulnerable and a little afraid that it can all go wrong.
Her name was Erin, and we talked on the phone every Sunday evening while listening to Music With Moscowitz on the radio. A show in the style of Dr. Demento. She would talk to me about a boy she liked but he was a jerk and I’d think, “Why isn’t HE talking to you on the phone every Sunday night?” But I couldn’t speak up. I definitely wrote a note at some point, gave it her to lay it out on the table and then if memory serves right, died of humiliation.
Erin or Jennifer? The Dilemma of a Teenage Heart
Wait. Was it Erin?
I might have been listening to this song over Jennifer. She was one year ahead of me and played the Dorothy to my Scarecrow. That is to say that she played Dorothy in our Junior High production of The Wizard of Oz and I played the Scarecrow. We were pretty close and on rare occasions, we would write each other letters to take home and read after school. A few times, she spritzed her perfume on it and started the letter with, “I think the green M&M’s have kicked in. . .” This kind of thing happens to everyone all the time, right? Why was this happening to me? How should I react?
The point is, I crushed on people and found myself in these scenarios where the emotions seemed overwhelming, saying anything at all to the person about my thoughts and feelings toward them was terrifying and it seemed like I kept doing it despite the terror. A better strategy might be to blast off into outer space where nobody can hear you scream.
When you’re following an angel
does it mean you have to throw your body off a building?
Hank Green and the Echoes of Nostalgia
If I am being completely honest, the first thing that came to my mind when I re-listened to this song wasn’t my initial memories or melody appreciation. A few months ago, I came across an old YouTube video of Hank Green playing this song on an acoustic guitar about 10 years ago. Little baby Hank; he’s so cute! It would be great if you left a comment on that video to let him know that Kiss Me, Son of Blog sent you.
For me, She’s An Angel is a song about falling, being, and getting destroyed by love. The complicated emotions take over and you don’t know what to do. It’s a beautiful song with a pretty slide guitar and that gorgeous Linnellody. Is this your first time hearing the song? If not, what is your earliest or fondest memory of it? Leave a comment and let me know.
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