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Angels of the Disappeared
(total playing time 3:16) Song Facts: This can be found on shock/denial/anger/acceptance. Rick performed this song for the first time In Milwaukee, WI on 5/20/03, before the cd was ever released. The little boy saying "I love you" at the end of the song, is one of Rick's sons. More Reviews
I generally skip this song on the CD simply because it is so sad to me. It is a wonderfully written song and just beautiful but I cannot handle the sadness--probably has something to do with my job too which is with Children's Services (foster kids) and day to day I have to read all the horrible things that adults put children thru. My favorite line is "We take the precious thing and we break it apart, there's no such thing as an unchangeable heart"---so, so true and so, so Rick to have that feeling and be able to put it into words and a song like this. I do remember hearing for the first time about this being written about Elizabeth Smart and BEFORE she was found safely so the "welcome home to you" gave me a strange feeling. I have not been able to bring myself to read the book he refers to when he talks about this song. And this song could have been about 9/11 too I guess--- As a parent of a four-year old little girl, this song just breaks my heart. I cry every time I hear it. I saw the interview on the DVD that came with my S/D/A/A first, so that really touched me too, to see Rick get choked up talking about the song.
I love the acoustic guitar and the underlying piano and strings. Really fits the emotion of the song. I think the references to all the different locations (midwestern trailer park, southern highway) emphasizes that it could be any child, anywhere. I love the idea of the prayer, that there are angels watching over those poor, scared children, holding them in their arms. Its the only thing that could ease the pain of having someone lost to you this way. To know that if you can't be holding your child, that perhaps an angel is there with them. I like the line about God's fingerprints. My thought was that this was perhaps about clues, that the parents would be looking to God for clues, or maybe this meant that the parents would be looking for why this was happening, what God's part in all of this was. Basically, a questioning of God. I also really liked the line about "there's no such thing as an unchangeable heart". I would think that even the hardest of persons would be changed forever if his or her loved one disappeared. The chorus just gets to me. You can feel the emotion in Rick's words. You can feel this whole town coming together ("and a town is watching and waiting") in the midst of a horrible tragedy, wanting nothing more than to be able to say "Welcome Home" to that lost child. The part that really gets me is at the very end of the song, you can hear a child's voice say "I love you". Very heartbreaking. For some reason, I always want to call this song "Children of the Disappeared", which I think just goes to show that I'm not quite getting it. I finally broke down and read The Lovely Bones, hoping it would give me more insight into this song. I really liked the book, except for the ending, I wasn't really thrilled with that, and I kind of understand more where the "angels" is coming from, but I'm still not tying it into this song very well. To me the "angels" of the disappeared are the ones that died and are looking out for the living. Yet there's a message of hope for some of the missing that they will return, which if they are still alive, they haven't made it to angel status yet. This song just doesn't gel for me, and therefore it doesn't really grab me or touch me or even make me that sad because I guess I just don't get it.
It seems like it should fall in the "My Father's Chair" category, but it just doesn't feel as personal, so it doesn't work as well for me. The "I love you" at the end by Rick's little boy is absolutely precious and it seems to serve as a reminder that his kids are safe and how precious they are to him. I like the song but it's not something that I listen to every time I play the cd. Someone said before that it reminded them of people that had already passed and were watching out for the children that had run away or were abducted. I agree with that.
I haven't read "The Lovely Bones" so I don't know how that applies to the song. The line 'and the angels of the disappeared are on a city corner or a downtown subway train' reminds me so much of the movie "City of Angels" with Meg Ryan & Nic Cage. The angels were everywhere you could imagine watching over people: at the airport, on the beach, in the library. I think we all have our angels watching out for us. I didn't like this song much when I first heard it. I felt like he was *trying* to write another "Free" type song, and didn't quite succeed. Then I read "The Lovely Bones" and the song came to life for me. It's a great book... very well written... and a great song too. Now I listen to it in a much different way then when I first heard it. Alright, I'll just say it. This is something I almost always skip when I listen to this cd. Why? I have no idea. The lyrics are beautifully written and the music is perfect, understated and unobtrusive so as not to deflect from the message of the song. I hesitate to say that I dislike it, but it's not something I feel inclined to listen to very often, and I'm not sure why. I think it may have something to do with all the talk about it when he first began doing this one at the shows prior to the cd release. Everyone was very enthusiastic about it, and I don't recall seeing anyone say (then or in the past year) that they *didn't* like it. Almost as if you HAD to love this song, you know? (Not that anyone actually said that, mind you.)
