When premarital sex was still a very troubling "sin," this tune turned up, just a hot skip and a hump away from "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." Progress: THIS girl thinks she can have a devilishly good time all night and still be an "angel of the morning."
Especially since a man wrote this: Chip Taylor, offering an alibi for chippies.
Saintly martyr Merilee's Rush to judge her one-night-stand:
"There's no need to take a stand for it was I who chose to start. I see no reason to take me home. I'm old enough to face the dawn...Just call me angel of the morning...Then slowly turn away from me."
Even Humphrey Bogart couldn't follow that instruction without busting a gut laughing. "You're good, angel, very good. Now I'll slowly turn away, and you can leave...and I'll change the sheets..."
More from this sanctimonious slut:
"If morning's echo says we've sinned. Well, it was what I wanted now. And if we're victims of the night. I won't be blinded by the light. Just call me angel of the morning."
Can I just call you a cab and sleep an extra hour?
"A pretty dirge, is like a melody..." Share a load with:
Chrissie Hynde
Merilee Rush (original and re-make)
Joya Landis
Barbara Jones
Skeeter Davis
P.P. Arnold
Shaggy
Juice Newton, etc. etc.
The song ends with this:
"I wont beg you stay with me. Through the tears! Of the days! Of the years!"
OK, bitch, bye!
Get lucky. Download the ANGELS
Update November 2011: Some extra versions upped individually:
NINA SIMONE
PERCY FAITH
I remember most of us in my musical circle loved the song (though none of us in High School 'Got It' right then) but always found it hard to truly understand what Merilee Ruch was singing when she sang "Just touch my cheek before you leave me"...it always sounded like "dust off my cheek before you leave me" due to her diction...or am I the only one who was slightly stumped for years until I heard Chip Taylor and or Juice Newtoo do it? I also loved the steel guitar on the Merilee Rush version which was kind of unusual in a Top 40 song at the time although fellow Mala Record mates the BoxTops managed to sneak it in on 'Met Her In A Church" around the same time.
ReplyDeleteNOW I remember...it was the way she said 'Angel' it was almost a gutteral "K-Rangel" wasn't it (on the original)...btw the remake isn't too bad...probably from one of those greatest hits LPs where half qare re-recordings, eh?
ReplyDeleteMerrilee rolled along with her fresh version of "Angel of the Morning" in 1977, for her comeback album on United Artists.
ReplyDeleteThe label probably figured including a hit that most people had only in 45 rpm was a wise move. No other Chip Taylor songs on it, but some tracks credited to E. Anderson, C. McVie, S. Ferguson (not Fergie!) and other well known songwriters.
Not sure what to make of the symbolic cover...Merri barefoot in gauzy white pants with matching giant white smock, awkwardly lying with legs tucked behind her, and a bedraggled potted plant off to the side. On the back cover she's hugging a dalmatian puppy. Just call her...a dog lover, I guess.