“Street Angel” is Track 3 on Street Angel, Stevie Nicks‘ fifth solo album. It features backup vocals from David Crosby.
About the Song
“‘Street Angel’ was written at a hotel in Los Angeles, the Peninsula Hotel. I had to leave my house that I lived in because my house was attacked by bees, and it was a five-story house that, kind of like a New York house, went straight up. And I lived there, and Liza [Jane Edwards] lived there, and three or five other people lived there, and we all had to go because the bees were so intense that they had to come in and move the bees, not kill ’em, just move them. And I went to the Peninsula and that particular week there was two movies on TV about homeless people, and there was also a lot of stuff on CNN about it. And I was really very, very touched at how sad the situation was and I didn’t have any solutions.
“This is not a political song, but what I did was, I was just kind of looking out at Hollywood and the sparkly lights and the people that are walking up and down the street, and I thought how wild it would be if I was out there and I didn’t have a place to go, if I didn’t have a place to sleep. This would be to me the most frightening thing of all, kind of like, just as long as you have enough money to pay your rent, you can accept just about anything. But as soon as somebody starts threatening with taking away your house, that’s really frightening to me.
“So I just wrote a song about a girl that had been brought up on the streets and was very much kind of a street gypsy, you know. She didn’t have any special place to live. But her family was there, and her friends, and she was a street angel. And this guy, this rich guy fell in love with her and really tried to convince her to go with him and to not be poor anymore and to marry him and to leave her world. And in the end, she really couldn’t do that, she really couldn’t leave her life. She really couldn’t change and be a rich man’s lady. And so she, in order to make him let her go and in his mind let her go and go on with his life, she let it be known to him that she had killed herself, that she committed suicide, that she’d fallen down the steps and then killed. And you don’t hear voices anymore. He doesn’t hear her voice anymore, and she went away, you know, ’cause she really couldn’t live his kind of life. So it is about somebody with no home, but it’s also about somebody being very attached to a way of life.” (WMMR Philadelphia, 1994)
Lyrics
I’ve been walking under rainbows
Too long to tell
You keep walking down mean streets
My street angel
I try to bring you in out of the cold
But street angels live on the street
And they always will
Street angels aren’t like anyone you know
They do what they want
And they go where they go
They may tell you
That you hold the world in your hands
But they always give it back
(They always give it back)
No amount of crying changes your mind
No amount of praying brings you inside
I know that you love me
And that you always will
You just stand outside and call to me
My sweet street angel
A Charles Dickens character
With your top hat and your scarf
When you pull me through the rainbow
I thought you’d stop
But you didn’t
You turned around
You went back to the children
And your music
And the people that you love
I can’t help but wonder if
Every once in a while
You remember the girl
When you were a homeless angel
That drove you wild
Strange and elusive
No amount of crying changes your mind
No amount of praying brings you inside
I know that you love me
And that you always will
You just stand outside and call to me
My sweet street angel
So I ended it all for the both of us
I fell down the stairs
A broken rag doll
But you never knew
You just thought I went away
With nothing more to hope for
But you don’t hear voices anymore
No, my sweet street angel
(Stevie Nicks) © 1992 Welsh Witch Much admin. by Sony Music, Inc. (BMI)
Musicians
| Cat Gray | Synthesizer |
| Glyn Johns | Percussion Programming |
| David Crosby (courtesy of Atlantic Records) | Harmony Vocals |
| Benmont Tench | Hammond Organ, Synthesizer |
| Joel Derouin | Electric Violin |
| Andy Fairweather Low | Electric Guitar |
| Bernie Leadon | Electric & Acoustic Guitars |
| Pat Donaldson | Bass |
| Peter Michael | Additional Percussion |
| Waddy Wachtel | Additional Guitars |
References
Nicks, Stevie (1994). Street Angel. [Liner notes].
WMMR Philadelphia (1994). Inteview with Stevie Nicks.