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Fan Reviews
This is a beautiful song. To me the lyrics are haunting, beautiful, sad and hopeful all at the same time. I remember the first time I heard the song. Live during the run of shows in Milwaukee in 2003. I remember at the time when he said he was going to do a new song we all thought it was going to be Alien Virus, which he had been doing at a few shows leading up then. Instead he does AOTD. Just him and guitar. There was just so much emotion. You could feel it. I completely had chills. I don't remember his voice cracking or anything, but I do remember how his eyes were shining with the tears that were there that he was looking upward to hold back. That image is burned in my head to this day. Obviously the background he gives on this song of writing it during the time the Elizabeth Smart disappearance had happened and being partially inspired by that situation in addition to "The Lovely Bones" but writing the "welcome home" chorus before Elizabeth was found and brought back home, is enough to give anyone chills. There is one line in the song that really grabbed me that first time hearing the song. "I'm looking for God's fingerprints somewhere." What a powerful line. I think I literally had a sort of physical reaction to it. I know that sounds strange. I don't know how else to explain that. I know Rick said they had recorded this one in a big and full way with lots going on and then decided to strip it back down to the basics for the album version. I have to say I think that was the right way to go. To have the words of the song be the main focus instead of a lot of instrumentation is just the way this song should be presented. The added news report intro and children's voices intro just add to the haunting tone of this song. I also love the last two lines of the song. Here again is the sad yet hopeful thing for me. "And the angels of the disappeared, oh they're busy tonight." That there are so many "disappeared" out there in this world (be it by force or willingly as in a runaway situations) is truly horrible and sad. Yet the thought that there are truly angels out there watching over them, and fact that sometimes the disappeared are "found" or in the case of runaways find their own way back home, can be a message of hope for anyone who finds themselves in the horrible situation of having to deal with the terror and uncertainty of having a loved one become one of the disappeared. My review of this song is similar. I find it to be very powerful because it clings to the only hope you have if your child/loved one is taken from you. As a Mom I can imagine no greater suffering than having my child kidnapped or for him to run away. The line: "And every night, the alarm is set, so you can remember what you can't forget." expresses that pain/fear/unknowing. I remember feeling the "Amen, Brother" when I heard what Rick said about this song on the SDAA interview. He said that you have to believe that there are angels watching over the ones who are separated from you. I think I like the song so much because to me it expresses the hope that children/adults who are "disappeared" are not alone. This song came as a disappointment to me on the CD because I'd been so overwhelmed by it when I first heard it in Milwaukee, one of the first times that Rick played it. If there was one song that I was really eager to hear on the CD, this was it.
When I first heard it live, I remember a strain in his voice on the opening line that stayed throughout the song--a strain that didn't sound like he was having problems with his voice but like he was REACHING with his voice, and it made me feel like something in me was reaching, too. I could see the highways, see the trailer park, see the life that went on in a way that didn't give any external sign that something was missing. In fact, not having heard the song in a while, when I looked at the lyrics before I started writing this I still heard it the way it sounded that night. I can't pin down exactly what's different on the CD, but it doesn't reach inside me the way it did that first night. It crossed my mind to wish that I hadn't heard it live first, thinking that maybe it would have sounded different to me on the CD, that maybe I would have liked it better, without that standard. But if I can still hear the way it sounded that night, more than two years later, then I guess that isn't something I'd want to trade. I write this with a heavy heart. Never has a RS song touched me so much as this one. I'm all about Rick writing about love, lust, sex and whatever else makes me swoon. But when he hits me at a spot such as this...well I was really at a loss for words. I just cried.
I usually skip this song for two reasons 1. detracts from the tempo of the rest of the CD and 2. having two small children it is hard to listen to at times. This line "And every night the alarm is set So you can remember what you can't forget" really makes me think of all the parents who's children have gone missing and I can not even begin to imagine their pain. Rick has always been able to take tough subjects and turn them into wonderful music, something good out of the evil.
I have not read the book Lovely Bones, guess I should pick it up and read it. I feel guilty saying this because of what the song is about, but I can't get into this one. It doesn't flow for me at all. Usually I skip this. When I do listen to it now and then, I just feel like cringing because I don't like the sound, the music, Rick's voice and the flow of the lyrics.
I know it's a tough subject that he's singing about and maybe it was a struggle for him to record and that's what I'm hearing. This is the only part of the song I find lyrically and vocally appealing: Welcome home to you Welcome home to you God knows dreams come true Welcome home to you This one is interesting for me - I liked it when I first heard it live (prior to SDAA's release) but awhile after SDAA came out I found myself skipping it (along with Shoot Your Guru & Alien Virus). I felt I mostly did it because I liked the up tempo feeling and wanted to skip this slower portion of the CD.
Now that I've finished reading "The Lovely Bones" and contemplating whether to review the song or not I gave it another few listens. To me it's very hopeful/prayerful and so I suppose that goes with Acceptance but I don't think that fairly captures it either. The song ends with "oh they're busy tonite" almost like an outward admission that it's an insurmountable problem and cannot even be wished away completely for the duration of one song. So... further pondering... I suppose that puts it more firmly into Acceptance for me - accepting the tragic reality. But to me the song is hopeful - I certainly do hope that every missing child/person has an angel alongside them.... particularly one to guide them home whenever possible. The book "Lovely Bones" was beautiful (along with heart-wrenching) in how it showed an idea that we continue on as Angels after we die and can keep watch over those left behind - and yet show that both sides can come to acceptance of the very difficult situation. Still, on the overall ranking of songs for me on SDAA this would likely go towards the bottom. I love the message of it but I'm not sure if it's that I'm drawn more to the hard edge of the other songs or that this song is just about a depressing topic so I tend to gravitate away from it. |
